Last year we made the mistake of spending a week in Turks & Caicos after Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, we loved it. And we really loved not being cold. It was a mistake because now we want to go somewhere tropical every winter! However, when it was time to start planning where we would want to go away the week after Christmas (when my office is officially closed and I don’t have to waste precious PTO), one of our little dogs became paralyzed due to a compressed disc in his neck. After paying for an emergency vet visit, MRI and surgery, we didn’t have extra funds to spend on another Caribbean vacation. We’d have to stay domestic.
At first I researched destinations in Florida, but nothing matched what we wanted. Nothing along the East Coast would be warm enough for us. Finally I told Peter to choose a destination. After thorough research, he chose Galveston, Texas. We knew nothing about Galveston other than what we have seen on the TV show Restoring Galveston. In fact, we’ve actually never been anywhere in Texas before so were all excited to explore a new destination!
Peter and Emma always accuse me of over-planning and wearing them out when I plan a vacation, so I made a promise to them that I would not spend hours Googling “things to do in Galveston.” We would just arrive and see what we discovered once we were there. However, I did make the executive decision that we would take one day to visit the Houston Space Center. And Emma saw they had an aquarium, so that went on the list as well!
On December 27 we had a very early departure at Dulles International Airport. The airport is always so pretty at Christmas. And as you can see, it was also pretty empty.
The flight to Houston was pretty uneventful. We picked up our rental car and made our way to our beach house on Galveston Island. Let me tell you, traffic in Houston is INSANE! I thought the beltway around Washington DC was nuts. After we returned home I asked a friend (who used to live in Virginia and now lives in Houston) how she survives such crazy traffic and she replied “It is so awesome when I come back to visit once a year because I have zero stress at all!”
The drive (almost 2 hours counting a stop at In-N-Out Burger for lunch) wasn’t particularly exciting or picturesque, but that changed once we made our way across the bridge and onto the island. As we drove down Seawall Boulevard (the main road on the island) it quickly became evident that this was not a sleepy little beach town but a busy place with a lot of things to do.
Our beach house (rented through VRBO) was located about 12 miles from the main attractions, but it was a beautiful drive along the main road (called Seawall Boulevard). As soon as we arrived we dumped our luggage in the house and ran to the water.
We noticed right away that unlike other beaches we have been to, there were no stretches of soft beautiful white sand or turquoise colored water. Instead the beach sand was…well…compact and sand colored and the water looked brown and murky. I had been warned by a coworker as well not to expect a postcard-worthy beach. But that didn’t bother us, as we weren’t there to swim, but relax and take leisurely walks along the water.
One thing that we were not expecting, however, were the gorgeous sunsets each evening!
During our week there we didn’t experience all that Galveston has to offer, but we did do a little bit of everything we love doing on a beach vacation. We explored the history of Galveston, shopped, ate some delicious BBQ, spent an afternoon at Moody Gardens, played a round putt-putt golf, rode carnival rides at Pleasure Pier, had dinner at Rainforest Cafe and wandered around some museums. Over the next few weeks I will share with you what we did and maybe it will inspire you to take a family trip there as well!
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Last year we made the mistake of spending a week in Turks & Caicos after Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, we loved it. And we really loved not being cold. It was a mistake
