The 4th of Texas

There are some people, with whom, it's impossible to NOT have fun!

Robert and Barb are doing a wonderful job of making Texas, even at 100 degrees, seem so very appealing!


Of course, it helped that Robert dashed around holding umbrellas above our heads, and plugging in electric fans outside aimed at us!





(You might think I'm kidding, but I'm really not!)

Galveston Homes and a Book Review (The Woman in White)

As if it wasn't enough to for us to take in, searching out the tree sculptures in Galveston, every corner, every block, was filled with beautiful, stately, homes like these:











Imagine how much work and dedication it must have taken to restore these home after Hurricane Ike!



I just finished reading a book - - a literal TOME of a book, on my nook: The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins. This massive adventure is 590 pages on the nook, but was actually a very fast read.

This classic, written in 1860, intimidated me when I first picked it up for my Classics book club. Besides being huge, I worried that the language of the 1800s would drown me in some kind of twilight between wakefulness and sleep.

But it was more of a modern-day, page-turner, OMG! What's-going- to- happen -next -kind -of -novel! Wilkie Collins wrote what came to be known as a "sensation" novel, printed in serial installments in newspapers, and eagerly awaited by the non-TV-viewing public. Many of the early reviewers trashed the novel when it first came out, but this book has surfaced again, over and over, in various forms, across the decades, as plays, silent movies, TV miniseries, and movies.

The novel presents a mystery that must be solved, involving star-crossed lovers, evil husbands, fainting women, mice treated like children, dwarfs and ghosts, a peculiar uncle, secret organizations, plots, identity theft, insane asylums and of course, murder!

As long as this book is, it's a satisfying, engrossing read. I stayed up way too long reading this, and stole moments away from the rest of my life to read it here and there, (even while drying my hair at one point.) (not my best hair day, I might add.)

(One caveat; the language of the 1800s became almost infectious, and I foolishly wrote a letter to the IRS emulating the style of the time. If I end up in tax jail, I hope to take a nice stash of Wilkie Collins' books along with me.)

Big Dogs in Galveston

A few more wood sculptures in Galveston. . . . .



This dog sculpture is huge. . . .



. . . . and these two photos probably give you more of a sense of the scale of this puppy. . . .

Captions, anyone?

Galveston & Talking Tom(s)

There's a little museum in Galveston that just fascinated me. It featured a small video on the Galveston hurricane of 1900 that inundated the island. Understandably, there was no Weather Channel at that time, with live-action footage documenting the tragedy. But what this little city has done is piece together a video of photos, with a narration of old letters that were written by survivors of the storm.

We had to wait a little while to get into the museum, and to get out of the heat, we dunked into this little bar for a drink:



Now, this next photo may be of interest to all you smart phone addicts (you know who you are!) We took a dolphin tour by ship just off the Galveston coast, and one would think that Doug and my brother, Robert, would be mesmerized by the dolphins. . . .



. . . but being the intense multi-taskers that they are, they managed to tear themselves away from enjoying the boat ride to talk into their smart phones to this very essential phone ap: Talking Tom.

Talking Tom is an animated cat! You talk into the phone, your voice is recorded, and played back to you in the voice of Talking Tom, a high-pitched, squeaky, little feline.

Ummmmm, these two highly intelligent, very accomplished, men spent HOURS doing this!

I stand in awe. (Or I stand aghast. Something like that.)

Tree Sculptures: Part 3

While we were admiring this sculpture of 3 angels in Galveston, the home owner came out. We started talking about how these 3 angels represent her grandchildren. I told her how much I admired how the city responded to the devastation of Hurricane Ike and wished that our city in ND had found something similar after being destroyed by a flood.

She got a funny look on her face and asked, "what city?"

"Oh, you've probably never been there."

"What city?"

"Grand Forks, ND."

"I've been there!"

Can you say that?

It turns out that her "three angels", the inspiration for the sculpture, live in Minot, ND. And a grandma's gotta go where a grandma's gotta go!

This sculpture is not actually on the tour yet, but is in process. But we spotted it!

This detail in the owl amazes me! Click on it twice to see it larger. Remember, this is done with a chain saw!

And if you're not busy drinking in the sculptures, just look around at the exotic, tropical plant life!

Galveston Tree Sculptures Part 2

Laugh at me if you must (Ok, but don't. Because if you do, I'll probably cry buckets. And then I'll have to get the ol' ShamWow! out to sop it all up, and I'm just too tired for all that tonight) but I didn't know that Galveston was an island. As we approached it, for whatever reason, my brother's radar tuned in and he said to me, "You know Galveston is an island, right?"

Uhhhhh, no! I've never been able to overcome the pathetic excuse of geography classes my small parochial school provided in the 50s. In Texas, you cross a very long bridge to get to Galveston. But what a wonderful place! Our time was way too short there! Here are more of the Galveston tree sculptures:







And if you look closely in the background of the Tin Woodman, you might notice Doug doing a special little dance. To ward off more rains, maybe????



