Overnight on the big ship ...
This is where Mr. Jones and I spent the night last night! Isn't it SO cool? Before you get too envious of us, I'll give you my critique of The Flagship Hotel ... but let me tell you first that we got a room here for $69 via Travelocity.com! I booked this room about 6-8 weeks ago. I pre-read the on-line reviews and totally agree with them. Every single person said they would return but wanted folk to know that this hotel was OLD and in need of renovation! Yes ~ it is in need of painting and wall repair ... and washing the windows would be nice ... and the bathrooms could use some updating.
But having said those negative things, let me tell you ~ it's LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! There is no way to duplicate the experience of Room 536 with a balcony, the view, the awesome sound of the surf all night long (we left the slider open just a bit) ...
This was the view from our balcony late yesterday afternoon just after we checked in ... I love it here!
I left the hotel at 4:15 to take a nice long walk on the beach. I left Mr. Jones in the room so that he could catch up on some sleep ... I know this doesn't sound very romantic, but hey ~ he was exhausted from our three weeks of travel, and Galveston Island is not a destination he would choose ~ he's really not a beach person at all. I was just thankful to have 18 glorious hours to walk and take pictures and enjoy!
These pelicans were stealing fish almost right off the lines of the fishermen lined up along the pier! They would just swoop on down and take whatever they wished! I didn't realize pelicans were this large of a bird!
This picture shows the entire 1000 ft. pier that The Flagship Hotel sits on. It was very interesting to sleep on top of the water last night ~ it reminded me of my youth when we would spend nights on my father's boat ... plus, my mind kept flashing back to last fall when we were driving on the island during Tropical Storm Humberto that turned into a hurricane later on that night ~ the wind was SO furious and the surf SO high that night! And last night, the wind just howled outside our balcony ... it was kind of frightening at times!
There must be a billion seagull that live right here on Galveston Island! They are EVERYWHERE! People feed them constantly ~ in fact, folk were throwing food to them right off their balconies at the hotel ~ which would account for those terribly dingy windows below!
I walked the beach for two hours, taking pictures like crazy, and then my feet wouldn't go any further! We had done so much walking while in Houston with Nick and Rachel ~ I would say at least 3 miles per day ~ my feet actually ached! And what did Mr. Jones want to do for dinner? WALK down Seawall drive to find some seafood! So we walked about 8 blocks over to Joe's Crab Shack and had a yummy shrimp dinner! :) Since we had absolutely NO internet access at our location-rich hotel, we retired early to bed! I set the alarm for 6:15 a.m. so that I could take advantage of the sun rise ...
This morning, it was 80 degrees outside at 6:30 a.m. when I left the hotel with my camera. I wasn't sure if the sky was going to be favorable for sunrise pictures or not ... at first, I was a little disappointed because of the haziness ... but after viewing my pictures on the computer, I am really pleased with them!
It was a long walk down the beach this morning to get to a spot where a good picture could be composed ... I really didn't want buildings or hotels in the photos ... I wanted rocks and shoreline and driftwood, etc. What I totally forgot to calculate was the tide! I remembered where we had been a few days prior when we came to the island with Nick and Rachel. I liked the rocky place we had eaten our picnic around and wanted to go back there ... but the tide was high and so it was difficult to find enough dry beach to walk on! Plus, I had completely forgotten the fact that Rachel had mentioned that rats kind of "hang out" among these rocks ... I had situated myself on a nice rock and had taken a few pictures when I saw something "scurry" past me ... I knew it wasn't a seagull ... and soon I saw the critter ... a rat! Then and there, I decided to move myself OFF the rocks to some place a bit tamer ...
Although this was not a stunning sunrise, it was very beautiful. God paints it differently each day, doesn't He? I took over 200 pictures this morning ~ it was difficult to choose which ones to post tonight. Plus, I am without my photo editing program that I love so much on this laptop ~ so these pictures are totally unedited.
I was almost completely alone on the beach this morning ... it was so refreshingly invigorating to walk in the wind and the waves ...
"Praise the LORD, I tell myself; O LORD my God how great you are! You are robed with honor and with majesty; you are dressed in a robe of light." PSALM 104:1-2
After a wonderful two-hour walk this morning, I went back to the Flagship for breakfast with Mr. Jones. As soon as I walked into our room, he announced there was no hot water for me to shower with! I was going to add this to my list of negatives about staying in this lovely location until I went to take my shower and had HOT water! Mr. Jones must've taken his at the same time as too many other people and just had the bad fortune to run out! We left the island at about 10:00 this morning and headed on home ...
This is where Mr. Jones and I spent the night last night! Isn't it SO cool? Before you get too envious of us, I'll give you my critique of The Flagship Hotel ... but let me tell you first that we got a room here for $69 via Travelocity.com! I booked this room about 6-8 weeks ago. I pre-read the on-line reviews and totally agree with them. Every single person said they would return but wanted folk to know that this hotel was OLD and in need of renovation! Yes ~ it is in need of painting and wall repair ... and washing the windows would be nice ... and the bathrooms could use some updating.
