Mardi Gras & Tawn

 

We had our first guest last week, my cousin Tawn.  It was a good time to visit.  Not too cold, sunny days, and the second weekend of Mardi Gras.  Galveston Texas has the second largest Mardi Gras celebration in the US, right after New Orleans and the Galveston celebration is much more family friendly!  We bought balcony tickets overlooking the main parade route and the band stage. 

 

So, regarding those balcony tickets....  We are spoiled by NASCAR.  When you buy premium tickets to view a race, those include a commemorative souvenir, snacks, free soft drinks & water, and a nice area to sit and chat.  Not here with their balcony rates.  All you get is access to the balcony.  No food, no reserved seating, no reserve or timed space on the balcony for the parades, etc.  In our building they had between 15 & 20 tables spread between 2 rooms and those were grabbed by the first 50 people there.  Those first 50 were also the balcony hogs and never moved, they just rotated thru their group of folks so no one could get on the east side of the balcony.  There was no accommodation for the number of tickets they sold.  One of the Crewe  Bob-a-loo leaders was most unhappy as she'd paid a very large fee for about 60 of her group working parade floats and there was no seating available for the food she'd brought in for them.  If and when we do this again, we will stay at street level with the masses.

 

There were so many people downtown on Saturday.  The majority were families with a lot of small children.  Some of those kids had sooooooo many beads around their necks that you couldn't figure out how they were still able to stand upright!!  The kids would stand below the balconies and call out for beads.  Mike bought us a large bag of beads and we had a very good time throwing them down to the crowd of people below our balcony.  We threw our beads to the kids mostly and all 3 of us had pretty good aim.  We still have about 1/3 of them left if anyone wants a few strands??

 

The crowd below 

 

 

I bought Tawn and I each a mask at the 23rd Street Star Café.  It seemed the later in the day it became, the more masks we saw.  We finally gave up around 7 PM and came home.  Got a good picture of Tawn in her mask with Mike.  The bandstand is behind them.  Best thing about the west side of the balcony was being able to sing along with the bands.  They were each very loud so I sounded VERY good singing along with each of them.  I really rocked Whole Lotta Love & Heartbreaker by Led Zepplin!!  Just sayin'...

 

Tawn and Mike

 

Finally in self defense and to rest our weary feet, we walked over to Pier 21 and had dinner at the Olympia Restaurant.  No wine with dinner but the restaurant had many to choose from as you can see them all behind us!  Dinner was very good - grilled salmon, stuffed shrimp and seared Ahi tuna - but the desserts left something to be desired.  I have been EXTREMELY disappointed by all of the flan I have tasted since we settled into Galveston.  I guess I'll have to stick with the beignets.

Dinner at Olympia

 

While we planned to go out for Super Bowl, we ended up staying at home.  Tawn's Denver Broncos won the day.  I could not root for Denver as they had beat my Steelers in the playoffs.  I felt sorry for Carolina but such is life. 

 

On Monday we went to visit Bishop's Palace on Broadway & 14th downtown.  It is a beautiful mansion built in the 1870's by the Gresham family.  In the early 1900's it was purchased by the Catholic diocese to become the Bishop's residence.  The self guided tour took about an hour and a half.  The historical society decided only to put back into the house what either belonged to the Bishop or to the Gresham family so most rooms are sparsely furnished, if at all.  I can't even begin to describe the wood work, chandeliers, marble, etc. in this old mansion.  The decorative work in the coving of the dining room ceiling was linoleum, which I couldn't believe as it looked like hand painted plaster and was very ornate.  It is truly a beautiful building and there is much restoration on-going.  Right now there is a $3 million grant to repair the roof and collections being made to preserve the sunroom, which is mostly constructed out of zinc.   I was intrigued by the kitchen and bathrooms too.  The Butler's Pantry had a gold fixture for hot water and a silver one for cold water.  Oh, and the bathtub in Mrs. Gresham's bathroom had 3 taps - one for hot water, one for cold water & one for rain water.  The rain water was for washing her hair. 

 

The stairway in Bishop's Palace

 

There are many mansions on Galveston from the 1800's and many Victorians built after the great hurricane of 1900.  I hope we have the time and gumption to get out and tour more of them before we leave. 

 



 

January/Medicare

Our weather has been all over the place.  Warm and sunny for a few days and then cold and rainy then thunderstorms, heavy rain and dropping temperatures into the 50's.  I'm not complaining as it is not white and frozen!  We can still get out and walk, in spite of the funky weather.  It is good to winter in Galveston.

