Shaking out the Sand

Just got back in from an overnight mini-vacation to Galveston Island with the girls.

Did the Schlitterbahn in Galveston. Still a "work-in-progress" but was pretty fun. The majority of the time was spent circling in the "river." Food options were weak (either pizza or BBQ) so we left for What-a-Burger and came back--cheaper too. We did a couple of tube-chute rides that moved pretty fast. Crowd was, well, crowded. No real comfortable areas just for us "old-folk" to sit in the water. People seemed friendly--definitely a family environment. Uniformed Galveston Police officers (in shorts) were on patrol. Nice touch. Bonus treat, the Lone Star Flight Museum is right across and they had rolled out their B-17G bomber on the tarmac. I got to point it out as one of my two favorite WWII airplanes to Alvis (the other being a P-51).

Valca secret travel tip #1: don't park in the "official" water-park parking area. Instead park in the far-back-leftmost-corner of the Moody Gardens lot next (generous open parking lot) to it and the main park gate is a short stroll to your left.

Stayed in a "pyramid-view" room in the Moody Garden Hotel. Service, food and room were definitely 4-5 stars. Nice pool area. Alvis thought she was in heaven.

Ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Fun atmosphere. Great food. Tired quickly of the servers yelling "volcano......" at the top of their lungs when bringing out the signature dessert. Oh yeah, the "$5.40 adventure ride is actually felt like a $2.99 carnival ride. Save your $$ unless you have very small children. Waited for an hour to be seated. Yuck. Stayed at our table (out of principle) for over an hour so we got our $$ worth.

Valca secret travel tip #2: Parking is behind the place, or park behind the San Luis and take a restaurant "shuttle bus".

Spend the following morning at the Moody Gardens Aquarium and 3-D Imax. We didn't do the whole shebang this time, just those two exhibits as they are our favorites.

After we left, we swung down the seawall and played on the beach. The water quality is much better now then when I went there as a kid. Back then, we would always get tar on us and Grandpa kept a can of bug-remover (turpentine) to wipe us down with at the end of the day...ahh, the good ole days...) Standing on the seawall, the Gulf waters actually looked greenish blue. Not like the clarity of the water say in La Jolla, CA. but nice nevertheless.

And Alvis managed to haul back six newly-acquired giraffe stuffed-toys for her growing giraffe collection. My wallet is considerably lighter now.

Loose Sand Linkage...

Get your real-life GITS mission vest. -- Is this cool or what?!! Of course, if you tried to wear it out here Stateside in public, I have little doubt that the US DHS would sweep down and haul you off to Guantanamo.

Wacky system messages -- via The Daily WTF

Saturday in the Park with Friends -- Town dresses up like in the painting.

How antivirus software and System Restore work together - (Microsoft KB) Handy info when you've just gotten done playing with things that set your AV software off, but you mess with them anyway.

See you in the skies,
--Claus