Went down to the Gulf with the family-in-law today. You know, despite living in Houston for almost five years, I'd never been to Galveston. I'd actually been to the Pacific more times than I'd been to the Gulf since I moved here. Very sad, yet true.
Anyway, today's trip was a blast. My beach-going experiences have all been based on the tourist-heavy beaches of southern California, so the relatively sparsely-attended (even on Memorial Day!) Galveston beach was refreshing. It was also nice that the water wasn't so cold you had to get out after about fifteen minutes due to your toes turning different colors/losing all feeling.
Julie, Christina, and I ventured out far enough that there were fish swimming literally right to us. At one point, two fish leaped out of the water in tandem between Julie and I when we were about ten feet apart. This meant the pelicans also came pretty close. Robbie came briefly out to join us (the water was really only approaching chest-high to me at that point) and couldn't stay focused on one spot long enough to actually see many fish, but he enjoyed it anyway.
That kid LOVED the ocean! He played hard the entire time we were there. He would shriek with delight every time a wave would hit that was high enough to splash him in the face or knock him slightly off-balance. He divided his time pretty equally digging sand into a bucket, digging water into a bucket, jumping over waves by holding someone's hands, wading by himself, running through the lowest-tide area, filling up his bucket with water, and just hanging out in "deeper" water in my arms. I was afraid we weren't going to get him to leave without throwing a major fit, but I said the magic word (McDonald's) and we were off.
Now that I know the beach isn't going to be horribly crowded, and now that I know how much the kid loves it, hopefully we can make the occasional trip down to the coast.
Meanwhile: Remember, everyone, hurricane season starts June 1st! Last year, the only North American hurricane landfall was in Canada somewhere. While I wouldn't mind another mild summer of storms, Experts are predicting the WORST SEASON IN HISTORY!!! Of course, they've been predicting this worst season in history for the last four years, and I think it's only happened once, so we shall see.