I spent the past couple of weeks investigating Medicare Supplemental plans.  Yep, got my Medicare card in the mail the last week of December and will go on Medicare April 1st.  I was totally at a loss when it came to knowing anything about my options and coverage available.  I have read two books on all the plans available and also requested the AARP information packet from United Healthcare.  As we travel full time, I can't take an Advantage plan as most are linked to HMO/PPO, with in-network services only, except for emergency situations.  Also, having a permanent domicile address in Texas limits my options.  So I thought by the end of January I would be stark raving mad but instead signed up for both Part F with AARP/UnitedHealth and Part D with Humana - all choices were based upon my medical history.

It has been quiet here on the island but we beginning to see the build up for Mardi Gras.  Every store is decorated in green, gold and purple along with quite a few houses, especially along 25th street.  I've been told it is a lot of fun and not scary like it can get in New Orleans.  The family parades begin January 29th.   I have purchased masks for Tawn and I to wear for our day downtown and Mike has declared it to be a 'no driving' day.  He has also stated there is no reason for him to wear a mask as he won't do anything where his identity would have to be hidden.  Ha!!  We will get a taxi for transport both ways.

And no post from me would be complete without a food update.  We have found another wonderful little restaurant, The Gumbo Diner, for breakfast.  They have a limited menu, as most diners do, but they also have fresh, steaming hot, made when you order them beignets.  If you have never had a fresh beignet, you haven't tasted heaven!!  They also come very heavily dusted with powdered sugar.  (I did not say this was a health food establishment!!)  WARNING:  Do not inhale as you take a bite or you will cough your lungs out!!  In addition to the beignets, they also have homemade sausage and they make their own tortillas for huevos ranchero, which has been Mike's "go to" choice so far.

Here is hoping all of our northern and east coast friends and family stay safe and warm during Storm Jonas...and when did they start naming winter storms???  I thought that was only for hurricanes?

Happy 2016!!

So Happy New Year!!  Here comes 2016 and I have found a resolution I can live with this year.  I have not made many resolutions over the years because by the second week of the year, I was a resolution failure! Not this year!!  Oh and tamales!!  I'm going to add tamales too - cheese & chicken & pork & beef and cheese and black bean & ETC.

 

 

We are adjusting to Galveston or it to us and we really like it here.  We went to the Farmer's Market and Katie's again this Sunday.  This week was not so good for shopping.  Mike discovered that when you buy snapper at Katie's, you don't want it fileted.  Since the snapper is already gutted, we will just bring them home and filet them as the cost doubles if they do it.  You pay for total fish weight and not just the filets.  The Farmer's Market was sparse and neither the tomato lady nor the baker was there so we turned around and went to Kroger....on a Sunday...on a holiday weekend.  Yep, mid-week shopping at Kroger from now on.  Good news is I now have a senior discount flagged on my Kroger card.  Oh yeah!! I ask for those discounts EVERYWHERE these days!!!

 



Mike found a jigsaw puzzle of 100 dogs and a cat in a drawer under the TV.  He has put it together in three days.  I'm a drive-by puzzler and stop by to find a few pieces or build most of one dog before going off to read my book or play scrabble with Liz and Carol.  I get too frustrated to stay at it but he can sit for hours and concentrate. 

We were VERY lucky with the storms through Texas this weekend.  All of the tornadoes and snow stayed north and west of us.  While the seas were rough and the red flags were flying, our weather was warm - into the high 70's & low 80's.  Then the cold front arrived Sunday afternoon and we are now in the mid to high 50's for the next week.  Yesterday the sea looked like glass and the high winds disappeared.  When I booked us into Galveston, I thought the sea would look like it does in Cancun or Baja California but it doesn't.  Today it is steel gray with a deeper gray shade on the horizon.  There is a lot of sand churned up so near shore it looks almost beige.  They are still catching good sized fish on the Galveston Fishing Pier so I guess the fish don't care about our cold snap.

Today we purchased Mardi Gras tickets for us and cousin Tawn.  We are going to a balcony party on February 6th to enjoy the parades and concerts here in Galveston.  This island hosts the second largest Mardi Gras festival in the US, just behind New Orleans.

Happy New Year to everyone!!  Hope 2016 is exactly what you've dreamed of it being.

Farmer's Market & Katie's - First Week

Note to self:  read the Galveston.com page before venturing out into downtown on a Sunday!!

