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Friday, February 27, 2015

Galveston Island, Texas

Aloha Everyone,

Galveston is located on the Gulf of Mexico on Galveston Island and Pelican Island  Approximately 48,000 people live on 208.3 square miles of land area. The island owes its name to the Count Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez (born in Málaga, Spain).



On September 8, 1900, Galveston was struck by a Category 4 Hurricane with 135-mile-per-hour winds. The flooding that accompanied it was considered to be one of the 10 most significant floods in US History. Over eight thousand people lost their lives due to that storm.

As a result, private homes and commercial buildings on bay and beach must be on piling 10' to 12' up in the air to be in compliance with their building code. This could increase the cost of construction by 10-15% compared to the rest of Texas. If you are interested in reading more details go to www.ourgalveston.com




We are staying at Bayou RV Park on Galveston island. Following a list of restaurants recommended by Sandy, the park host, we chose Shrimp & Stuff Restaurant on Avenue "Q" for our lunch stop.




This popular restaurant caters to "the locals' has been in business for 38 years. Everything looked delicious. We ordered a cup of shrimp gumbo, 6 pieces of grilled shrimp, a dish of crab balls and J.J. also ordered fried oysters with French fries and coleslaw.




Three days ago in the freezing weather, we overloaded our electrical system and triggered the circuit breaker. J.J. being inventive has been improvising different sources for our electricity and heating. Today we called a licensed mobile electrician. Jim spent about a couple of minutes listening to our problems then walked around and found the circuit breaker sort of hidden in the trunk of Honu. A seven minutes of service call and knowing which button to push was $80 well spent.


Tonight our backyard is the Gulf of Mexico. Thank goodness that all 3 heating systems are working.

Aloha -- Cathi