Texas Drought Must Be Over!

We are preparing to wrap up February and head into March. Hopefully bringing a bit more sunshine here in Galveston. February is traditionally the driest month of the year in Galveston. I beg to differ. : )

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Mardi Gras was a big event here in Galveston the last two weeks. It rained almost everyday and many of the expected 200,000 stayed home for the festivities. Sheila and I made the best of it and enjoyed the INDOOR barn bash that kicked off the event and later in the week spent an evening at one of the balcony parties we purchased tickets to. We probably had the most fun at the barn bash since it was indoors and we got to preview most of the floats.

We did enjoy the private balcony party too, a great view of the parades and tossed beads to the people below. We finished up with the Josh Abbot country band in concert.

Love this shot below of the action from the balcony : ) Really shows how much fun we were having!

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Over time here in the RV Park we've made some friends and learned of a few really great spots to go shell hunting! Galveston Island as it turns out, is one of the top ten best places to find sea shells in the U.S! We took the scoot on a ferry to another island in Galveston for the best hunting.

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Just this week we decided to get out of town for a couple of days and went into Louisiana – Lake Charles to be specific. We found a great Casino Resort Hotel there and stayed a few days. They have a wonderful pool area with a lazy river and swim up bar. An interesting note: I guess the state of Louisiana allows 10 "riverboat" casino's. This dates way back when they were legalizing gambling, and allowed "floating" casino's to be legal gambling spots. There are a few places that still have traditional boats "permanently docked" as casino's, but modernization has created "floating barges" with hotels and such built around them. From the inside and front of these casino's you would never know, you were actually floating in the water while gambling.

Our second night – after an excellent four course dinner – we decided to learn Craps : ) I've played most Casino games but always avoided the Craps table because it looks confusing and very intimidating. We did a quick read of the how-to guide and headed to the tables. The dealers were helpful and after plunking down an initial $200 investment, we cashed out with $800...enough to pay for our entire stay at the hotel! We really enjoyed finding a game we could partner up in, and after getting comfortable with the table had a blast...of course it helps to win : )

A really cool looking casino as you approach, and the view from our room window of the pool area. The last image shows the back of the hotel with the massive floating barge casino section.

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On a rainy day...we took the opportunity to visit the Moody Gardens Aquarium here in Galveston. They had a couple of huge tanks that were several floors tall. Some of these shots are poor...difficult shooting into aquarium tanks. One of the more interesting exhibits was the dragon fish. Kinda looks like a really weird seahorse.

  Walk through Shark Tank as poster art : )


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Another super-important date was on the Calendar this month : ) Happy Valentines Day my love!

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We will be heading to Indiana in March to have some trailer repairs done. A little worried we will still run into snow and "weather" on the road up there – even in mid-March, but we don't have a choice. We hope to catch a couple Reds games during opening weekend while we're there for two weeks.

 As always, thanks again for reading and I'll leave you with a sign we came upon when we got to Louisiana. (actually the first rest stop and visitors center) I think it's very welcoming, don't you? : )