Monday, June 24, 2019

Gavleston Oh Galveston!

Jeff's birthday was last Friday, and he had the day off, so we decided to take a day trip to Galveston, which is about a two and a half hour drive south.  We left around 8:00 am to avoid hitting the work commute traffic in Houston, and we did pretty well with that, arriving in Galveston about 10:45. 

First thing we did was to hit the Yesterday's Best Fiestaware store!  This store has a lot of the retired Fiesta colors and pieces, along with current colors.  I had a few items in mind that I was looking for, plus anything wonderful that I happened to see.  I got what I wanted, which I'll show on Friday's post.  Oh, I did happen upon something wonderful - a lilac mini pitcher.  The lilac colorway has been retired for over twenty years, plus it was only in production for two years, so it's pretty expensive when you find it.  The mini pitcher was $99.  Sold!  No, haha - it was so pretty but it was most definitely out of my price range.

Next we wandered around a bit:
This place caught my eye for the name, obviously.  But afterward when I was looking at all the pictures that I took, I had to laugh at the couple trying to figure out how to do the street pay-to-park because that was Jeff and I.  This made me feel better - I kept thinking that we were just country bumpkins who didn't know how to work these newfangled parking meters, LOL.

We ate lunch at the Sunflower Cafe, which was good, but saved room for the real treat later on:
LaKing's!  Home of the best ice cream and taffy made right in front of you!  We happened to arrive during one of the taffy pull times so that was fun to watch.
I got coffee chip (if there is a flavor with coffee in it, I will always order it) and Jeff got strawberry.  He said it was the best strawberry ice cream he'd ever had and if he wasn't so full he would have gone back in for another scoop!

We poked around in a few shops and art galleries - we are always looking for something to hang on the walls just outside of my office, but nothing that we could afford sparked joy.  Then we spied some graffiti walls and beelined over to them:
Jeff's workplace had a superhero summer camp last week so he loved this.
Another fun one!

We drove to the Seawall so I could revisit the place of my first half marathon.  I took a picture of this and sent it to my old running buddy Jenny, who I ran the race with:
She responded immediately with the laughing/crying emoji - we spent so much of that race just trying to make it to the next trash can!  You can read the story of the race and the trash cans here, if you're interested.

We decided to park and go to a restaurant/bar to sit outside facing the water:
...but first, a drink selfie, of course.  We were lucky that it was overcast most of the time - when the sun peeked out, it was hot.  We reapplied sunscreen liberally while we were sitting there.
Jeff with Pleasure Pier in the distance.  First, that name sounds a little dirty.  Second, they charge $10 per person just to walk around!  What the what??  I thought it would be like the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, where it's always been free to wander around and if you wanted to go on rides, you would buy a ticket.  So this is as close as we got to Pleasure Pier.
I didn't connect the name of the restaurant/bar, Float, with a pool until we walked by one as we headed upstairs, but there you go - we could have worn our swim suits and had our drinks in the pool!  Next time...

We had enough of Galveston and left early to avoid most of the Houston commuter traffic.  We decided to head over to The Woodlands, where Jeff happily relaxed in a comfy chair at Nordstrom while I bought a lip crayon.  He was sitting in the shoe department and I pulled a pink sandal off the display to try on while he sat there - it was cute, I loved it, and he said "buy it - you can't wear your running shoes so this is a good replacement":
A quick picture while we drove home of my new Birkenstock Mayari sandals!

Oh - one last picture of Jeff with his birthday mudslide dessert (because you can never have too much ice cream on your birthday):
He shared - and it was yummy.  A nice way to cap off his birthday!

29 comments:

  1. What a wonderful day! Holy moley, that mudslide dessert looks huge!!!!

    And it looks as if your back did well! Judging by the lack of comment AND your smiles in the picture!!! Woohoo!

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  2. This is exactly the kind of birthday adventure I would enjoy. I love that YOU got a gift on Jeff's birthday - way to go! Maybe those sandals have some magical pain reducing power in them. If not, they are fun to look at.

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    1. I even asked, are you sure? It's your birthday, not mine! But he did get some really good birthday gifts so he was happy to get me the cute sandals. :)

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  3. Looks like such a fun day! I'm so glad you feel well enough to get out and road trip! Love the sandals.

    And now I have that song going through my head. Ahh...Glen Campbell...

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    1. It was great to go somewhere fun like that. We did drive and park more than we would have if I were healthy, but avoiding walking to get somewhere allowed me to walk once we were there. And Glen Campbell, I know!

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  4. Looks like you had a super fun adventure. Thanks for sharing with us. YAY for new summer sandals always nice to get. That dessert in the last picture looks epic oh my bet it was good.

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    1. It WAS epic - I was a little surprised he chose that considering he already had ice cream earlier in the day, but when it's your birthday...

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  5. Have you gone to Replacements Ltd. while you are visiting your son in NC? I love going there and they have a fair bit of fiestaware!

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    1. I didn't know Replacements was located in NC!!! Thanks for the info - I think a field trip next time we're visiting Sam will include Replacements! :)

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  6. Hey, I know that place. I grew up around there. Get back every chance I can get...like next weekend.

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    1. That's so cool! Do you go to LaKing's or is that too touristy for you? Get some taffy!

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  7. what a fun trip. And yes you deserve the shoes after all the pain you've had.

    BTW: I had ice cream TWICE on Saturday ad it wasn't my b-day. Oh I did run a 15K lol

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    1. Haha I love this! You do have a fondness for ice cream and you're not afraid to show it. :)

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  8. Those sandals are super cute! So glad you guys had such a fun day!

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  9. I can't actually make out the name of that business, with the parking! :-D

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  10. Ready and Peas ... Reedy and Pesa ... darn it!

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  11. Wait! Something Paco!! I got it!!

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    1. Your comments cracked me up! Just a fyi for future puzzling pictures, you can click on the picture and it will become bigger so you really can see the details.

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    2. :-D I was trying to be all sneaky at work, and it backfired. Thanks for getting my sense of humor about it!

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  12. Happy Birthday, Jeff!!! That sounds like a fun day trip! :)

    I used to "wait out" commuter traffic (on my commute, ha!) at the mall, so I totally get that. And I LOVE the pink Birks!!! Especially the full story behind them, aww :) I wanted to buy a pair of Arizonas in the metallic blue this spring but couldn't find them anywhere here, so I ended up with practical (cough boring) black leather instead. I already have 2 pairs, buuuuuut they're good for plantar fasciitis so maybe I need a third, cute pair.

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    1. I know that metallic blue - it's such a sharp color! You definitely need a colorful cute pair. It's for the PF. It's a medical necessity! ;)

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  13. Your trip looks like it was so much fun! At first I thought you said the lilac pitcher was 99 cents, and I was like, wow, what a deal! Ha ha. Then I saw you really said dollars. That last picture of the cake looks amazing!

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    1. Yeah, dollars. I'd pay some extra for it, but not that much. Oh well, what I bought is really fun and I love the colors.

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  14. I used to work in the same city block as LaKings. Still love LaKing's taffy.

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  15. We have to wait until Friday to see the new Fiestware?! Wah!!!! ;)

    What a fun day! You guys are always up to something fun. I love it :) I think we'd get along well irl :)

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    1. You will have to wait longer because I had more important subjects for Friday's post. Plus I have to photograph everything...

      I agree, we would get along well. And I want to go axe throwing with you and Steven!

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