We decided to find the Farmer's Market on Post Office Street, which is run every Sunday, rain or shine.  As we got a little north of 61st Street we noticed a long line of orange cones blocking the right hand lane and by the time we reached 25th Street there was a huge traffic jam due to the Santa Run half marathon.  We finally turned around and went down 27th street checking at each crossing for the barriers and police.  Eventually we found one street which was open with police directing traffic so that we could get north of 25th and we took it! 

Breakfast at Denny's and then shopping.  You can not take me shopping hungry, as Mike has discovered the hard way.  On the way back to the Farmer's Market, we encountered the 5K people who's activity started about an hour later than the marathon.  Goodness!!!

The Farmer's Market is small but had a good variety of choices.  They even had a small band providing music while we shopped.  We bought 2 pounds of fresh tomatoes, homemade salsa verde, homemade lavender lemon jam, and 1 and 1/2 loaves of this wonderful sourdough bread.  The baker grinds his own grains and uses the best products he can find.  He provides tastings and tells you exactly why he made the choices he made.  We ended up sharing a loaf of plain sourdough with another lady who said she just couldn't eat a whole loaf by herself and then bought my selection of black olive sourdough.  Next week we will buy Mike the Italian blend sourdough. He says it has a very good nose.

It was time to run the gauntlet again and head up to Wharf Street for Katie's Seafood.  Traffic was still a mess but Mike was determined.  When we walked into the place, we were both overjoyed.  They have an L shaped display of the night's catch laid out on ice.  First stop was the shrimp.  A pound of jumbo @ $11.  We next zeroed in on the lone dorado (mahi mahi) but decided it was too much fish for 2.  Our clerk immediately offered to filet half of it for us because someone would buy the other half later in the day.  We were set to buy some grouper or snapper (they have each whole and will clean/filet them before you) until we saw their beautiful yellow fin tuna.  We are having 2 one inch thick seared tuna steaks tonight for dinner.  We  bought 4 meals of fish for $50 which is a bargain.  It is pricy to eat out in a tourist town where our average meal has been around $60 and we are still looking for the local hangouts.  I know this will be a weekly run for us, just never on Sunday again.

We had a little help from a local when picking out our fish!  They give all of their scraps to the pelicans so this guy was just a bit impatient and came inside for a snack.

When we left Katie's we wanted to avoid the runners so I thought it would be best to head south along the harbor until we got to a traffic light and then we could drive cross island to Seawall.  Last BIG MISTAKE of the day!!  Did you know that both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have cruises arriving/leaving Galveston every Sunday????  We found that out the hard way.  Everyone  on those 2 HUGE ships was trying to wrangle luggage and each other across the street.  What a mess!

We have made the executive decision to stay home on Saturday and Sunday thru our stay.  We can shop mid-week during our explorations.  It is nice to have that option.

Ahhhh, Galveston!!

After a couple of busy days in Cleveland Texas at our storage space, we traveled south to Galveston for our winter retreat.  The traffic and road construction were horrible.  I remembered some fun times on I-45 when I worked for MCC, Inc. out of Cincinnati and did a consulting job at Sakowitz department stores here in the Houston area.  One of their stores was NASA off of I-45 South and I  do remember driving that highway.   (Must remember to plan a trip to NASA while we are here)   I-45 has not changed, except to get narrower and rougher.  I was VERY happy that Mike was the designated driver!!

We had a windy crossing on the bridge to the island.  Our destination was The Dawn condominium complex on Seawall Boulevard.  The directions were perfect and we were here in no time.  Wait, what do you mean we're on the third floor and there is NO ELEVATOR?????  Poor Mike!  He carried up everything out of the truck while I unpacked.  I think by the end of this stay, we will both be slimmer and have excellent lung capacity from the climb, not to mention riding our bikes up and down the seawall.

Our VRBO condo is a 2 bed, 2 bath facing the ocean.  It is well decorated (except for the dreaded sofa sleeper every rental seems to have these days!!).  The sofa is very uncomfortable but the love seat and side chair are just right for us.  Mike has set up his temporary office at the end of the dining room table and we have unpacked everything.  Galley kitchen makes it a little tight for 2 to cook at the same time but we are managing.

NOTE:  While I thought we'd gotten rid of enough, we weren't even close!  One of the first things to locate on the island was the Goodwill store.  We will be carting a number of items over there in the next month or so and reducing yet again the amount of clothes & shoes I thought I needed and the amount of kitchen things Mike thought he needed.

