Galveston

Last week, my husband and I had a madcap dash of a getaway to Galveston. We were initially scheduled to go to an arts conference in Chicago, but when the financial backers who had requested that we go to said conference flaked on their end of the deal, my husband and I could simply not make $700 + come up out of thin air with two weeks notice.

We had already arranged for my mother-in-law to come over here and use her expert kid wrangling skills while we were gone for the week -- she had four kids of her own and currently has nine grandchildren, the youngest of which just turned two and the oldest of which turned seven recently. It was a busy five years for all concerned, let me tell you.

But I digress. I'm good at that.

ANYWAY -- since she was here anyway, Z and I figured we'd zip out of town for a couple of nights and let her use those aforementioned kid wrangling skills, so her flight over here wasn't a complete waste of her time (visiting with us aside). Exciting stuff! We have never, and I repeat, never been away overnight without the kids in the whole of their existence with just us by ourselves. We've been away, but always either individually (either Z or I would be gone, but not both), or we'd be gone in a big group setting sharing a room with other married people. We pored over the options and finally made reservations at a nice, but inexpensive hotel on the seawall in Galveston.

It was with great glee that we looked forward to this event. Woo hoo!

Enter a frantic phone call Sunday morning during our Bible study, from our tenants who are living in our house in Maryland. They have no water. Zero. And we have a well. The initial estimate was several thousand dollars to fix, which didn't do wonders for my blood pressure, so we tried to cancel our reservations in Galveston. We could. Sort of. They were still going to charge us for the first night's stay anyway, kind of their own little guarantee with the bad economy that they'd at least get something out of the deal I suppose.

With the additional costs of putting the tenant family in a hotel, in which they would have needed two rooms, for however long it took to fix the issue and prorating the rent while they were not living in the house -- well, the tally was getting daunting. Especially since we couldn't even come up with $700 for Chicago. We prayed hard about it, and asked God to keep the cost for fixing the well problem under $500.

By Tuesday, we had found a very honest guy that did all the work necessary, and who would send us a bill for his work rather than us paying him up front the day of service. We had no way to do that being in Texas, anyway, so this was wonderful. Turns out the problem was not with the well pump itself (thank goodness) but with the pipe leading to the well, which had become so mineral laden it choked itself off. Our well is only about 100 feet deep, so all the better.

Z gets off the phone with our tenant, turns to me, and says to pack our bag and some food. Since we were losing the money for a night at the hotel anyway, we were going to spend the $20 in gas to get out there and back, and just pack all our own food. The hotel room had a mini fridge, but nothing else, so we took pasta salad and some fruit for dinner, and then cereal and milk for breakfast the next morning.

So we drove the 4 hours to Galveston, had a lovely time -- got there about 6:30 p.m.,our room had a balcony facing the Gulf, so we ate our dinner and breakfast out there. We also walked along the beach after dinner until it was too dark to really see what we were stepping on, and then went out the next morning to walk it for another couple of hours before stopping to score some lunch and drive back home. I wished we'd had at least another week. Even if the initial plan was only for two nights.

I love the Gulf coast. Absolutely adore it. During my formative years, my family was blessed enough to have a family friend donate two weeks of their timeshare on the beach just north of St. Petersburg. Every summer. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of those beach vacations, and my favorite beaches are still the Gulf coast beaches. The Atlantic and Pacific are just....different, they have a different feel and flavor. Yes. That's the words I was looking for.

Galveston was hit by Hurricane Ike in Sept 2008 -- just a few months ago, but you almost can't tell. Oh, there are still a few buildings in disrepair, and some houses that are still beyond smashed and ruined, but by and large the community is back up and running. Such a huge disparity between Galveston nine months after Ike, and New Orleans nine months after Katrina. The locals didn't bother to wait for federal aid, they just rolled up their sleeves and got to work. And it looks great, especially considering that in the middle of town during the siege the water was 4 feet 5 inches high -- miles away from the coast guarded by a 17-ft high seawall. It was of course much deeper the closer to the beach you got. There are still areas marked out where you can't swim due to underwater debris that hasn't been cleared yet, but the beaches are open and pretty much cleared except for the construction rebuilding out over the water. We walked over 5 miles and only had to scale up and down the seawall to skirt construction twice.

Foolish mortal that I am, in our haste to pack and leave within an hour I left the sunblock. And have paid dearly. My husband has enough Native American in him that he simply tanned. Me, on the other hand, well let's just say the Irish is abundant in my bloodlines. I fear I am sporting yet another "Red Banded Idiot Burn", which fortunately has faded to an itchy peeling tan by now.

And here's the cool part: our whole trip was pretty much just free stuff, aside from gas and a very very cheap lunch -- like, literally $4 each -- but it wasn't fast food, we ate at a very nice little family owned restaurant with a view of the water. Shockingly good prices, we'd go back with the kids and get out of there for under $20, and it's all freshly made stuff. And we had a great time. Z and I just like being together, and it was so nice to be able to relax and look at each other without worrying that K was out tormenting the sharks by the pier.

Our bill for the pipe replacement, etc, in Maryland came in the mail on Saturday; it totals $423 and change. Isn't God great?