In A Cottage By The Sea: A Fun Saturday

Or as I like to put it, Brian will do ANYTHING to keep from cleaning and staining our deck...
Just kidding, that's our project today, and we really did have a fabulous day yesterday!!

It is so neat to see the island SO FULL of people! The line to get into the sandcastle competition at East Beach was ridiculous! But let me start from the beginning...

East Beach looked like this for probably a mile or more - PACKED! AWESOME!
(At $10/car I bet they made a killing yesterday, too!)

First, I mowed the lawn - that meant I had accomplished something for the day, and the rest of it could be used for fun... right?!! Ha ha!

We had lunch at the Original Mexican Cafe with friends David and Shana - FYI, the chips and salsa yesterday where PHENOMENAL! Service still so-so in my book, but the food was pretty dern good (and I have some leftovers in the fridge - yay!) After lunch we stopped by home to get our dogs and Shana's pup Alex - he's an adorable little 9 pound hoot! He was very happy walking the beach, swimming a little (more than our girls who really don't like the waves... I wonder if they'd like a lake better...) and jumping all over our girls - Sundae was content to play a bit, but Gracie pretty much wanted nothing to do with him. Dogs' personalities can be so funny!

This is Alex

After the beach we went home and rested a few before meeting with friends Joe and Amy to go to East Beach for the Sandcastle Competition. Thanks to Joe, we explored a "second entrance" which was really the KEY for getting in at all - the line for the main entrance was INSANE and we wouldn't have waited that long. Fortunately, the "secret" entrance wasn't nearly as backed up and we got there in a reasonable amount of time (most of our wait was actually trying to travel the island on Seawall - it was very slow moving!) I'm just so glad to see the island packed like this - every vendor, shop, restaurant and hotel deserves this after last summer. One idea we had - events like this, it would be so nice to have a line for locals, so we can actually enjoy the events that take place in our own city. They could identify us by "Galveston Island" stickers for our vehicles, which would also be nice for things like re-entry after a hurricane. Color-code them for island zones... this is probably a whole 'nother topic for a whole 'nother day :) Anyway, I got some neat pics...

Who Remembers the Kool-Aid Man?

Texas, Our Texas!

Geico Crab

Some Chose to Incorporate This Year's "Going Green" Theme
(Going Green meant they could not use generators for pumps...)

I Forgot What This One Was Called, but They Used Really Cool Techniques!

Nature Bites Back

I loved this one... Ike The Plumber Finds The Leak!

"Swine Flu"

Octo-Mom

A bit more Traditional

Good Night, Knight (or something like that)

It was a little too "politically charged" for my taste this year. There were SEVERAL "octo-mom" related creations, and swine flu, the recession, Geico money (you know, from that commercial "I always feel like, somebody's watchin' meeeee...) all made up multiple entries. I would have liked to have seen more "sand-castle-esque" entries... maybe next year, once they realize that they overlap so many times when they try to just draw inspiration from current events.

Joe and Amy

Me and Hubbs :)

AFTER THAT, we went to dinner at Yaga's on the Strand, enjoyed some pizza, and then all met back up again for Movie Night on the Strand, sponsored by the Historic Downtown Partnership. They showed Raiders of the Lost Ark (Indiana Jones) on a big inflatable screen just after sunset. What a fun event! They will do these almost monthly and I think we'll make a point of going! Everyone brings blankets or camp chairs, coolers, snacks (or dinner!), friends, pets and just enjoys a movie under the stars.