A picture comparison of Galveston ...

Since we rain-soked folk up north here in Grand Rapids have been under the remains of Hurricane Ike for the past 8 hours or so, I thought it would be appropriate to show you what it did to Galveston and kind of compare pictures from our spring trip there. Nick called me a few hours ago and told me to log onto a site on the web, chron.com, and see the photos there of what Ike did to Galveston.

This first picture is what is left of a place called Murdock's, a really typical tourist-trap kind of beach souvenir shop, one of dozens that line the beach on Seaway Drive on Galveston Island. I have pictures somewhere of the inside of this place absolutely stocked to the brim with every kind of seashell, sand-dollar, shot glass, beach towel, wooden sea gull, cheap jewelry, bathing suit, T-shirt, cover-up, flip-flop, ad infinitum known to man ... but I can't find that set of pictures!

All of that stuff inside these beach shops are strewn all over Seaway Drive ... here is a gentleman taking a sign that says "There are no bad days at the beach." Speaking of stealing, I lifted those pictures above (and the very last shot on this post) from the internet.
The picture above is how Murdoch's looked last April when I was strolling along in the late afternoon, seeing what I could see. Walking east from the Flagship, down the beach, this is the first set of shops a person comes to.
I took this shot on the back deck of Murdoch's, looking at our Flagship Hotel!

And this was taken UNDER Murdoch's ... there was about a mile's worth of these little shops on stilts ...
I love the look of them, the pilings and decks ... there is something just perfect about them to me.
I walked for an hour underneath and around these piers and shops ...
This was what the beach looked like between Murdoch's and the Flagship last spring ... and below is what it looks like today ... ouch ... such a sad sight for me! I can see the Flagship, but it looks to be listing a bit, doesn't it? And all of the shops and piers and walkways ... gone!

Thankfully the storm surge was not as high as predicted, and the seawall protected the island pretty well. However, the island is completely trashed from what I can see on the news. Last word from Aunt Peg in Houston (via Sabrina) was that her power was out but she was okay. That's good to know. Pictures from downtown Houston are pretty unbelievable as well. Hurricane Ike certainly wasn't a wimpy hurricane like Humberto was last year when we were there! If you don't recall my story about Humberto, you'll have to look back to September 2007 and read about us driving across the causeway to Galveston Island in the middle of a tropical storm (we neglected to listen to the news that day ... it was just a tropical depression that morning!) only to arrive late afternoon to find the island practically deserted, sandbags around buildings, etc! My pictures of the incredible surf pounding the seawall were kind of disappointing ... but I really am thankful NOT to have to go through a storm like Ike!