We have visited the post office to mail out Mike's Christmas letter and verify where I can pick up mail for General Delivery there.  Mike can't get over the fact that you can have something sent to you at most any PO in the country c/o General Delivery.  It is great for our mail drop & saves us the 2 hour trip to Livingston this winter.

So some exploration is underway as neither of us has ever been to Galveston...what can I say?  It looked good on the map and the winter temps were warm.  Many of the summer activities and shops/restaurants are closed for the winter.  We don't mind as it means we have peace and quiet.  Some things, including the Pleasure Pier will re-open for a day or two at Christmas.  They  have the Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruises that leave from here weekly so downtown is still a very active scene.  We have meandered thru one big antique mall so far....I only found 4 things I wanted to buy before I remembered I don't have any place to hang/put them!  Oh woe is me!!!!!

We've had a meal at Tortuga's (Mexican), Salsa (Mexican), Fish Tales & Gaido's.  Salsa is worth a return trip(s) and Gaido's was an experience.  Our waiter was very young and was probably the owner's grandson as there was a noticeable lack of experience and training.  The restaurant has been here since 1911.  We kind of stumbled into it and then I thought 'holy moley, this might be a little too fancy for lunch' as I saw the white tablecloth & linen napkins along with the white shirt and black vested waiters.  The food, while a little pricy, was very tasty.  The best part of the meal was Mike ordering the shrimp bisque soup.  Our little waiter kept calling is bisquick!!  Made us laugh every time.  My shrimp and blue cheese grits were very tasty and I must have eaten a loaf of bread.  We will most likely go back for a splurge evening meal next month.

I have saved the best news until last!!  So far (less than a week) I have met 2 wiener dogs who live in this complex.  Miss Goldie is a  small petite gal about 6 pounds and a lovely red color.  She adores attention with scratches.  CoCo lives on the first floor of our building.  He is a doxie mix and he keeps barking at us until we walk over and pet him.  His owner said it was strange how he took to us right away but I told him we are dachshund people and they seem to recognize that.

I think we are  going to enjoy our time on this island.

San Antonio TX

 

 

Getting to the hotel off of I-10 into downtown San Antonio was stressful for both of us, even with the GPS system. The downtown streets were laid out in the 1700's so that should explain that.  Very narrow and twisty which does not go well with a full sized Tundra truck.  But we made it!!

We stayed at the Contessa Hotel on the Riverwalk.  I have always wanted to see the Riverwalk and the Alamo.  Being a Texan now, I believe a pilgrimage to the Alamo is required.  The picture below is outside of the hotel.  At night everything is decorated for Christmas with lots of colored lights dangling from the 8 to 10 story high trees along the river.  Quite festive!

 

                                                    Riverwalk from The Contessa Hotel

                                                     

Our room was a nice suite on the 7th floor overlooking the river.  It was a little pricy but had direct access to the Riverwalk and is on the quiet side away from most of the shops and restaurants.  BTW...avoid the shops on Riverwalk as they sell the same cheap stuff you find in the tourist traps in Mexico ... everything is made in China! 

We had a good Italian dinner of Chicken Picata and Shrimp Diablo.   Later we walked to the Iron Cactus for dessert.  We can't really recommend the Iron Cactus as it appears they serve (replace) blanco tequila as the aged (anejo) Don Julio.  We sent drinks back twice and then gave up.  To commend their manager, he agreed with our assessment and took the charges off of our bill.

Tuesday evening we visited the Briscoe Western Art Museum.  They have a huge bronze sculpture outside of a cowboy and 3 long horned cattle. Inside there are other beautiful bronzes - my favorite was the one that showed the changing plains with an Indian brave and bison down one side and a cowboy with long horn cattle down the other.  It must have been about 8 feet high and 14 feet wide.  There are 3 levels of art and collectibles.  I think besides the aforementioned bronze, my favorite was the saddle collection.  The silver tool work on some of them was just amazing.

We enjoyed walking around the Riverwalk.  It is many degrees cooler than at street level and shady due to the large cedar and pecan trees.  There must be a thousand ducks or more that live on the river too.  And none of the restaurants lining the Riverwalk have duck on the menu...this is a good thing, I think.

