Sonya's Blog - Day 237 - Historic Galveston on Valentine's Day

Sonya’s Blog - Day 237 - February 14th - Historic Galveston on Valentine’s Day

Being that I am a massive romantic (ha!), I really don’t love Valentine’s Day. Such a Hallmark holiday, and what’s the point. I told Blake if he got me anything, I would be unimpressed. We did get the kids a small treat each, but that was as far as I was willing to go.

I want to walk around the historic district today and learn a bit more about Galveston, before we head off tomorrow. First we headed to Broadway to check it out. Our first stop was the Visitor’s Centre, where we found out that we are not in the Historic District. We had to head for the harbour. It was only about 5 blocks away, so we walked over there. The most popular street is The Strand, which is one block off of the harbour. It was full of historic buildings from the 1800’s, with plaques detailing the construction and ownership of some of the more famous buildings.

We also headed down to Pier 21 and saw many oil rigs. There is a museum there, on a retired oil rig, which is supposed to be quite good. It details the history of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. We had Kizmet, so we didn’t go to that.

We did see two cruise ships in port as well. There are a couple of cruises that leave from Galveston. We could catch a cruise from Galveston in early march for only $500 each. Pretty good price. There was one in April for about $350, but I think it left from Port Canaveral in Florida. I don’t really like cruises, just wanted to see how cheap it would be if you were leaving from here.

We walked around a bit more and then headed back towards the truck. We then drove by some of the older homes. Many had been up-kept and were in great condition, but others needed some work. I wanted to see the Bishop’s Palace and the Sacred Heart Cathedral across the street. It is a pretty opulent residence for a Bishop, I must say. Why would a Bishop need such opulence? Wouldn’t this alone, make you question the Catholic Church? Okay, it wasn’t originally built for the bishop. It is also known as the Gresham Mansion, as it was built by the Gresham family between 1887 and 1893. He had been a colonel during the Civil War and moved to Galveston when the war ended. He and his wife lived in the house, with their 9 children. In 1923 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston purchased the residence for the Bishop, it is 19,082 square feet. When the diocese moved to Houston, the Catholic Church opened the house up for tours and the proceeds went to fund their centre for Catholic students. It is now owned by the Galveston Historical Foundation.

The boys headed to the pool and the hot tub, I did the dishes and Natasha read. We then had a quick supper and headed out to see Deadpool. We had bought tickets, earlier in the day, for the 6:40 show. We got there at about 6:30, but this was a mistake as there was not assigned seating. The theatre was pretty full and the best seats were only 3 rows back. I guess Blake and I should have read a few reviews before heading to this movie with Isaac in tow. It really wasn’t appropriate for a 12 year old. Even for Natasha, it was iffy. It was very funny, but Isaac was offended by the full frontal nudity. Not our greatest parenting moment.

Sonya