Ahoy There Mates...

Our mornings have typically begun on the balcony. The boys love hanging out there while A.J. and I plan the day. I don't know if it's because they're just outside, or the fact that it's actually on a balcony. Every kid likes a balcony, right? We are fortunate to have had awesome weather in spite of the 40% chance of showers forecast every day of our visit here.

By 10:00 a.m. we were walking around the Strand and checking out some of the cute little shops. It's easy to see that many areas in Galveston are still trying to recover from the damage that hurricane Ike brought. Much of the downtown area seemed to be on the slow road to mending, but there is so much potential with all of the old buildings one hopes that between the damage and the struggling economy that they'll come back around soon.

From the Strand, we took a short walk over to the tall ship Elissa. It was built in 1877 in Aberdeen, Scotland. Alex thought it was a pirate ship in spite of us telling him otherwise (actually he thought the fishing boats he saw everyday from the beach were pirate ships also!) which made the visit on the Elissa even more intriguing.

Captain Alex: Aaarrr!

Looking at Ayson's little red cheeks, you can tell it's rather warm out!

While touring the Elissa we ran in to a Galveston local who was on board for a class trip for his photography students. He was a really nice guy who not only took a couple pictures of us (for us) but then gave us a tip on a great restaurant in the area. We highly recommend The Sunflower Bakery and Cafe, and we thank the kind gentleman who sent us there!

Our bellies full, we headed back to the condo and then...you guessed it...back to the beach.