Did You Know About Sand Mining?

Did you know about sand mining?

On the news the other night, we learned how Galveston Island is using sand mining to rebuild the beaches eroded by Hurricane Ike. They are building up the sand along a two mile stretch of beaches. At the east end of the island they are dredging up sand using a pipe line about a mile long. The sand is pumped onto the beach area. They are also cleaning the sand. It is put into a screen-filter to have debris removed before it is placed along the beach. The news cast also showed how this same method was used to raise the beach front in 1900 to originally build the sea wall that helped allay any more damage Ike could have caused the island this past fall. The beaches are scheduled to be ready by the end of March, usually the time the sea turtles come in to lay their eggs.

Did You Know About Schlitterbahn Galveston?

Did you know about Schlitterbahn Galveston?

We took the kids for a last little summer fling down to Galveston Island today to check out the new Schlitterbahn. Ok, it's a year old, but we have not tried it out before today. The weather was nice and it was the only day before we hit the school books that we could work it in.

We got there about 10:40 am, the park opens at ten. The crowds at the ticket booth were large and slow moving. Luckily, we had purchased tickets on the way at a local grocery store, so we could walk right up to the gate. One thing that I do like about the Schlitterbahn parks is that they still allow you to bring your coolers and picnics into the park. This is great and saves money on eating, and you know you get hungry out in the sun and water all day.

The park itself was nice enough. It was not as large as the one in New Braunfels, but had plenty to keep us having fun all day. We rode several slides, preferring the ones that require tubes. The lazy river and river rapids were also great fun. The crowds got larger as the day wore on, but all in all, we were still able to enjoy the attractions and the lines moved fairly quickly.

Did You Know Galveston Could Look so Nice?

Did you know Galveston could look so nice?

We left on our cruise last week from the port of Galveston. If you are from around here, or have ever visited, you know that the Port of Galveston may not be the nicest around. You can see why we were so taken with the blue of the ocean as we got away from Galveston. But this snapshot on our way out of the port turned out rather nice. My mom was surprised at how nice Galveston looked from this perspective.