Island living in Galveston, Texas

I’ve already written about the wonderful, historic Galvez Resort and Spa. My younger son and I stayed here during a driving holiday two summers ago.

Our visit to Texas’ Galveston island was an idyllic holiday for us. We had been driving long distances (and had a long drive back), so we were thrilled to park our rental car, exchanging it for bikes and biking everywhere we needed to go around the island.

This was a little tougher than we bargained on – because Galveston is hot and muggy in summer. But we were able to come back to dive into the gentle waves to cool down.

It was a pleasant way to pass our five days here.

My son would often sleep a bit later (something that didn’t work very well on our busy cross-country trip). I would use this (quiet) time to enjoy a coffee and do a bit of writing in the wonderful, old lobby of the Galvez.

Then we would get our bicycles and head off to explore the island.

There was lots to see – areas of wetlands, bustling port areas, the seawall that was built following the devastation of the Hurricane of 1900 that destroyed much of the island.

The historic downtown is also an interesting place to explore, with some pretty erchitecture and plenty of shops. We used to go to a restaurant right next to the fish market to have our freshly-caught fish each day … also a great excuse to take a break from biking in those sweltering temperatures.

There are also some beautiful nineteenth century mansions you can visit. I’ll write about our visit to the Bishop’s Palace in my blog post next week.

The pretty architecture was on display all over the island – and made the island bike rides even more fun.

I grew up knowing Juneteenth as a Texas holiday, but in recent years it has become a US national holiday. Word of the Emancipation Proclamation did not reach some outposts of the country until later.

You can see from this historic marker that the island of Galveston was one of the last to hear the news. It was in Galveston, with the arrival of the Union soldiers that the residents were informed by an order by General Granger on June 19, 1865 – announcing that all slaves were free.

So we enjoyed the history, architecture, pretty island views and organized areas for biking – nut most of all, we enjoyed returning from our adventurs to dive into those warm waves. And finished then evening with swmming in our hotel pool. A lovely holiday of lazy island living.