Galveston Island State Park, Part One

As warm as October began, it ended on a chilly note, just in time for a weekend trip to Galveston for Patti’s birthday weekend. A front had come through and the weather was overcast as we began our journey. But cold and overcast was not a deterrent. It was a weekend at the beach and we were going to enjoy it. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, not too many people wanted to be on the beach on a chilly day.

Any road trip from this area involves at least one stop at Buc-ee’s. It’s a huge one-stop shop. From breakfast to dinner, snacks to desserts, coffee to wine, Buc-ee’s has something for you. Want to buy gifts for those back home? They’ve got that too. T-shirts, socks, pjs, knick knacks. They have clean restrooms, plenty of them. And, they have a ton of gas pumps. We’ll have to do a post on Buc-ee’s one day just to show everything there. We ended up with some bacon and egg bowls and packs of venison sausage and cheese for lunch.

From there, it was back on the road to Galveston State Park. Galveston State Park opened in 1975. There are two sections, the beach side, and the bay side. Both sides offer camping. Damaged by Tropical Storm Frances in 2008, and Hurricane Ike in 2008, construction began in 2018 to repair the damage and upgrade the facilities. The camping sites were redone, as was the gift shop, and entrance. All the old picnic tables that flooded every time it rained, and the porta potties are gone. The bumpy parking lot is gone. In it’s place is expanded, neatly organized parking at each entrance to the beach. There are restrooms and changing rooms at each entrance, and outdoor showers to rinse off the sand and salt water. The picnic areas have all been redone, all are now on cement pads, with covers and grills at each one. It’s a much prettier area now.

As it was a chilly day, we weren’t going to staying on the beach relaxing, we took a walk to the south edge of the park and back. There were very few people out walking as the breeze was making a damp day rather cold. But it was still beautiful, and some decent pictures were taken.

The birds had the beach almost entirely to themselves.

Except for the Jellyfish, which were everywhere, oblivious to the cold

Most of the Jellyfish were blobs, but one still appeared to have some semblance of life. The colors were more vivid than in the pictures above, the camera does not do them justice.

Although it’s not a shell gathering beach, there were a few pretty ones, so we had to take a few pictures.