Thursday and Friday, February 11th & 12th, 2010

Namaste,

Thursday morning we woke up and watched the news, and it was all bad. There was a winter storm covering all of Southern Oklahoma, and Northern Texas. Boy were they right! We considered going west to Santa Fe, but Sherrie's brothers wife really wanted us to come to Texas... Our plans were to drive from OKC through Dallas, through Houston, and all the way into Galveston. It should take about seven hours, but we started getting snow just South of Norman, and it crazy snowed all the way until we were just North of Houston. Thank God my car is all wheel drive. It did awesome. I bet we saw 100 or more vehicles off the road, and some pretty serious wrecks. We got into Galveston around five in the evening, and went for a drive down Seawall Boulevard. Seawall was built as a barrier to keep the Gulf from flooding the city. It runs almost the entire length of the island, and everything is either located on the Seawall or the Strand which is the historic district. It was cold and rainy, and there was absolutely no one out, so we decided to drive down to the Strand and have dinner. There is a very nice restaurant on the pier called Willy G's.... It is fresh seafood, and we really enjoyed it. We got back in the car and drove around a bit more, then headed to Wal Mart because Sherrie forgot to bring her swimming suit. We went back to the hotel and got in the hot tub, then back to the room to crash. I woke up at 5:00 am the next morning, and went out to catch the sunrise. Ugggggg.... There will be no sunrise due to the fact that it is pouring rain, and 36 degree's. I did find a few things to take pictures of.... I found a group of surfers out in the water at about 7:00 am, and got some great shots! We had breakfast back at the hotel, and then went to take the ferry across the bay. It wall way to cold, and we were the only people on the ferry.... I took some pictures, but nothing really spectacular. I stood on the front of the ferry, with gale force winds, in the pouring rain.... The dolphins were playing but I was not fast enough to catch more than a fin. We went to Tortuga for lunch, and shared a sampler platter. Then back to the hotel to take a nap. Sherrie did some homework, and I slept for about an hour. At 5:00 we headed down to the Strand for Mardi Gras. Galveston celebrates Mardi Gras second only to New Orleans. They were expecting 30,000 people for the celebration but only 3,000 showed up. It was soooooo cold and rainy that people didn't come out. We walked around until 6:15 then went to a little restaurant we visit called Yaga's. We took our time then at 7:15 we went out and the "Krewe's" were throwing beads.... That was a blast. We got probably 200 or 300 strands of beads. We stayed for the parade and we were running around with the crazy's, so we warmed up a bit! As soon as the parade was over we sprinted back to the car, and sped back to the hotel. I am a little under the weather, and I was worn out. I woke up at 6:00 this morning, and went out to take pictures but there was nothing!!!!!!! I went back to the hotel and we cleaned up then we went down to breakfast, and then headed to College Station, which is where we are right now. We are having a double date with Sherrie's brother and his wife. We have no kid's and we are going to dinner. We made it from Galveston to College Station in two hours, and 14 minutes. That is really good. We are getting ready to go to dinner so I will end this here, but I will try and post more tomorrow. We have to head home pretty early because Sherrie is missing her baby's... (Boomer too!)

Much Love!

Mat