My 8 weeks away weren’t without some fun. The highlight of my summer was probably my family’s trip to Texas in early July. The best part was when we took my nephews to Galveston Island and let them play on the beach. Being Kansas kids, they’d never seen the ocean before. Though to me the Gulf is just a loogie of an ocean, it was ocean enough for them.
We also visited Old City Cemetery. It is the resting place of early settlers of Texas (residents before Texas was even a state) and the only buried victims of the 1900 Hurricane. Because of the sheer number of fatalities, most were sent out to sea instead of buried. The 1900 hurricane was a category 4 that killed nearly 12,000 people and is still today the 2nd costliest Atlantic hurricane in the US (equivalent of $560 million today). Due to this hurricane, a 17-ft high Seawall was built to help protect Galveston Island from this kind of devastation again.
Galveston Island was hit by Hurricane Ike in September 2008, a category 2 hurricane. Some areas were literally wiped out by the storm surge and roughly 48 people died (but much more were protected by the seawall). I was so surprised to see how quickly they’ve been able to put things back together again. But I guess they’re used to it by now.
If you don’t know anything about Galveston Island and its history, let me encourage you to look it up. Really interesting and probably one of my favorite visited cities in the US.
Okay, so yes, I’m a bit of a history buff.
What did you do this summer?
great post.
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I’ll agree with you on that.
Our trip to Galveston before the hurricane in 2008 was not all that great.
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Crystal Renaud Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Ha, well it might have helped if you chose to swim in the public beach area. It is a lot nicer than most of the seawall side of the beach. But the water looks really rough in your pictures. i know you said it was before, but was this close to the time of the hurricane?
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My summer break doesn’t come until Sept. 22 for 2 weeks (your fall, I guess). But, I am excited because I will be traveling back to the states and spending time with family and friends :) This is what I am looking forward to most!!!
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i worked. =( no vacation yet.
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FYI, the "loogie" of an ocean is actually a gulf, surrounded on three sides by land. Not an ocean. Also, the 1900 storm only killed 6,000 people, not 12,000. My family on my mother;s side all survived, losing everything they owned but their lives.
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Crystal Renaud Reply:
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Thanks! I am well aware that it is the Gulf… but to my nephews it was an "ocean" and the closest thing they'd ever seen to one. And about my stats, I got those from a couple of different sources. National Weather Service and wiki… and another source that I can't remember right now. Not that I am saying you're wrong or I'm right. Amazing that you're family survived though!
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