On Friday the boys and I took a trip to Galveston. We like Galveston. First we rode the ferry, which is both exciting, and free. (Sadly, this time we did not see any dolphins.) The ferry goes from Galveston Island to the Bolivar Peninsula, which doesn't have much of anything on it (thanks Ike), except for the Fort Travis Seashore Park, which is interesting thanks to its crumbling old concrete bunkers and fortifications.
These kids are so stinking cute together, I can't stand it. Isn't this a cool rusty old door? It leads into one of the old concrete bunkers. You can't see the jagged piece of rusty metal sticking out right behind Noah's bare legs.
Looks kind of desolate, don't you think?
Oh, here at last is a "danger" sign. Just to the right of all the broken off fence posts with the jagged metal edges. It's funny, walking around this place, I felt like I was trespassing on abandoned property.
We spent a little while on the playground (which is in good repair, thankfully). Behind Noah is the Houston ship channel, which leads to the Port of Houston, the busiest port in the US. In this photo, you can see five vessels if you look closely (one is just a dot on the horizon). It's kind of neat seeing all the industry along the channel--the huge loading docks, the oil refineries, and of course the cargo ships, fishing vessels, and oil rigs. Occasionally we see a huge cruise ship with passengers lining the rails. Lots of things to talk to the boys about, and to look up in the encyclopedia when we get home.
After we came back from the Bolivar Peninsula, we parked along the Galveston seawall and spent some time on the beach. The boys had a grand time digging in the sand.
In other news, the weather here gets more fantastic by the day. Look at the forecast for the next week:
I took some bees out of a big military base a few months ago. It was still in use, but in the same sort of (dis)repair as that one. It's really sad and depressing. I kept thinking how much better it would be for it to just close and offer it for sale.
ReplyDeleteDo you actually look things up in encyclopaedias? Or Google them? We tend to check things up online rather than going to the library for reference books.
ReplyDeleteI do try to tell the kids that just because it is online doesn't mean it is true (which is an equally valid warning re books.
Looks like you had a fascinating trip - "health and safety" rules in the UK would make that sort of site inacessible here, which is a shame, boys like to roam and explore.
Hx
Well, we have our own set of encyclopedias and quite a few other reference books as well, so we tend to start there. If the info we need isn't in our books, we look online. Or we might look into both if the boys are particularly interested.
ReplyDeleteI start with books because Elijah can navigate those on his own. Plus once he's read one article from the encyclopedia, he tends to keep browsing and learns more interesting things. I wouldn't want him browsing the internet unsupervised, though.
I think it's unusual for a site like Fort Travis to be accessible here as well, given its current condition. Which is why I felt like I was trespassing. :) Prior to Hurricane Ike there were more safety precautions like fences and so on, but many of them were blown over and haven't been replaced yet.