Summer Beach Trips Part 2: Surfside & Galveston, TX

During our adventures in California, the Young clan had already started their annual vacation at the beach house in Surfside, TX (about 45 minutes down the Gulf Coast from Galveston Island).  When we flew into Texas, Christie's sister picked us up from the airport and promptly took us to the beach house.  Most of the family was at the house and it was a lot of fun to be staying right on the beach.  One of the first things I noticed about the beach was how incredibly small the waves were compared to the waves I grew up with in California; the funny part of my observations was that those "small" waves I saw on our first day were HUGE compared to the waves for the rest of the week.  Ha!  I couldn't believe how warm the water was too, definitely a big change from the chilly waters at Laguna Beach.

Me and my buddy Sammy.

The Texas vacation was a much different kind of vacation than the previous one in California.  At Laguna Beach, we were always running around going from the beach to the condo to downtown and back all of the time, but the pace changed dramatically when we got to Surfside.  This beach vacation was very slow paced and relaxed without much structure at all, which was also nice.  It was fun to spend some time with my new family and get to know their way of having fun.

One of the highlights of the week was when Sam (Christie's dad) sent 6 of us out on a chartered fishing boat to do some Gulf fishing.  This wasn't deep sea fishing, as we weren't far enough off the coast, but it was good enough.  When the skipper said that we were going to catch some sharks, I thought that might mean 1 or 2...boy, I was wrong!  The crew made everything easy for us and we didn't have to do much other than reel in the fish, but that was hard enough work most of the time.  I pulled in the first one and it was about a 4 foot shark!  It was a fighter and got me breathing pretty heavy but it was lots of fun.  Everybody had a chance to pull at least one in, but the girls would often pass the reel to me or Marshall and we would take care of business.  I pulled in about 5 or 6 sharks that day and was pretty sore when it was all over.  We let most of the sharks go, but kept a few to cut up and cook later on (I love to cook fish).  Marshall turned out to be the hero of the day when he pulled in a Tarpon fish that was over 6 feet long and well over 100 pounds!  It took him about 45 minutes to finally land the fish on the boat, after which he and Elise got a picture with it on their laps...Elise was a little grossed out but she was a trooper and got the shot.  The crew of the ship said they pull in about 500-600 sharks a year on their trips, but only get about 10 Tarpon a year, and that was the first one of the season.  We had no idea what a Tarpon was until then, but we know it now!

Out on the fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Me and Christie with her catch of the day (the shark...not the blond kid...).

Marshall and Elise with the massive and beautiful Tarpon.

Sam took Christie and I out on their sailboat for a couple hours one afternoon and I had a great time.  It probably didn't seem like I had fun because my stomach was a little queasy (the waters were pretty rough that day), but it was fun to do something that I had never tried before.  Hopefully we'll have some good sailing trips in the future and I'll be able to learn a bit about sailing, since I was mostly focused on keeping my lunch down that day.  Thanks to Sam for taking us out on his boat!

On one of the days, we went to Galveston to walk around downtown and then go mini-golfing and take a ride on the reverse bungee.  A few of us went down early to go see the flight museum and then we met up with everybody else downtown.  There was a candy/ice cream shop that is a tradition for the Youngs, so we we had some goodies there.  Mini golf was fun, but the best part of the day was taking a ride on that reverse bungee ride.  I was a bit skeptical at how fun it would really be, but wow!  It was probably the funnest ride I have ever been on!  Two people get strapped in the cage and then the bungees are tightened up.  When they finally release the cage, you go flying up about 150+ feet in a heartbeat!  It was so much fun and it really gives you that weightless feel better than any ride I've been on.  Elise lost her voice (and Marshall lost his hearing) after they took a ride.  The video is priceless.

At the ice cream shop with Bertie's kids...the guy taking the picture thought they were ours!

Right before takeoff!

So much fun!

While I was pretty vacationed-out by the end of that trip, it was fun but also good to get back home and back into the swing of things.