more animals

-ate breakfast in another town

-visited the birthplace of your state

-had your mom read to you a book from your childhood

-drove over a weak bridge

-walked on the beach

-rode a ferry

-saw hurricane devastation

-followed the path of your characters

Mom picked me up around 7:30, we went to pick up my bro and stepdad and headed for Schulenburg, about halfway between here and Houston, for breakfast. Baby Bro and I teased that we couldn't make it. We ate the buffet, then shopped in their little store. They had a collection of Golden Books and Mom and I each bought one that brought back memories. Mom read hers to us, and Baby Bro read mine. Silly, I know.

We reached San Felipe about an hour later, and the park looked WAY bigger on the internet. But we toured the museum, took pictures, talked to the docent, who didn't know as much about the time period I needed as I hoped. He also didn't seem to want to listen, but I did get some info. Still, we saw the Brazos River and the area where my characters would come through. Very helpful. We left about 1 PM, and my stepdad asked where to. Well, we headed for Galveston, where the woman I'm basing my heroine on is from. Took us about 2 1/2 hours because of construction. But when we got there, it was beautiful! We saw some of the damage from the storm, saw some beautiful old houses, walked on the beach a bit, then rode the ferry to Port Bolivar.

Well. For one, we waited a long time for the ferry. Mom got itchy, but once we were on it was great.

Until some old guy started throwing crackers at the seagulls when the sign CLEARLY said, "Don't Feed the Birds." Ugh. Hate birds.

Once we got off the ferry, man. First thing you see is STACKS of cars that had been damaged by Hurricane Ike. Then PILES of debris from houses.

Then the long line of people waiting to get BACK on the ferry. Oops! I called the dh to see if there was another way off. Turns out it's not an island but a peninsula. Whew. Good. 40 more minutes on the road was nothing compared to the 2 hours, easy, wait to get back on the ferry.

Then...I saw the fort where Jane Long, the inspiration for my heroine, lived one winter. Wow. Very cool. We didn't stop, because we couldn't go in because of storm damage, but seeing it, and the land around it, was very helpful.

And then....the devastation. Wow. Ike hit this place full-on. You could see where houses and stores had been, you could see cement culverts that had been tossed around, roads still covered with sand, a house turned on its roof....just incredible damage. Sad but also really impressive, the power of the storm.

We got off the peninsula and onto I-10 between Beaumont and Baytown just as it was getting dark. I made notes of the rivers we passed and reasoned some things out for my story, which I'm now itching to write.

We ate dinner in Katy at 8 PM, got into my driveway at 11 PM, all tired, but we had fun. I'll post pictures when I can find my cord!