Greetings, Doper comrades. I’m heading to Galveston, Texas for a friend’s wedding in a few weeks, and I’ve been tasked with trying to find fun things to do there. Since I am both lazy and in awe of the Teeming Millions, I come to you for advice. Where shall we go?
In particular, we’re looking for:
1.) Bars
2.) Restaurants
3.) Good beaches, and
4.) Any other fun to be had in Galveston
My friend is female, and so strippers are out - she wouldn’t dig the women, and I really, really don’t want to watch a bunch of dudes in g-strings. But beyond that, I welcome any and all advice.
For good beaches, go to the seawall, walk west, and keep going until you get to Mexico. I’m kidding, but be forewarned Galveston’s beaches aren’t as pristine as some people are used to. The water sometimes looks somewhat murkey because of the sand and silt washing into the Gulf from the Mississipi to the east. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not awful, just don’t expect Cozumel.
The seawall is a nice walk, and for restaurants and shops, check out the Strand. I wish I could tell you to go to the Balinese Room, but Hurricane Ike completely destroyed it last year.
I grew up near that area, and I’ve always described the water there as looking like chocolate milk. It can also be very warm- there’s not a ton of circulation in the Gulf, and it’s pretty shallow there, so the water at times can be a bit surprising.
Moody Gardens is pretty damn neat, and I highly recommend it if you’re into aquariums and botanical gardens.
Take a drive along seawall blvd and just before you hit the galveston island state park(which has nice campgrounds including screened shelters for ~20 a night) look to the North side of the street and see if this house is still there. It was one that struck us as very interesting when we were there before Ike hit last year. We always wondered if it would hold up better or worse than the houses built on stilts. The news reports said only a handful of homes along seawall blvd survived and those were the ones built to withstand cat 5 storms. This one, which is essentially a boat permanently anchored, looks like it might have been able to.
Other than that, you can look into the Texas Seaport Museum which has a floating piece of history called the Tall Ship Elissa. The map of it’s voyages is amazing to think about. It was pretty interesting, especially when we hung out and watched a Carnival cruise ship pull out into the ship channel during our tour. The size of the modern ship compared to the 123 year old ship is mind-boggling. Texas A&M at Galveston does marine biology trips where they can take a group out and have some grad students tell them about the ecology of the area. Galveston being an estuary it has a large variety of marine life, which is significantly different from a lot of coastal areas. This would have to be set up ahead of time by calling the A&M marine biology department. I also think they have a minimum group size of ~20 for the tour we did, but they may have other excursions available.
Depending on your taste in architecture you can take a tour and either love or look down your nose at the Bishop’s Palace. Galveston Historical Foundation calls it “one of America’s finest examples of Victorian exuberance and Gilded-Age extravagance.”
We went with a school group and spent a few nights there, and went into Houston to see the Battleship Texas, so I don’t really have any recommendations for bars or restaurants. Other than that, my only recommendation is pack your swim shoes because Galveston beaches aren’t the white powder sands you might find in other places, more like mud really. There are a lot of rougher areas and lots of rocks as well.
The Lone Star Flight Museum has a nice collection of World war II aircraft on display. Some are flyable and are sometimes away at airshows. WWW.lsfm.org Also for military buffs on Pelican Island is Seawolf Park. home to the submarine USS Cavalla and the Destroyer Escort USS Stewart. Both ships got badly whooped by Hurricane IKE. www.cavalla.org
It’s south of Houston in the area called Clear Lake. That’s probably about 25 miles or so north of Galveston (could be wrong on my distances–my daughter lives there and I’ve just visited). If you’re going to go to the Space Center, you might as well hit Kemah, too.
Before Ike, back in June of 2006. It was really good then, shame if it went downhill. We also ate at a really cheap cajun food place on the seawall that I can’t remember the name of, I had a pretty good etouffee.
check out the historic houses they really are nifty. moody mansion still has the origional electric board. really scary! the homes all withstood the 1900 and following hurricanes.
I haven’t been to Galveston in four or five years. I considered going down there this year when I was in Houston but I figured I’d give it another year to recover from hurricane damage.
So Gaido’s might not be what it was. I’ve do know that Keemah got totally smashed by Ike which is why I didn’t mention it.
Don’t go shopping for gefilte fish. When I tried that in a fancy food shop there, they didn’t know what it was, and when I said it was a kind of kosher food, they didn’t know what that was either.
I’m kidding, but be forewarned Galveston’s beaches aren’t as pristine as some people are used to. The water sometimes looks somewhat murkey because of the sand and silt washing into the Gulf from the Mississipi to the east. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not awful, just don’t expect Cozumel.