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Galveston Day 1
When we went on our first Galveston trip earlier this year, we promised the girls we would take them back when Pleasure Pier was open. I looked on the Pleasure Pier website to see what the hours and costs were and noticed that on Friday the pier was hosting a Homeschool Day. This event included discounted ticket prices and educational activities for homeschool students so we decided to take a last minute trip.
We left Thursday afternoon and arrived in Galveston that evening. The sky was full of dark clouds and it looked like a storm was on the horizon so once we checked into our hotel, we hurried over to the beach. We stayed at the same hotel as last time because we love it so much! I was able to get our first night there for under $100 because I had some miles saved with my Alaska Airlines credit card! I scored a deal on our second night there using the AAA website since it had the lowest rates I could find.
It was so different to visit Galveston in the summer compared to the spring. There were beautiful sunflowers and sage plants along the beach and the humidity was 100% pretty much the entire trip. I almost didn’t go with Derek and the girls for their first beach visit but since it was going to storm, I knew it might be my only shot at getting good photos (pun certainly intended). It was a bit harder this time around because Owen is much bigger and older and is curious about the world around him.
I laid him on our picnic blanket but he came close to crawling off a few times because he was fascinated by the sand. However, I’m grateful for the photos I was able to take. For this trip, I brought my 85mm lens because Katelyn James sold me on it. I’ve had it for a while but have only recently begun using it as my main lens and wish I would have started using it sooner. Taking photos with 100% humidity was quite the challenge. My lens kept fogging up so I did my best to wipe away the fog but it remained for some photos giving them the appearance of photos taken with film.
After our time on the beach, we headed back to our hotel and ordered room service from an adjoining restaurant called The Spot. The food from there is delicious and room service is a great optioon to have after hours of traveling with young kids. It was cute to see Derek become excited about room service on our last trip because he had never heard of it and he was just as excited this time around. After dinner, the girls enjoyed endless Bluey episodes on the Disney Channel and we all eventually went to bed.
Galveston Day 2
The next morning we were able to make it to Pleasure Pier just as they were opening for the day. Since it had poured rain earlier that morning, we were the only ones on the pier at first. I loved that the girls had free reign of the rides and that I was able to capture pictures of just our family.
Derek had to join the girls on some rides because Ava wasn’t tall enough to ride alone and although she looks miserable in some of the photos, she had a great time. She is our fiestiest child and she refused to smile for many of the pictures. One of the first rides Addie wanted to go on was the Texas Star Flyer, the tallest ride on the pier. I was surpised that she wanted to go on it consiering how tall and fast it is. I warned her many times that she probably wouldn’t like it but she insisted on giving it a try. Derek gladly went with her but when the swings began spinning, I could hear Addie screaming in terror. I asked the ride operator to end the ride quickly and since Derek and Addie were the only ones on it, he obliged.
I asked Derek if Addie was okay and his response was, “I’m not okay!” That made me laugh because when Derek first got my phone number and was getting to know me, one of the first questions he asked was if I’d ever go sky diving. I informed him that I would not and I thought things between us would be over before they started but I’m so glad they weren’t. Although we don’t have much in common, we complement each other well. I suppose we now have not enjoying fast rides in common which is still hilarious to me. Derek told me that since he is a dad and no longer in his twenties that things have changed. He later took the girls on the kids version of the ride and although Ava looks miserable and Addie refused to look at the camera, they enjoyed it.
We were on the pier for maybe an hour and then we walked to the Chick-fil- across the street for lunch. There was instrumental praise music playing upon our entry and minutes later a downpour began. We realized that that was our first time experiencing rain at the beach. After lunch we returned to our hotel for a rest time and then went back to the beach for a few minutes. After the beach, we walked back across the street to our hotel pool. We were the only ones at the pool which was nice. We then returned to our room and ordered dinner from The Spot again.
We had saved our wristbands from our earlier visit to the pier so we decided to head back to check it out at night. It was surprisingly not crowded even on a Friday night. Derek and the girls rode a few rides and then we walked over to Murdoch’s so they could each choose a souvenir. I’m grateful we went when we did because the staff decided to close the shop early and we had to leave before they would open the next day. We would have loved to stay in Galveston longer on Saturday but Derek was on call for work so we had to leave a bit sooner. We left the island with full hearts and the girls did great on the drive home. Naturally, we stopped at Buc-ee’s along the way so the girls could get their favorite Buc-ee’s cookies and although we missed Galveston once we left, we look forward to visiting again soon!
