Living the Dream with Joyce: February 2015

Wednesday, February 11th, 2015

Wednesday - Julia`s last day here . . . We had breakfast in the clubhouse, and I got to show Julia off to a number of my Texas friends, which was awesome! We spent a few hours getting packed, writing postcards, and relaxing, then drove to the Houston Space Centre, where we took the tram around the centre, getting off at various buildings and listening to a tour guide regale us with history. Fascinating place - could have stayed longer - we did spend some time in the museum part of the centre, too - all in all, a good trip! Afterwards, though, we drove to Hobby airport, where Julia disappeared through Customs and flew off to her cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. I was sad to see her go - what a great visit!!

The museum part

Eating lunch while waiting for the tram

The tram

Mission Control - all the equipment in this room - and the room itself - are genuine, original, as it was when it was in operation!

Working room!

Julia says she`s going to post this onlline and get people to add funny things to the green board!

Kids`section!

Moon rock

Inside a space shuttle!

My newest tshirt. . .

Tuesday, February 10th, 2015

Tuesday - Today we did a bunch of stuff! I wanted to show Julia my beautiful island and the places I like and she might be interested in - so we drove around the park quickly - and of course got stopped by a few people for intros! Then we drove around the beach, to look at the ocean; then around the tree sculpture route - my favourite is the teacher sitting on a chair, reading to children, as the contents of her book gather around her head! Julia got to play in the playground next to that sculpture . . .
We had lunch with Luanne at the Sunflower Cafe, which I really like, then went up to the Pleasure Pier, only to discover that it`s closed - only open on the weekends! That was a disappointment, but Julia went down to the beach and walked and danced a bit, then came up to Murdock`s and bought some postcards. We had dinner at the Saltgrass Grill with Susan and Vern (Joan`s brother). Joan was ill, so Julia didn`t get to meet her (sigh). Afterwards, we just drove back to the park and had a good soak in the hot tub.

My fave!

Public playground right next to the sculptures

My daughter, the climbing kid

Wheeee!!

Memorial to the trees lost in Ike

New to me and really cool!

Monday, February 9, 2015

Monday - Julia arrived today!! I drove the rental car in early, so that I could stop at Dues and buy yet another handle for my grey tank (going to try putting a clamp around it and see if that keeps it on this time) and talk to them about going over my rv sometime in the near future. I miscalculated the time and ended up at Bush airport about 3:00 for Julia's 5:14 arrival! Her plane was late, and finally touched down at 5:37 - how awesome it was to see her! She looks amazing - I love her hair! However, her baggage didn`t show up, and we spent a good two and a half hours waiting at the baggage carousel and going from desk to desk, terminal to terminal, as different people said different things and sent us different places. Air Canada was conspicuous by their absence - no one in the baggage claims office, and the people behind the ticket desk left at 7:00, even though there were AC flights past midnight! I got into the baggage office at one point (the door was unlocked) and phoned a number I found in one of the drawers - but the woman who answered the phone sent me on a wild goose chase . . . Julia looked up at the monitor around 8:30 and noticed that there was a second Flight 8115 (she had been on 8119, but a woman behind the Southwest desk had told us that it looked like Julia`s bag had gone on 8115 - and that flight had arrived before Julia) and this flight arrived at 10:45. At that point, we went to the Marriot Hotel and had dinner! Sure enough, her bag arrived on the late plane - thank God - and we drove back to Galveston and fell into bed!

The infamous carousel

Waiting . . .

. . . and waiting . . .

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Mardi Gras!! For the past few days, I've been a bit under the weather - little respiratory thing happening - so I stayed inside Thursday and Friday - missed the umbrella parade Friday and staying at Luanne's, then going to the white Catholic church across from her house Sunday morning - darn! I did go to the park's Mardi Gras celebration - Ron and Dora parked their rv on the seawall on Friday, then we all brought our lawn chairs and sat along the road in front of it and watched the parade in the afternoon (I didn't stay for the evening one, since I didn't actually feel all that well). Nate grilled beef and chicken and Dora (with the help of some food from us) laid out a huge spread of food on tables behind the big grill. As usual, lots of fun was had by all!