On Wednesday we climbed up out of the Riverwalk on to Alamo Street and went for breakfast at Schilo's Deli on Commerce Street.  Everything there is homemade and from scratch.  The pancakes were fluffy and very tasty.  Mike opted for eggs, French toast and hash browns.  We went back Thursday and I had the biscuits and gravy and then mentally kicked myself for not ordering it on Wednesday too.  After Hella's in Shawnee Hills Ohio, this is the best sausage gravy I have ever eaten...BTW Schilo's biscuits were MUCH better than Hella's!!   So much of downtown San Antonio is old buildings from before Texas joined the Union or as the Germans came to this part of Texas Hill Country.  You find original tile floors, slanting of course, beautiful woodwork, etc. 

Schilo's Restaurant

 



And after breakfast we went to the Alamo.  It is on a beautiful piece of land and seems very peaceful in spite of all the tourists around you.  There are huge pecan trees that must be over 200 years old that spread over the land on both sides of the original building.  For historic value alone, everyone should see this site.  To imagine what is must have been like to be in a hopeless situation, surrounded by the Mexican army in that small space!  And to see the modifications to the buildings from the original church built by the Spanish and the changes by the US Army then realize how close it came to being torn down and removed.  It was awe inspiring for me.

 The Alamo - main building

 

To rest our tired feet, we next took a boat tour of the Riverwalk.  Our guide Herman has been working as a guide/boatman for the past 6 years.  The tour takes you around the Riverwalk, thru two flood gates, around the Convention Center and by the Riverwalk Mall.   

 This is how they aerate the water for the Riverwalk additions.


After the tour we walked back to the mall and then planted our behinds on the deck at Chili's.  I knew we could get a good Presidente Margarita there.  They also had 3 Generations anjeo tequila so we had a shot,  in a highball glass equal to maybe 2.5 to 3 normal shots, and appetizers too.  Those smoked chicken wings were so good, we had 3 orders of them!  While enjoying our repast, we couldn't help but notice many of the male attendees to the AstraZenica Breast Conference going in and out of Hooters next door!  Maybe they were there for medical insight, yeah, that's the explanation.

 

What a shot of 3 Generations tequila in a highball glass looks like! 

After a quiet night, we left San Antonio behind, heading off to Cleveland Texas and our storage space.  Galveston here we come!!

And as you can tell by the smiles, we are enjoying our retirement.
 

 

Arizona...

Bet you are all wondering how laundry is taken care of on the road.  Luckily most hotels now have guest laundry rooms.  We save quarters, have become great fans of the Tide pods and have a large cloth laundry bag we keep into the truck.  Since our goal is to only drive about 350 miles per day, we generally are at our next hotel by 4 PM.  I do laundry first thing.  It is usually just one load as we only carry about 3 or 4 days worth of things in our small suitcases.  When we stay some place long term, I always make sure they have a washer & dryer.

We had a great time in Phoenix with Cousin Tawn.  We spent the day at the Tempe Arts Festival.  There were beautiful sculptures, paintings, ceramics, etc.  My interest was also in the dogs (of course) and we did meet a Yorkie who thought everyone was gathered there just to pet and scratch her, 2 mini dachshunds, 2 Pembroke Corgies, and a bearded dragon named Spike.  We found one piece of glass art that we would have purchased but we don't have a wall to hang it on so it stayed with its creator.  Dinner was at The Soul Café in Scottsdale.  Nice bottle of wine and wonderful food.  I had stuffed rigatoni in green chili which was sooooo yummy.  But the best part of the evening, other than the company, was the live music.  The band that night was a rhythm and blues band which played Motown, Al Jarreau, Marvin Gaye, etc.  Tawn and I sang while we ate and I made Mike get up to dance.  There was a tiny dance floor.  No one was dancing but when they started to play a Etta James' At Last - Mike only does slow dances - I insisted we go dance.  That broke the ice.  For the first dance, to Mike's mortification, we were the only ones on the dance floor.  After that there were about 6 other couples who got up to dance and we all had a great time.  Mike and Tawn  took a spin just a little later in the evening too. 

Then off to Deming New Mexico.  We stopped in Tucson for In-N-Out Burgers and to get gas for the Tundra.  I was watching this guy eating in his jeep at the curb by the gas station and saw a roadrunner (inside orange circle) jump up onto his spare tire.  The roadrunner then jumped up on his roof and explored.  When the guy got out to throw away his trash, the bird didn't even pay any attention to him, even when he got back into the jeep.  The guy was really careful to leave slowly and watched until the bird safely jumped off when the jeep.  Best gas stop so far on this trip!!

 

Next stop Ft. Stockton Texas...