Today was our first driving day with Mom and Dad.  The car is pretty full with all of our stuff, but we still manage to get ourselves inside, too.  The drive, itself, wasn’t all that interesting. The only thing of note – something I was not expecting – was a border patrol checkpoint about 85 miles north of the Mexican border.  It’s a permanent station with about 30 cameras recording your arrival and sniffer dogs checking your car as you stop to chat with the border agent. He simply asked if we were all US citizens and then waved us on our way when Rob answered, “yes.”  

Our destination for today was the Galveston Bay waterside town of Kemah, TX, just outside of Houston.  We are staying in a waterfront house with great views of the water. There’s a long dock out front and a large deck wrapping around the entire house.  Part of the deck has a tiki bar and an old oak tree grows through another part of the deck. There is small, blue and white lighthouse right next door.

After exploring our lodgings, we set out to explore the Kemah Boardwalk.  It has a few classic carnival rides, including a wooden roller coaster. There are lots restaurants and bars right along the water.  We found some fish feeding stations (repurposed gumball machines with something that looked like cat food) and fed the catfish (and, inevitably, the seagulls).  On the way back to our house, we stumbled across some chairs in the shape of hands outside a bar. Said bar plays loud music we can hear until 2:00am from inside our house.  Ugh!