Thursday Feb 27th 2103 - Lat Day in Galveston bike ride/ferry/fish

ALWAYS GOOD TO ASK SOMEONE TO TAKE OUR PHOTOS

ENJOYING THE RIDE

ON THE FERRY!!

ARRIVING AT BOLIVAR

Our last full day in Galveston and  we made the most of the beautiful day. We jumped on our bikes and took off to explore areas we had not been before. First we rode around a new condo area just east of the RV resort on the bay, and then we had the idea to take the free car/passenger ferry from Galveston to Bolivar landing and back again. We just walked on with our bikes. What a fun way to spend an hour. We saw great views of Galveston, lots of seabirds, dolohin and pelicans flying over head. We then pedalled our way into downtowna nd stopped at the Mod Coffee shop for a latte and a shared ham/brie bagel. After that we rode down to the wahrf and picked up a while fresh Grouper and half a dozen jumbo shrimp for the BBQ tonight. On the way back to the RV we cycled through the streets of Galveston and admired the architecture. We clocked only 20km but had a great time. Back at the RV we got organized for our departure tomorrow, did a laundry load and battened down the hatches so to speak. We also cleaned off out bikes. They got so rusty in the short time we were here.. the salt air is a corrosion problem. But we hope to have them back to 'new' with some TLC when we get to Tucson. Derek once again proved to be master of the BBQ fish and we reveled in the taste of fresh grouper and shrimp. We did some planning for our route tomorrow.

FOLLOWING THE FERRY

CHECKING OUT THE PASSENGERS

I LOVE THESE UGLY BEAUTIES

CAR FERRY

GALVESTON FROM THE FERRY

LATTE AND BAGEL AT MOD COFFEE SHOP DOWNTOWN

CARRY GROUPER AND SHRIMP ON HIS BACK

GREAT ARCHITECTURE IN GALVESTON

ALMOST HOME WITH THE 'BACON'

MON/TUE Feb 25-26 - Planning, winds, Moody Gardens

Otters at play

LOTS OF EXOTIC BIRDS

Tuesday Feb 26th - Moody Gardens and Joe's Crab Shack
Moody gardens. The pyramidal structures house a Rainforest and an Aquarium. So much to learn about the rain forest. Thousands of different plants and birds etc. a wonderful natural exhibit. For example no pesticides are used, they just add birds and insects that are on the natural dinner chain. The aquarium was on of the best we have ever seen. The shark tank with underwater viewing passages was awesome. Watching the keepers scuba dive in to hand feed the bottom fish was amazing, but the coup de gras was watching the penguins, and their keepers scuba dive to the floor to vacuum up the penguin poop !!!!
We decide it was a night for dinner out and after seeing so many fish in the Aquarium we opted for Joe's Crabshack at the harbour. What a meal. Started with a bucket of fresh gulf shrimp, followed by fresh oysters. (6 huge fresh oysters for $6) Janice had a crab steam-pot that she is still raving about hours later and Derek had a platter with blackened red fish, shrimp wrapped in bacon and shells stuffed with crabmeat. Gulf seafood with the southern sauces is fantastic.
Finished off the evening with a nice stroll and a coffee along the Seawall Blvd.

PEEK-A-BOO!!!

UHHH  --- 'YOU LOOKIN AT ME????

Well hello there!!!

Hey Handsome!!!

Hangin out in the tank!!

Is he smiling?

SPINY SEA-DRAGON

KING PENGUINS

GOMER PYLE LOOK ALIKE!!

THANK YOU... THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!

SPINY LOBSTER

LOOKING FOR LUNCH

THE PYRAMIDS AT MOODY GARDENS

FRESH BAY SHRIMP AT JOE'S... FABULOUS!!

BASIC PLACE... AMAZING FOOD!!!

'FED-UP' - LITERALLY!!

THEY GET THEIR FISH FROM THE HARBOUR FLEET DAILY

PEACE, LOVE, AND CRABS!!!!

Monday Feb 25th (Happy birthday bro')
Very windy day, a cold front came in on it's way up through Kansas to Ontario. We had a planning day and cleared off emails and booked our camp sites for the 3 day route to Tucson starting Thursday. Also booked sites for the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon for June and for Burnaby, BC site (Vancouver) ready for Evan and Kyle's wedding in August.Very windy night as the wind direction changed.  We pulled the slide in to minimize the effect on the condo.

Sunday Feb 24th - Fresh fish dinner

Sunday Feb 24^th 2013

Lots of beautiful buildings in Galveston

Another lovely building

After a much more restful night, we gave the old mattress to some neighbours at the resort who wanted it. Glad we didn’t have to dump it in the garbage.  Headed over to the harbour on our bikes and bought  a whole 3lb fresh snapper to BBQ tonight. We did have them chop the head off and filet it for us.  Derek BBQ’d the snapper for dinner, and he did an amazing job… it was truly delicious. One of the benefits of staying on the gulf is the fabulous fresh seafood. We plan to go back before we leave to pick up some fresh oysters and some fresh shrimp.  

Watched the Oscars for the first time in many years. Realized we have a number of movies we would like to see.

Seafood for sale at the harbour

We bought one of these red snapper

The Seafood shack on the harbour where we bought snapper

SATURDAY FEB 23RD 2013 - SHARK!

^{SAT FEB 23RD 2013 - LUNCH, BIKES AND SHARK}

THE CROWN PRINCESS AT DOCK

SAILING AWAY - WISHING WE WERE ON BOARD AGAIN!

Met Des and Pat for lunch at Gaido's - Cannot get enough of those oysters!! Had a great time. We had stripped the bed and taken the old mattress into the ‘lounge’ area of the ‘condo’ pending the arrival of our new one between 1 and 4pm. Then ‘Mattress Firm’ called again and now indicated that the delivery will be today, but not until 7-10pm. So we jumped on our bikes and headed to the end of the island. It was a little windy, but good to be out. We then cycled down to the free ferry to watch it for a while and noticed that the Crown Princess was in dock at the harbour-front, so we cycled downtown in time to see her sail again.

GREY AND WHITE PELICANS - GATHERED UNDER THE DOCK!

AWWW!!

 We then wandered along the harbor and saw a number of pelicans gathered around and then we suddenly came across a guy cleaning and gutting a huge shark (he said it was about 180+ pounds. We did touch it, but felt awful when he gutted a smaller one and he lifted out a few baby sharks (the big one had also been pregnant).  It made us both very sad, if not a little queasy!!! Decided we would cycle  back tomorrow to buy some fresh fish off the dock for supper.  
Back at the RV (we had cycled 22km) we had a small supper and waited for the mattress.  It FINALLY it arrived at 10:15pm. Hopefully it will help with Janice's back problems.

ANOTHER AWWWWW!!!!

UGGHH! GRUESOME BUT INTERESTING 180LBS+ 
AND PREGNANT! THE ONE HANGING UP ON THE
 LEFT ALSO HAD BABIES INSIDE - SEE BELOW

HE PULLED IT OUT OF BELLY OF SMALLER SHARK
AND HELD IT UP WITH DELIGHT... THERE WERE LOTS OF
 THEM IN THERE.. HE FED THEM TO THE PELICANS!

WAITING FOR THEIR SNACKS!!

PUT ME OFF SHARK STEAK!

ALTHOUGH IT LOOKS BETTER LIKE THAT!

GETTING CHEEKY! BEGGING FOR A MORSEL

PLEASE MISTER!!!!

INTERESTING BUT .......!!!!