But having said those negative things, let me tell you ~ it's LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! There is no way to duplicate the experience of Room 536 with a balcony, the view, the awesome sound of the surf all night long (we left the slider open just a bit) ...
This was the view from our balcony late yesterday afternoon just after we checked in ... I love it here!
I left the hotel at 4:15 to take a nice long walk on the beach. I left Mr. Jones in the room so that he could catch up on some sleep ... I know this doesn't sound very romantic, but hey ~ he was exhausted from our three weeks of travel, and Galveston Island is not a destination he would choose ~ he's really not a beach person at all. I was just thankful to have 18 glorious hours to walk and take pictures and enjoy!
These pelicans were stealing fish almost right off the lines of the fishermen lined up along the pier! They would just swoop on down and take whatever they wished! I didn't realize pelicans were this large of a bird!
This picture shows the entire 1000 ft. pier that The Flagship Hotel sits on. It was very interesting to sleep on top of the water last night ~ it reminded me of my youth when we would spend nights on my father's boat ... plus, my mind kept flashing back to last fall when we were driving on the island during Tropical Storm Humberto that turned into a hurricane later on that night ~ the wind was SO furious and the surf SO high that night! And last night, the wind just howled outside our balcony ... it was kind of frightening at times!
There must be a billion seagull that live right here on Galveston Island! They are EVERYWHERE! People feed them constantly ~ in fact, folk were throwing food to them right off their balconies at the hotel ~ which would account for those terribly dingy windows below!
I walked the beach for two hours, taking pictures like crazy, and then my feet wouldn't go any further! We had done so much walking while in Houston with Nick and Rachel ~ I would say at least 3 miles per day ~ my feet actually ached! And what did Mr. Jones want to do for dinner? WALK down Seawall drive to find some seafood! So we walked about 8 blocks over to Joe's Crab Shack and had a yummy shrimp dinner! :) Since we had absolutely NO internet access at our location-rich hotel, we retired early to bed! I set the alarm for 6:15 a.m. so that I could take advantage of the sun rise ...
This morning, it was 80 degrees outside at 6:30 a.m. when I left the hotel with my camera. I wasn't sure if the sky was going to be favorable for sunrise pictures or not ... at first, I was a little disappointed because of the haziness ... but after viewing my pictures on the computer, I am really pleased with them!
It was a long walk down the beach this morning to get to a spot where a good picture could be composed ... I really didn't want buildings or hotels in the photos ... I wanted rocks and shoreline and driftwood, etc. What I totally forgot to calculate was the tide! I remembered where we had been a few days prior when we came to the island with Nick and Rachel. I liked the rocky place we had eaten our picnic around and wanted to go back there ... but the tide was high and so it was difficult to find enough dry beach to walk on! Plus, I had completely forgotten the fact that Rachel had mentioned that rats kind of "hang out" among these rocks ... I had situated myself on a nice rock and had taken a few pictures when I saw something "scurry" past me ... I knew it wasn't a seagull ... and soon I saw the critter ... a rat! Then and there, I decided to move myself OFF the rocks to some place a bit tamer ...
Although this was not a stunning sunrise, it was very beautiful. God paints it differently each day, doesn't He? I took over 200 pictures this morning ~ it was difficult to choose which ones to post tonight. Plus, I am without my photo editing program that I love so much on this laptop ~ so these pictures are totally unedited.
I was almost completely alone on the beach this morning ... it was so refreshingly invigorating to walk in the wind and the waves ...
"Praise the LORD, I tell myself; O LORD my God how great you are! You are robed with honor and with majesty; you are dressed in a robe of light." PSALM 104:1-2
After a wonderful two-hour walk this morning, I went back to the Flagship for breakfast with Mr. Jones. As soon as I walked into our room, he announced there was no hot water for me to shower with! I was going to add this to my list of negatives about staying in this lovely location until I went to take my shower and had HOT water! Mr. Jones must've taken his at the same time as too many other people and just had the bad fortune to run out! We left the island at about 10:00 this morning and headed on home ... 
3 comments:
Wow! Your photos are amazing! I love them all and can't wait to see more of them. I'm so glad that you had a good night at the hotel and a great time at the beach.
I finally got a chance to get on and catch up on your trip back home. I'm so glad you got some good sunrise pictures in Galveston Monday morning. Houston was totally fogged in, and I was sure my big brother would have some choice comments about the extra night at the beach if you weren't able to acocomplish what you really wanted!
Mr. Jones tolerated our extra night with as much grace as he could muster ... the sunrise was not brilliant, but soft and enchanting almost ... I loved every minute! :)
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