We're back

We're back from our little excursion to the coast. Fun was had by all, but we are exhausted! Apparently Casa del Mar, which was a nice, quiet family establishment last summer has become a happening party place. Or maybe we just got bad neighbors. Either way, we still have fun, but since my kids get up between 6 and 7 every morning regardless of when they went to bed, listening to the neighbors yelling to the people in the balcony above us and running around laughing until midnight every night was kind of rough on us all.

Other than that, it was great. Sunshine has become quite the fisherman and spent several hours one morning and then again that evening fishing off the piers with Mark. They may go on a deep sea fishing trip next summer if we can get Sunshine over his fear of boats. Superman wouldn't mind the boat but lasted all of 10 minutes on the pier so he'll be staying ashore with me either way.

After our summer of the endless monsoon we were surprised by unbelievably nice weather. The only rain we saw the entire trip was on our way through Houston on the way there. After that, nothing but sunny blue skies.

Schlitterbahn was a hit again. They've opened a new section and the white water rapids were cool. The crazy people who were "reserving" tubes were not cool. At any given time, there were 100-plus tubes sitting unused up by the picnic tables with a cranky person guarding them. Ugh. But, we managed to snag a few anyway for the river rides. I went on a couple of slides, but those enclosed slides freak me out so I mostly watched Mark and the kids on those.

Our other outings included daily time on the beach playing in the waves and building sandcastles, pool time, the Rainforest Cafe and Joe's Crab Shack. We also ate at Shrimp and Stuff, a nondescript little place in the middle of town that is Mark's and my favorite seafood restaurant in Galveston. If you go down to Galveston, I'd highly recommend you try it. It's a pretty casual place where you order at the cash register and pick up food at the window fast-food style, but the shrimp and fish are amazingly fresh and cooked just right.

Now to attack the mound of laundry and the messes the kids made while I wrote this!