Our First Family Vacation - June 2012 (Post 3)

Friday, June 29, 2012

We decided to spend the day in Galveston on Friday.  I don't know what I was thinking.  I was so excited to bring the girls on the ferry and to The Strand.  The Strand is definitely not a fun place for little ones.  Too many shops with breakable things.  Eben and Katie had no fun, and Kinsley slept the entire time.  Next time, I will go by myself.

On our way to Galveston.  We sat in line at the ferry for atleast 30 minutes.  Katie kept saying, "Are we there yet?"  She is so impatient.

Photobombed by Katie...LOL.

We saw dolphins right before we made it to Galveston.

 It took forever to drive down the Seawall to get to The Rainforest Cafe.  As soon as we walked in, a huge snake (fake) was hanging from the trees in the giftstore and they both freaked out.  The lighting wasn't too good for pictures, but we did the best we could.

Kinsley was very somber during our time at the Cafe.  She was not sure about all of the noises and movements that the animals made.  Her face was cracking me up the entire time. 

 Katie wasn't sure about all of it at first either, but she quickly got over it and enjoyed it all.

 This is my favorite picture of Kinsley at The Rainforest Cafe.  She was so ready to leave.

 Eben and I both ordered the shrimp platter. Oh so expensive, but oh so good.

 I took the girls on a ride in the underground lazy river at The Rainforest Cafe.

Neither one of them enjoyed it at all.

By the time the ride was over, Kinsley was in my lap wrapped around me and Katie's head was inbetween my legs.  They took a picture of us before we got on the ride and we could pick it up at the end of the ride, but the girls were so freaked out that they wanted to leave quickly.

 After The Rainforest Cafe, we went to The Strand for a little shopping.

 Kinsley slept the entire time.

 Right before we left, we stopped by the old time ice cream shop for a cool down from the heat.

Kinsley still wasn't over the horrifying experience of The Rainforest Cafe.

Kinsley's attitude completely changed after the ice cream.

Some of my favorite pictures that I took during our vacation happened on the walk back to our car.

They were being so incredibly sweet to each other on our way back to the car.

 We saw more dolphins on our way back to Bolivar Pennisula.  There were at least 6 playing around.  They were too fast to catch out of the water, but I did happen to catch one of their fins.  It's on the left.

 Seagulls and ferries just go hand-in-hand.

 Pelicans are huge.

Hopeful

We've had the TV on The Weather Channel all day.  We're getting mixed messages from them though.  In one instance they are saying, "Yes, it's going to the panhandle of Florida and will travel North."  In the very next segment, they show it hitting Louisiana and then Southeast Texas getting rain and wind on Friday.  They are so clueless.  It's frustrating when you have plans.

For now, it's a beautiful day in Southeast Texas and the heat index is 105.  We're cleaning the house, doing yard work, washing laundry, and later this evening I'll be going grocery shopping for all the things we will need for the week. 

WOOHOO!!!!  We're going on vacation!!!!

Keeping an Eye on Tropical Storm Debby

Our beach vacation, that we planned in March, may be interrupted by Debby.  UGH!!!  We are staying at a beautiful cabin at Crystal Beach for a week.  We're heading up there tomorrow morning and weren't supposed to come back until next Sunday.  Looks like things may change.

The beautiful beach cabin that I've been dreaming about for nearly 3 1/2 months.

If you look closely at the Southeast portion of Texas.  I put a black circle around where we live.  I put a red semi-circle around Galveston, which is where we're going on vacation. 

Debby is sitting near Florida right now.

This is the projected path of Debby. 

I've lived through 3 hurricanes.  I was 25 when I experiened my first.  Rita hit us in 2005 and caused serious damage.  We evacuated to Dallas and stayed for quiet some time.  When we did return, we had no electricity for over a week and the temperature was well near 100.  Toward the last day without electricity, we had our first cool front come through...it was my sister, Brenna's birthday.

 I was living with my dad at the time and our house flooded.  He lived in his garage for a year while his house was being renovated.  I moved in with Eben because my grandparents had to move in with my mom. 

Hurricane Rita - Category 5

In 2007, we had a sneak attack by Hurricane Humberto.  The meteorologists had no idea what this storm was going to do.  It was a tropical depression heading for the mid-southern region of the Texas coast.  Well, over night it turned into a hurricane and came in right on top of us.  I was traumatized by it.  I slept in the hallway, pretty much on top of Katie, and I kept my tennis shoes on just in case.  I was a wreck the entire night.  I did however get to experience the eye of the storm, which was pretty awesome, until the other side of the storm came through. We could hear tree limbs ripping off the trees and it sounded as if hundred tornadoes were all around us.  Experiencing that in the dark with no electricity is horrifying.  Thank goodness there was no significant damage.  Just a lot of downed trees and no electricity for a few days.

Hurricane Humberto - Category 1

In 2008, we were hit by Hurricane Ike.  My mom's house had 3 1/2 to 4 feet of water in it.  My childhood home had to be demolished.  The apartment I was living in at the time had the roof ripped off of it.  I had just purchased new furniture a month before and it all had to be replaced.

Hurricane Ike - Category 4

To think that I'm going to have to sit through 80 mile an hour winds freaks me out, to say the least.  I'm already starting to panic and the fact that we'll only get 2 days out of our vacation kind of makes me sick.  We NEVER get storms this early in the season.  We usually start preparing for them in late August and stay on the watch until the middle of October.

Ugh!  I'm so depressed!!!!