All posts tagged Galveston

My Dream Gnome

About two weeks ago I took my daughters down to Galveston to do our traditional “End of Summer Blowout!”

This year we went to the Moody Mansion. We love visiting the old historic homes in Galveston. I think now we only have one more home to visit but it won’t re-open until the Fall of 2011 due to damage from Hurricane Ike.

We took a stroll down on the Historic Strand. The kids played with the life-size chess board and we of course got our traditional dose of candy from the best candy store on earth, The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory!

While we were down on the Strand window shopping I found my dream Gnome! If the thing hadn’t cost well over $100 I would have bought the thing right there and then!

Jim Shore is the artist. I love his work! Now I ask you, after seeing this how can you hate Gnomes!

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by Heather on August 21, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Life As I Know It
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Posted by Heather on August 21, 2010

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/my-dream-gnome/

Mother-Daughter Day At The Beach

Yesterday my 17 year old daughter and I went down to Galveston for our annual mother-daughter day at the beach. We like to walk The Strand and window shop and then hit the beach for a few hours. Since nobody else likes to go window shopping with us we have made this our little tradition together.

Our day started out pretty good we loaded up an ice chest with soda and water and gassed up the car. It only takes us about 30 minutes from our house to get Galveston. We went to the Strand area first. I pulled into a little parking lot and the parking space that I had picked had something laying in it on the passenger side. I jokingly said “I’m not sure about this spot that looks kid of like a Voodoo Doll Head or something!” We got out only to find that it was a dead pigeon! We laughed our head off what a way to start the day.

I went to go pay for parking only to find this:

Parking Meter by you.

The note says: I went underwater during IKE and no longer work. Yay, parking is now free, it would have cost us $5 for parking.

We made our way up and down the Strand popping in and out of shops. It has been a slow road to recovery since Hurricane Ike last year but the Island is coming back. We ended our window shopping tour by going to our favorite place the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. My daughter had a chocolate dipped Oreo and I had a piece of Mint Fudge Brick. We shared a bottle of Chocolate soda which was awesome. We of course had to get a quarter of a pound of Chocolate covered Raisins for my husband and my younger daughter. Too bad they didn’t make it past the car ride home! We meant well!

After we were hyped up on sugar we took off to the Seawall. We found a spot on the beach and headed into the Gulf of Mexico. The surf was a little bit rough but we had fun! Right about the time we were getting ready to leave this guy in his 20’s came up and asked my daughter if I was her sister. She of course said “Eww… No!”and then he turned around and left. I threw her towel at her and said “Thanks a lot! You can’t just let me have one little moment!” I told her to remember Paybacks are Hell!

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by Heather on August 21, 2009  •  Permalink
Posted in Life As I Know It
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Posted by Heather on August 21, 2009

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/mother-daughter-day-at-the-beach/

Update On An Old Post…

I posted an update to an old post that I wrote on the Balinese Room.

Galveston is on the mend from Hurricane Ike, but it is a very slow mend. We have always loved the Island and we plan on many returns to it. Some of our favorite places are no longer there but the people are.

Balinese Room Pre Hurricane Ike

The Balinese Room Pre Hurricane Ike

 

The Remains of the Balinese Room 1-17-09

The Remains of the Balinese Room 1-17-09

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by Heather on January 19, 2009  •  Permalink
Posted in Where In The World...
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Posted by Heather on January 19, 2009

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/update-on-an-old-post/

Where In The World…The Balinese Room

Update January 19, 2009: This past weekend we finally decided to drive down to Galveston. This was our 1st trip back to the Island since Hurricane Ike. It was a very humbling trip for us.

Balinese Room Pre Hurricane Ike

The Balinese Room Pre-Hurricane Ike

Balinese Room Remains

What Remains of the Balinese Room 1-17-09

Update September 16, 2008: I would have never imagined that this beautiful place would be gone not even a month after I posted this. Unbelievable!

This pile of rubble is actually the Balinese Room on the Galveston Seawall

________________________________________ 

 

The Balinese Room in Galveston, Texas

“Deep in the South of Texas
not so long ago,
there on a crowded island
in the Gulf of Mexico

it didn’t take too much money,
man, but it sure was nice.
You could dance all night if you felt all right,
drinking whiskey and throwing dice.

And everybody knows
it was hard to leave.
And everybody knows
it was down at the Balinese.”

“Balinese” – ZZ Top – Fandango – 1975
 

 

The history of The Balinese Room can be found on Wikipedia.

On a personal note: I have been to the Balinese Room a number of times. We started hanging out there on the weekends when they were doing renovations on it. There are Ghost Stories to go along with the building and I for one believe them, as do my kids. On one of our visits we went into the women’s restroom and when I turned around to flush the toilet the toilet paper was thrown at my back. Another time we were in the old casino part when the jukebox started playing “old music” when we checked out the jukebox for the name of the song we found that it was unplugged. I just hope the ghosts are having as much fun now as they did when the place was in it’s prime!

4 Comments
by Heather on August 24, 2008  •  Permalink
Posted in Where In The World...
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Posted by Heather on August 24, 2008

https://purplecoloredglasses.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/where-in-the-world/