But here, you can probably guess why Doug was doing that little jig.



Poor Doug.

Galveston TX Tree Sculpture Tour

On September 13th, 2008, Hurricane Ike devastated the little town of Galveston, TX. Among the many losses was that of 40,000 trees. Many of the residents were heartbroken over the loss of their beautiful oak trees. If you've ever lived in a town or city that was devastated by a natural disaster, you know how demoralizing the eyesores of the aftermath can be on the human spirit. Galveston Island Tree Conservancy member Donna Leibbert asked the city council to allow chain saw sculptures to be created from the trees.





At first, she was opposed. City council members feared the city could be liable for potential injuries.





Eventually, the city council relented and supported the project. Residents allowed some of the artists to live with them to complete their works and now there are some 26 sculptures dotting the city. If you look closely at some of these photos, you'll see the incredible level of detail accomplished in this artwork.



Each sculpture is unique and the artist tried to envision a sculpture that was inspired by both the shape of the remaining tree stump, and by something that reflected the love of the property owner or paid tribute to something important to the city. There are now approximately 26 sculptures, and the project is not yet completed.



It was very moving to talk to some of the property owners; they seem both humbled by what they lived through and proud of their determination to withstand the assault of Hurricane Ike. There is something defiant about the sculptures: Galveston was not only not beaten by the storm, but has been determined to triumph with something beautiful in its wake.

I'll post more of these endearing sculptures in the days to come.

Road Trip Quiz: Galveston TX

Did I mention to you that there would be a little quiz at the end of this roadtrip?

Well, Here's a few sneak preview questions to test your skills:

1. What is the clue in this photo that you are still on the Great Road Trip with Angela and Doug and Robert & Barb?

2. And what city in the U.S. were we entering now?

(Oh, this is hard!!!! But you can do it!)



And here are a few photos from the window of our hotel, looking out at the ocean. Nothing like entering a city just as a Tropical Storm departs to make for some great Priceline prices!

Still On the Road: Does the Fun Ever Stop? Not in Texas!

And just when you thought I was running out of things to write about on our Grand Texan Roadtrip, I pull out one of our really cool stops!



Oh, I know what some of your are thinking. You are thinking "But. . . but. . . it's just fast food."



Put away those lame thoughts! This is not just ANY fast food! This is



SONIC fast food! The only fast food I lust and dream about during long North Dakota winters! The fast food with HEAT! The fast food that includes jalapeño peppers stuffed with some kind of heart-stopping cream cheese concoction.



Oh, sure, we have your usual array of lame McDonalds and Burger King, but Texans have SONIC, where the food is delivered to your car window by servants (I mean servers) on roller skates! Oh, that I might live to see the day when food is delivered in the depths of winter in North Dakota to me by people on roller skates!

(Nah! Either it would mean global warming had done us all in, big-time, or I'd feel so guilty, I'd have to bundle the young-uns into my car and turn the heater on full blast to thaw them out, and then I'd get arrested for kidnapping popsicle-ified Sonic workers.)

Shiner, Texas

Shiner, TX, has more than just it's brewery to be proud of. I thought the little streets and building were very appealing and it made me think about what it is that makes one little town, with old buildings, look so appealing, where another little town might just look shabby.

Some of us has to do with the maintenance. . . fresh paint, not allowing the city to fall into disrepair. . . .


. . . attention to detail and actually using downtown space for small little enterprises. . .
. . . . a spy, or two, with a camera. . .

. . . . and of course, making sure the town has the wonderful Doug to grace it's space with his presence!

Shiner Texas and Beer Nickels

Once we left rain-drenched Austin Texas, we headed down to Galveston. But every good Road Trip requires random stops and detours for this and that. . . .

. . . .like a brewery tour in Shiner, TX. During the tour, no photos are allowed, in case we are tempted to duplicate in our living rooms, with 23 million dollars worth of equipment, the beer-making process.

But at the end of the tour, you are given 4 nickels to redeem for cups of beer, and you can sample the various varieties.

Fortunately, these are not full-sized glasses, but after finishing two of them, I was more than willing to abandon a 3rd, and pocket the cool, wooden nickel.

The town of Shiner itself is quite picturesque, and I thought this wagon wheel walk would be an ideal spot for portraits.

More of Eagle Mountain Lake, Texas

We floated along on a pontoon, captained by the ever-charming Robert with his ipad navigation, and the beautiful and gracious Barb. We stopped for lunch at The Spot . . .



. . . and were treated to this extraordinary paradise-like view outside of the lake:





You just know what I'm going to be daydreaming about all winter in North Dakota! Poor Dianna! This trip was her idea, and she didn't even get to go on it!