Galveston Island ferry ride

While we lived in Texas, we took lots of day trips instead of big vacations. Mondays were Jeff's day off, so we'd usually spend the day in Houston at the zoo or museum or we'd go to Galveston Island. We always enjoyed the trip: it was time away with just us. We loved Galveston, and the boys really had a thrill at Moody Gardens every time we went. We enjoyed the trolley rides through town, also.

Taking another trolley ride!


Trivia alert: this was also the home of the infamous Pirate Jean LaFitte!

We almost always took the car ferry from Port Bolivar over to the Island. It was a long enough ride that people got out of their cars (you couldn't leave the engines running) and mostly it would just be too hot to do that, anyway.

At one crossing, we counted 40 dolphins cresting all around and following the ferry! That was incredible! I'd never seen anything like that before, and it was so great to see wild, free creatures enjoying life. Unforgettable!

Our joke is that it never fails that we do something wrong on our trips, and this time was no exception.

We always brought some bread with us to feed the seagulls while we were riding the ferry. The gulls were so used to handouts, that all you'd have to do is hold a piece of bread in your fingers up in the air, and they would swoop down and snatch it from your hand. I've had some nicked fingers, myself, but the experience is so fun, you just have to do it anyway.

We went to the top deck at the front of the boat overlooking all the cars and catching a great breeze and decided to pull out our bread and feed the gulls. What the ferry operators want you to do is feed the birds at the back of the boat. We weren't paying attention, and just started having fun holding our bread out at the front of the boat, oblivious to the fact that the sea gulls were flying, circling, gliding and hovering over top of all the cars at the front of the ferry. Ooooops! It had to be a bird's dream-come-true: free bread and a whole boatload of cars to mark!

Soon, we heard the crackle of the speaker: "Attention! Please, feed the birds at the back of the boat!" We were so embarrassed! We realized immediately that there was going to be a lot of people having to use plenty of windshield washer fluid before driving off the ferry. We couldn't stuff our bread away quickly enough and laugh our way to the back of the boat!