Spring Break Galveston - Day 3

This morning, I awoke at 8:00 a.m. and took this picture:

I haven't been in Galveston for more than 24 hours and I'm already in love.  We took it easy this morning and watched people and the beach slowly wake up.  We ate breakfast in courses and shifts while Isaac did his laundry and the family got ready.

After a quick review of the "things to do," we piled in the car around 11:30 a.m. and headed into town.  Our goal - the Ocean Star Off Shore Drilling Rig and Education Center.

This museum, located on the Bay side of downtown, is housed in a retired jackup drilling rig and contains interactive and educational displays about offshore drilling.  Here was the source of our first of two pleasant surprises of the day.  I was perusing the Hall of Fame looking at names and reading about oil giants and there, in the 1989 founding class was non other than Dean McGee, founder of Kerr-McGee oil and native of Humboldt, Kansas - my hometown.

The museum is a great reminder of the importance of fossil fuels and oil to the American way of life -  a display right inside the door contains a host of items that contain chemicals derived from oil.  Inside is everything from crayons to shampoo, laundry detergent, cameras, phones, shoes, bandaids, hair dryers and Barbie dolls.  I saw new developments in deep water drilling including "Bullwinkle"; a fixed platform rig that is taller than the Empire State Building.  There were even pigs - which in the oil world are rubber devices used to service and maintain the pipelines.

At the dock near the museum were several fun sites that we don't see in Kansas everyday.  An imposing one was the Carnival Freedom - a cruise ship that makes regular 5 and 7 day trips to the Caribbean, Mexico and South America.  Based on their reaction, I'm fairly certain this was the biggest boat the boys have seen up close and personal.  On a smaller scale, but just as cool, was the Clipper Stad Amsterdam.  The Clipper , its Captain and 30 crew members run luxury private cruises to the British Virgin Islands and Martinique.  They were getting ready to sail while we were walking around.  Finally, we got our first glimpse of the 1877 Tall Ship Elissa also docked at port.  We plan to tour her later in the week (the daily sailing excursions are closed through April 2 due to regular maintenance), but today we stood and watched one of the crew members climb up into her masts to fix something.  He got high enough we couldn't watch anymore.

We ate a quick lunch at Jimmy Johns and then took a walk to the shops in the Strand District - a National Historic Landmark district of Victorian era buildings housing restaurants, shops and antique stores.  It was on the way to the Strand that we encountered the second of our surprises.  After seeing the boys in their blue, high school t-shirts, a man walked up and asked Ross if we were indeed from Winfield, Kansas.  I lifted my sunglasses and said, "Ed?"  It was none other than Ed Larson - a man we knew from our early years in Winfield.  Ed sang in our wedding dressed in his coveralls.  He was pinch hitting for our soloist who was snowed in and unable to make the ceremony.  It is indeed a small world.

After shopping, we headed to Fisherman's Wharf for a cool drink and to watch the Carnival Freedom depart from Galveston port on its way to the Caribbean.  From there, it was time to head home after a quick trip to Walmart for boogie boards.

The boys spent the early part of the evening throwing a football and enjoying the beach while we watched from the house deck.  After tiring of that, we went inside and retired to dinner from the fridge (Isaac made eggs.), basketball and conversation on the couch.  It was a good day.