Culture Club...Part 2

The second of my occasional feature of free things to do in the Houston area is Galveston and namely the beach.

We went down for the long weekend and set up base camp on the beach to watch the fireworks on July 4th.

The main thing I noticed over the holiday weekend is how lazy the majority of people are. The areas of the beach where you could drive your care directly onto the sand were completely rammed. Cars were dumped wherever there was space as people tried to find enough room to enjoy themselves.

We stay down on the west end of the island close to the San Luis Pass. There is a public beach with parking here but the only thing is you cannot drive directly onto the sand. Parking is close by and you just need to walk over a small foot bridge and bingo.

We set up our canopy and loungers on both Friday and Saturday and had plenty of room. After the effects of Hurricane Ike the beach is much larger than it used to be and there were plenty of people around, but everyone was so spread out that it was in complete contrast to the area further down the beach where you could not see the sand for all of the cars lined up like sardines.

There were people fishing and when we were in the water you could see hundreds of fish swimming around so that can't be the reason people didn't want to join us on our section of the beach.

Friday was quiet and I expected the car park to be much busier on Saturday (the 4th) but it was completely empty all day. Not a single car was parked as local residents and renters enjoyed a more relaxed atmosphere.

So if you're in the Houston area and fancy getting out of town to relax for a day or two, why not head down to Galveston? Just being there will help the island get back to business after the storm.

If it is too busy down the sea wall, head west, or actually, don't because we like the quiet!