Cloudy skies and some rain showers greeted us this morning. On the news last night they talked about Galveston hosting a Lone Star Biker Convention welcoming more than 250,000 bikers to the island! We were hoping that most of them would be gone by the time we arrived.
They still had a lot of bikers there and part of the seawall was still blocked off with booths and biker related events. We still managed to enjoy the seawall and found a place where the tide was coming in and the Pelicans and other sea birds were feeding.
We drove by Quilts by the Bay, but they are not open on Sundays. We found ourselves a hotel for the evening and went to Nate's for a shrimp and chip dinner. It was huge; we ended up taking home almost half the shrimp. Nate's is a local hang out that most tourists are not aware of. Last time we were there we enjoyed a steak dinner at the restaurant.
Temperatures got up to 80F today, more humid today. The next morning we woke up to thundershowers with claps of lightening.so we went back to sleep. First sleep-in we had for a while.
When we woke up the second time the rain had stopped and we headed over to Quilts by the Bay. They had one shopkeeper in the store, everyone else was unloading from the festival. Found an interesting blue and white fabric to take home with me. The shopkeeper recommended Shrimp and Stuff for Gumbo.wonderful, the best I've had.
The sun came out around noon; we drove around the downtown area and looked at some of the historic homes. We've driven by these houses before, amazing how they survived the 1900 Hurricane.
We decided to take the ferry over to Port Bolivar and checked out some of the houses over there. All the houses built on stilts in this area always amaze me. We returned to the island by ferry, followed by several flocks of seagulls and Pelicans on the way over and back.
We had a lovely diner at Gaido's but had to take some left overs home. We had a fridge to save them along with a microwave to reheat them tomorrow.
The next day we stopped by Quilts by the Bay to ask if there were any quilt shops to be found on the route we were taking to go up to Kemah. We found out there was one in Texas City called Cactus Quilts.
We drove to the shop and found that she had participated in the market for the first time. She has a lovely little shop and was very helpful. She gave me a 2004 shop hop that she had not participated in. She also gave some helpful directions to find the first shop. Cactus Quilts is at 1811
6th Street North in Texas City, she doesn't have a website.
In Kemah we found the boardwalk and enjoyed the warm sunny skies while having lunch at Landry's. We both had Shrimp Gumbo, I'm sorry to say it was very disappointing; in fact both our meals at Landry's were a disappointment. We watched fishing boats coming in with flocks of seabirds following behind; sometimes they would through some bait overboard for the birds to enjoy.
We walked around the boardwalk and saw a carousel, miniature train, Ferris wheel and other rides to enjoy. Back into the car and over the causeway and past Seabrook and onto La Port. Here we found Painted Pony 'n Quilts
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I had spoken with one of the shopkeepers at Festival. It is a great shop, lots of wonderful fabrics, needlepunch designs, books and helpful staff.
We left the shop and drove over the Bay Area Boulevard to Friendswood. Along the way we saw two deer at the side of the road and drove by the Armand Bayou Nature Centre. At Quakertown Quilts
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we found that they had Quakertown's Backroom
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their saleroom! Most of their sale fabrics are $4.99 a yard, checked them out first because they close at 4 p.m. and the main store closes at 5 p.m.
The main shop is large and has many beautiful fabrics and displays for inspiration. They have a huge selection of Block of the Month quilts. They have the line of Sue Garman Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Yuletide Joy Quilts. I've done the Yuletide Joy one and want to start on the Autumn Joy next.
We left the shop and drove down Parkwood Avenue to SR 35 before driving down SR 6 back to Galveston. It was a pretty sunset so we drove west along Galveston Island to watch it disappear. We saw many houses build up on stilts in the residential areas. The day ended up being a comfortable 74F with sunny skies.
The next day we drove over to Moody Gardens and walked around the Pyramids. One is an aquarium, one is a tropical forest and the third is a discovery centre. We walked around the gardens admiring the hibiscus flowers in bloom and tried to take some photos of monarch butterflies, yellow butterflies and dragonflies. The dragonflies would not co-operate with having their pictures taken.
We drove back up to Texas City and checked out some of their antique shops. Found two fun plastic fruit necklaces at one shop. Back on the road we drove up to Kemah and had lunch at the Flying Dutchman and bird watched once again. Today was warmer [84F] than yesterday. We also went into the Aquarium restaurant, but when we found it was a Landry's we decided not to eat there.
We drove over the bridge to Seabrook and drove down to see the boardwalk from the other side of Clear Lake. We had planned to drive up to Baytown but decided it was too far and it would be into rush hour to drive back.
We came back onto the island and went for dinner at Gaido's, this time we shared a complete small dinner and enjoyed it a lot. We had shrimp gumbo, salad with honey pecan dressing, salmon and then tiramisu for dessert, after dinner we walked out along a breakwater in the warm gulf air
Our final day we woke up to beautiful sunny skies it was 78F. After we packed up the car, we walked out to the fishing pier at the end of 61st Street. Then we drove up I 45 and then went along SR 6 to head over to Katy.
We found Quilt 'n Sew Studio
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what a great shop. They had just finished a beginner sampler class and the shop was busy with people making purchases. The shopkeepers were very helpful with showing me around the shop to find various items. Met a 5th generation Texan who spends 6 months of the year living in Sydney on Vancouver Island.
With a few directions from the cashier we headed over to Spring along the Spring Cypress Road. Saw lots of Houston suburbs, huge roofed houses that look like they have attics of maybe second floors with few windows. Lots of brick houses.
In Spring we found Juliene's Quilts
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I'm sorry to say that they are closing their brick and mortar store, but keeping their online store open. They started the sale 2 weeks ago and currently are offering
25% off everything in the store.
There is a second shop in Old Town Spring called GRS Creations, but we didn't go there. Next we took I 45 up to The Woodlands to fin Plain and Fancy Quilts, Inc.
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This shop is large and has a great selection of fabrics. They also had several Jim Shore gift items. They had his line of dogs; I had not seen them yet. They are delightful. I found a cute angel for to purchase.
Back down I 45 and exited on FM 1960 to find It's A Stitch
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[interesting, they don't have their website on their business card, just an e-mail addy. I googled It's A Stitch and found their website!] They have an amazing collection of Bali Batiks. It is a large bright shop and a wonderful way to finish our trip to Texas. I found a fun woven orange gingham in their saleroom that I had to buy. It reminds me of the dress I wore to my cousin's wedding as her Maid of Honour in the '70's.
There was an Olive Garden restaurant in the parking lot that we grabbed a quick bite at before heading off to the airport. Returned the car, didn't get the actual mileage, but it was only around 2,500 miles for this trip. Checked in and waited for another bumpy ride home. Lots of turbulence again, arrived home at 1130 p.m. half an hour early. It was cool but dry. We've had some record rainfalls while we were away.
The next day it was cold and rainy 44F what a change from 88F the day we left Texas. Had a wonderful time, rested and tanned with some wonderful collectibles and memories. Great photos on the digital camera, some film ones to be developed.