See, this is one of the nice things about living in southeast Texas--camping at the beach in November. Back in November 2001 we had our first family campout and picked Galveston since it was nearby. Fast forward six years and we're camping with the scouts. Friday was just one of those days you'd like to forget, so we didn't end up leaving Houston until 6pm and spent 2 hours in traffic. Part of the problem was that there was also a motorcycle rally in Galveston this weekend, so more traffic, and apparently out of towners who don't realize that all the cross streets that connect to the Seawall are dead ends. As in, you have to turn left or right at the signal otherwise you're going to go over a 20 or so foot drop off onto really big rocks. So I guess if you don't know the area and hit the light on green and aren't paying attention to the signs, you're in for a big, ouchy surprise, as a few bikers found out. Galveston State Park is literally right on the beach; a sand dune with vegetation is all that sits between the beach and the campsites and it's also very near the main road from one end of Galveston island to the other. Now, I generally don't sleep all that well during campouts because I'm such a light sleeper and I hear every little noise and snuffle, but add in a couple hundred Harleys roaring by on their way to breakfast at 2am, and you get one very long night. Jacob generally is a very sound sleeper, and it even affected him, which made me really paranoid about falling asleep, so needless to say, after 2 hours of sleep I felt (and looked) like crap warmed over. The other fun part of sleeping at the beach is the fog. Really thick pea soup type fog that makes 3 am trips to the bathroom oh so much fun. Going there isn't so bad, you just head towards the light. Coming back? Well flashlights are useless and you just kind of follow the road and hope to stumble into a familiar vehicle. Felt like I was in a horror movie, waiting for something to jump out at me. Needless to say, I didn't share this bit of information with Rick until morning, because he's just ornery enough to do something, well, ornery. Saturday the boys finally got to go over the sand dune to the beach, and the only problem with that is getting them to leave in order to move on with the planned activities. When Jacob and I left around noon, they were still trying to herd boys away from the beach and not having a lot of luck. By that time, Jacob had wandered around, played with the flashlights, eaten, played at the beach and gone for a ride, and figured he was done with this campout, so we headed home. Sounds like Rick and Brandon are having fun and will be home tomorrow.
