A Weekend in Houston + Galveston, Texas
Galveston, TX
A Weekend in Houston + Galveston, Texas
May 3-May 6, 2019
You can also find the Vlog on YouTube (see below!).
To hear about a weekend consisting of: high school best friends reuniting, thunderstorms, country line dancing, cat roommates, questionable bike riding, Galveston views, and Texas-living persuasion - keep on reading!
I received the honor of being a part of one of my best friend’s weddings last year! Rachel and Landon were married in early September 2018, and moved to Houston shortly after. I haven’t seen them since they made their big move last fall, so I decided to book a flight over to Houston to see them!
Day 0:
Houston, TX
The week leading up to my flight out of Seattle consisted of beautiful sunny skies, which contrasted with the consistent Pacific North West rain stereotype. Most would think you’d like to escape the Seattle rain for the warm weather of Texas, but that weekend’s weather predictions were thunderstorms, and even a tornado warning. Washington can have its moments with thunder and lightning but flying in a storm was a whole new experience for me. Luckily, a combination of editing photos on my laptop supplemented by in-flight movies, made the bumpier ride a little more bearable.
It wasn’t enough to save my patience when we arrived at the airport, however. We landed 20 minutes earlier than scheduled but had to wait 1 hour on the air strip before we could arrive at our gate to deplane. I can only imagine the schedule delays and conflicts that were occurring that evening due to the scattered thunderstorms. Despite the trouble, Rachel was able to swoop me from the airport and we made our way to Sonic for a quick bite to eat. We then decided to “rest” that evening with Bo and Blaze (their cats) but ended up staying awake until 3am catching up as the lightning flashed outside the windows.
Day 1:
Houston, TX
Truthfully, we had no real agenda for Day 1 in Houston. Since we stayed up so late talking, we decided to sleep in and catch up some more over a lunch which Rachel cooked for us. It wasn’t until later that afternoon when we decided to explore and drive around the area. For some reason, she was showing me some of the nearby neighborhoods and homes… not sending any kind of message at all about trying to persuade me to move next door haha! ;) It ended up being really fun just driving around the area and seeing how the architecture differed from common Washington neighborhoods. We made a quick Chic-Fil-A stop to get milkshakes and fries for the drive over to Market Square.
We didn’t do much actual shopping there, but we walked around and did some window-shopping.
Once we were tired out from walking, we decided to head back to the apartment early to get ready for dinner (which ended up being pancakes at IHop) and to go out country line dancing in the evening once Landon got off work. We have a handful of country bars sprinkled throughout Washington, but none had a dance floor as big as the one we went to in Houston. It. Was. So. Much. Fun!! Highly recommended.
Being a former competitive dancer, who also grew up listening to country music, it was a dream. The dancers on the dance floor ranged from 21 year olds to the late 60s, and after a drink or two, Rachel and I went out there and participated in pretty much all of the line dances. Everyone was so nice, and they were more than happy to teach the steps to us when we had no idea what to do. In addition to dancing, there was also a mechanical bull, pool tables, dart boards, and corn hole outside. If I have the chance to return to Houston, I plan to for sure spend an evening there again.
Day 2:
Galveston, TX
Day 2 started off earlier than Day 1. We decided on Smoothie King to get smoothies for the road, because the agenda for Day 2 was to spend most of the day in Galveston, TX. With mango and pineapple smoothies in hand, Landon drove us to Galveston, which made for a 1-1.5 hour drive. We drove through downtown Houston with country music blasting through the speakers complemented by lots of laughter.
It didn’t feel like long until I was able to see the coastline again! I realized during this trip that I’m definitely a West Coast girl, because being unable to see the ocean or lakes nearby stressed me out a little! It was nice spending the day amongst the crashing waves and palm trees. By the time we arrived, we were all hungry, so Landon recommended that we try Joe’s Crab Shack. And if you know me, I’m ALL about seafood. I chose the Mahi fish with rice as my entrée, but Landon’s claims were accurate when he told us that they had REALLY good popcorn shrimp. We devoured that basket within seconds.
With stomachs full, we decided to walk along the beachfront. We took a lot of pictures and enjoyed each others’ company. While we were driving to Galveston, we saw tandem bikes that you could rent from different rental shops. None of us have ever tried tandem biking before, so we decided to all give it a shot. And what an experience that was!
The teamwork required was comical, and although there were questionable moments with pedestrians (and dogs!!) testing our brakes at the last minute, it ended up being a great way to explore Galveston. We rode our bike over to Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier and then looped around to get Italian ice from Rita’s. Once we returned our bike rental, we made our way back to Houston. Landon and Trey introduced me to Buc-ee’s along the way in Texas City, and we ended my last evening in Texas playing Jenga with questions/prompts, a midnight run to Whataburger, and my favorite - Pillsbury sugar cookies!
Day 3:
Houston, TX
We were EXHAUSTED after our long day biking around Galveston and staying up playing games, so we had a slow start the morning of Day 3. Because I was flying out that day, we didn’t have time for much. We ate lunch at Gringo’s, a Tex-Mex restaurant – I ordered the chicken enchiladas, and there was magical “green sauce” with chips for an appetizer... Life-changing. After lunch, we walked outside of the Woodlands Mall to find some turtles and stopped for a Starbucks run at the nearby Barnes & Noble (Is anyone surprised that I found my way to a bookstore while traveling? Nope, didn’t think so.).
Once the afternoon was upon us, Rachel, Landon, and Trey dropped me off at the IAH airport for not a farewell, but a “see you later!”
Annnd that's a wrap!
It was such a pleasure to catch up with Rachel and Landon and tour their new home! Although Seattle is my home, I will admit that they did a pretty darn good job trying to persuade me to move to Texas one day. Who knows if I’ll find my way over to Texas for a longer term, but I do know for sure that I’ll be coming back to visit again soon!
Cheers to familiar faces in new places!
Gen
