Day 42 - Galveston

Galveston has seen a lot. From pirates to hurricanes, from riches to rags, people with big dreams have never given up on this town, and they have always rebuilt.
Stuck in paradise island, people don't want to leave... no matter what might happens in the future.
Jean Lafitte came with his misfits and took the land from the natives, pirated Spanish vessels and made a fortune trading slaves. He was given notice to evacuate the premises or else death by hanging since he made the mistake few times to assault American ships.
People moved in and built a harbor on the bay to transport cotton to other cities. The town grew to be one of the richest in the area.
Then in 1900, the Great Storm happened and 6000 people lost their lives and one third of the town was wiped away together with the town wealth.
So the people raised the town by 17 feet and built a seawall.
Through the years, two major hurricanes came through but did not cause destruction as it could have happened without the seawall. The last one was just two years ago. Still there are new house developments all along the coastline of the island. As this local lady put it, people forget...
All new homes are all built hurricane-proof.

First thing, we asked at the information office what we needed to see. The list was long, so we started with the first item: the Tree Sculpture Tour in the East End Historical District. They gave us a map where all the sculptures were located and more brochures and discount coupons for museums and dining.
The tree sculptures were commissioned by home owners to create sculptures in their properties, out of oak trees that died during the Harvey hurricane/flood of 2017 (due to salt water killing the trees). We drove around. The sculptures were interesting but the homes around them were stunning. I took a gazillion pictures. Bill was on Zillow to assess their values; not even close of what it would be in California. I feel like I am in a candy store and I want to buy everything. No, we are not going to do that. Who knows? These homes might be under water in 50 years...but then there's the people factor...they always come back.

We had lunch at Farley Girls Cafe, a diner of local cuisine. It was all good.

We took a tour of the Moody Mansion, which belonged to a wealthy family from Virginia. They made their fortune in the cotton trade, but also in banking, hotels, insurance and ranching.
The mansion was built in 1895 and was bought by W.L Moody Jr. from the heirs of the original owners soon after the great hurricane of 1900. He honored his bid before the hurricane, even though all the other bidders ditched town. He was a true Galvestonian believer.
This mansion is one of the richest that I have seen in the states so far. It is very luxurious for its time, but also warm and cozy. Some of the photos are out of focus, but I hope they still give a sense of its grandeur.

The following are more pictures of Galveston environs.

Artistic photo ;) of Moody bank from the 70's, on three stories high stilts

Oldest soda fountain shop

Water fountain for man and beast donated by the Rosenberg will

Day 41 - Rockport to Galveston

Before taking off for Galveston and leaving this magical place, we went on another bird watching hike with our favorite group. This time we were going for a woods walk.

Eurasian Collared Dove

It was another fruitful two hours. My favorite was the black-crested titmouse.
It was really hard to take pictures of all the birds we saw. Some fly away before I have time to focus and some are too far. This is what it looks like.

Isn't it cute!

Along the way...

Travelling Cat

Favorite Pit Stop

Freeport Refinery

Driving along 35, I can tell you with confidence that the world is flat, because I have seen it with my own eyes. There's not a knoll or bump on the ground, acres and acres of tilled soil as far as the eye can see and then nothing. In these parts of the world the land drops at the horizon 😉

We passed our first bayous. It has been raining a lot this year and the water is high up to road level.

Then in the middle of nowhere, around Sweeny, there is a giant refinery. Actually it might be multiple refineries, because it is as big as a city. We saw another one around Freeport.

The Sanpiper RV resort in in town but just far enough from all the noise and confusion. It has a nice swimming pool and Jacuzzi. It is on the beach and at night we can hear the waves. Unfortunately we could get only two nights. We should have booked it before.

Day 40 - Rockport: Goose Island

Birds! Birds! Birds! I never understood what the fun was in watching birds until I picked up a good pair of binoculars and joined a bird watch group with two very expert docents. 

The lens gives details to what looks like a simple brown bird from a distance. You can see the symmetrical pattern of black, white, and brown feathers, the beak shape and color, how it moves and sings and eats.. They are so cute!

Damage from Hurricane Harvey

After visiting other parts of the area for two days, today we decided to visit the location where we are staying, Goose Island State Park. The best way to do this is to follow around Les and Jane, who are the bird hosts and they have been coming to this island for the last 19 years. Les can tell you the name of a tiny bird hiding in the bushes in seconds and he is always right, because he shows you the picture from the book and then you see the bird with your binoculars. Les is amazing. He tells you also their morphology and their habits, the differences with other similar birds, when they show up in the season, and where.

Les and Jane have witnessed the devastation that Harvey has brought to this area. They count the birds and which type, and they rejoice when one kind finally shows up again. 

Laughing Gulls

Tri-color Heron and Great Egret

Great Egret

Great Blue Heron

Coot

Long-billed Curlew

Northern Cardinal

Savannah Sparrow

All the birds we saw in a two hour shore bird
walk!

In the afternoon we went to visit Les and Jane at their camp site, where they have feeders and seed bags. There is always somebody talking to them as they are very friendly and love to talk about birds.

They told us to go back to the marshy field of the whooping cranes, toward the end of the day, because that is when all the birds are coming back to roost for the night.

Sure enough, we saw whooping cranes flying over our heads. We saw great egrets flying in one or two at a time and landing all in the same area. At the end we counted 10. There was some noise from the pond in between the cattails. We were wondering if there were ducks. It was actually a small alligator hunting for dinner...

Whooping Cranes

Great Egrets

Turkey Vulture

The Big Tree wounded by the hurricane.

Les told us about the difference between a turkey vulture and a black vulture. Turkey vultures are bigger and have stronger beaks to tear flash apart. So they are the first ones to show up at the scene. Once the carcass in nicely rotten then the black vultures swoop in to finish the job of cleaning up. In the animal world everyone has their niche. Also turkey vultures look like ...turkeys