I woke up to fog in Galveston on Wednesday, a soft gray everywhere. After breakfast at the hotel, I drove to the western end of Galveston Island to a small nature preserve in the Lafitte’s Cove neighborhood, an upscale area with large, elevated houses built along artificial canals. The preserve was in the middle of the neighborhood and built around three ponds and a wooded area.
I walked around the boardwalk and paved paths, carefully heeding the snake warning signs while also looking for birds. The ponds held many egrets, ibis, and spoonbills as well as a few blue-winged teal ducks and some black-necked stilts. The wooded area was very quiet, but one of the other birdwatchers there pointed out a Louisiana waterthrush ahead on the path and I identified a brown thrasher there too, both new bird species for me.
After spending some time there, I drove back to the hotel, ready for some “down time” and feeling a little travel weariness. I spent much of the rest of the day in and around the hotel, catching up on emails and finishing the e-book Owls of the Eastern Ice, a really great memoir and account of research done on Blakiston’s fish owls in northeastern Russia, by Jonathan Slaght.
For dinner, I returned to the Gypsy Joynt, driving through drizzle, this time enjoying the restaurant’s rendition of a Vietnamese bahn mi sandwich.
Thursday, my day to travel home, was sunny and cooler in the morning (about 70). All the fog of the previous day was gone, the humidity lower, and a steady breeze blowing. Knowing that I would be returning home to cold temperatures and rain made me savor the last few hours of warmth and sunshine. I ate breakfast, packed up my things, downloaded a new e-book to read on the airplane, and then took a walk around the block near the hotel. Leaving Galveston in the late morning, I drove to the Houston international airport, spending the last few hours in Texas navigating through Houston freeways in the sunshine.
Lori's Travels 