These pictures are going to be in reverse order. Here are the photos from Day 3. We went to the Varner-Hogg Plantation and Brazos Bend State Park:
Brazos Bend is home to around 300 adult alligators (plus apparently a whole lot of babies) and a lot of other wildlife:
They're hard to see, but this is a nest of baby alligators. We counted over a dozen:
Lots of Spanish moss!
We got a good view from the top of the observation tower:
There's another young alligator in the swamp:
Here's a momma alligator. We didn't want to get too close, so this was the best shot we could get:
These alligator babies were 7 months old:
We went on a hike, and rescued this caterpillar from a bunch of ants:
Fishing:
Picnicking:
Here are pics of the plantation. The land was purchased in 1824. Lots of the buildings (sugar mill, slaves headquarters) were destroyed in the hurricane of 1900. After that, Governor Hogg bought the land and used it as a summer residence.
They found oil here, making the Hoggs wealthy:
We spent Day 2 in Galveston. Here you can see the Seawall. It was built after the big hurricane of 1900 to protect the island from future devastation. (At least 6,000 people died, and thousands of buildings were destroyed.) They put surviving buildings on stilts and filled in underneath to raise the level of the city, and this huge wall (10 mi long) was built to protect the city from big waves.
Scott is standing down below on the rip rap:
Feeding the sea birds on the beach:
Playing in the sand:
We drove around and saw a bunch of these tree statues. They were made from trees that were destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008.
Seafood!
We toured the ship ELISSA, built in 1877!
This was the captain's cabin:
You can see the oil rig museum in the background:
This was our tour guide on the harbor cruise:
A flock of birds was following us at one point:
You can see Pelican Island and Seawolf Park in the background, with a WWII submarine and a destroyer escort.
You can kind of see the WWI tanker S.S. Selma in the background--the largest concrete ship ever constructed:
The water was really choppy, so it was a bumpy ride. Scott was standing by the railing and got all wet.
It's hard to see, but this bird caught a fish and was carrying it in its talons as it flew past.
The oil rig museum again:
This is Tilman Fertitta's $150 million super yacht:
You can see a Royal Caribbean cruise ship docked off to the right:
These oil rigs have been retired. It would cost too much to outfit them with the latest technology, so they will likely be scrapped:
Scott's pointing at some dolphins near our boat:
If you zoom in on the photo, you can see the dolphins:
There's the ELISSA:
Dinner at Waffle House:
Day 1 we had ice cream in Brenham, stopped at the Houston Temple, and visited the San Jacinto Battleground site. This picture is of the battleship USS Texas at the San Jacinto site. It saw action in both world wars:
We had fun watching ships pass by from the harbor:
The San Jacinto Monument is 570 feet tall, which is 15 feet taller than the Washington Monument in DC. It is the tallest monument column in the world!
Emily got to go to the temple while Scott and the kids went to a nearby park. (Scott and the girls got to go to the temple a few weeks ago, so it was Emily's turn.) ;)
They came across this snake! Owen was scared, but Liz touched it:
At the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham--the official ice cream of Texas!
