a baytown landmark: fred hartman bridge.
this bridge for me symbolized the entrance into nicer seaside towns, such as seabrooke, kemah & eventually galveston island, we had to cross it to go to these places, and the views over the channel were always something, no matter if you focused on the architecture of the bridge or its surroundings, which was a wild mix of industrial landscapes & beautiful nature. this bridge just needs to be experienced, it was hard to take any nice images and feel the grandness of it.
the cable-stayed bridge spans the houston ship channel & connects baytown with the city of la porte. construction started in 1986 & was finished in 1995. it was designed by j.e. greiner company. i really liked this bridge, it felt so airy, floaty & elegant.
bad image of an impressively ugly landscape that was alway present: petrochemical industrial structures. there was a weird attraction i felt towards these landscapes, they emitted a certain kind of beauty. especially at night they lit up in fiery colours, turning them into some hypnotizing infernal netherworld. the biggest of these structures were in baytown & in texas city ( which was much closer to galveston island ).
for this particular endeavour darius decided to take me to the kemah boardwalk, an amusement park/pleasure pier/promenade that's open to the public in the town of kemah. here it was where i first sighted typical local architecture: stilted houses! most were built out of wood, which gave them a special touch, sort of a little vintage & oldschool. they are built this way in case of floodings & storms, with the correct construction it helps stabilize the home, should a hurricane come in & the ventilation underneath the main living areas let strong winds through, minimizing storm damage. especially on unstable grounds as the texas coastline often proves to be - swampy & exposed to the elements of the gulf of mexico - this is a good solution to built permanent homes. they also keep out vermin much better, which is something that in a subtropical climate should also be considered. they are an eco-friendly option, too, as their construction doesn't harm the environment in a significant way. i learned that more and more new homes are built as stilt houses in the gulf coast region, as the danger of hurricanes is increasing.
little things you wouldn't find advertised much the same way in europe: palm & card readings - a psychic's playground. i wish some things would be as easy as to just make one wish at a psychic's place 😅
beer fest announcement. it seems like the peeps that run the kemah boardwalk are all trying their best to attract people with events & happenings.
a typical texan gulf coast sight: stilted houses, palm trees, fishing boats.
standing directly at the mouth of clear lake into galveston bay, i felt catapulted into some sort of 'forest gump' scenery, seeing fish & shrimp cutters coming in, and seagulls & pelicans following their paths.
the sun was bright that day and the blues of the sky & waters were ablazing!
one of the many bridges that span the bayous & sounds: the kemah-seabrook bridge. on it runs highway 146.
land as flat as a flounder, almost melting into the galveston bay waters.
on the seabrook side of the channel is something they call the waterfront, there are fishing companies & restaurants doing business there.
a little harbour for the fishermen. the stilted house scenery mesmerized me much, as did the pelicans flying elegantly over our heads to see if they could snatch some of the hauls.
this boat - captain johnny - of course would attract gulls & pelicans. it carried home fresh sea fruit.
just a lovely little harbour scene - gulf of mexico-style!
an exotic sight to me - brown pelicans! they sure were special to me, i have never encountered some in my life! up in the skies they were soaring gracefully, down in the waters they were feeding hungrily. they are quite some special birds with their big throat pouch that can scoop up their food in seconds & their ability to dive-bomb into the waters to catch fish!
this guy was cleaning its feathers, giving me one of the rare opportunities to take a slightly better picture of them!
an egret joined the ranks, too. i also absolutely am smitten with the decrepit stilted house in the background!
the coastline was so flat & shallow here, so different to what i am used to in germany. we have high cliffs, or long stretched beaches, but here it all felt like the land was directly bathing inside the gulf waters. that bayou/swamp feeling was always present.
decrepit house again. seeing such old & unused structures always makes me want to explore them, abandoned places are so enticing!
the kemah boardwalk pier, where most of the restaurants are located. the whole place is open for public, you can explore without paying. of course, if you want to eat something, or have a ride on the attractions, that costs, but at least you don't have to pay an entrance fee for the whole complex. which was an entirely different thing when we visited galveston. their boardwalk has an entrance fee, though i read that it counts for one day & you can ride all the stuff as many times you want. but what if you want to only stroll along the place and just gawk at all the things? well, for me that would be money thrown out into the wind, unless i would have wanted to go in for the fun ( which i didn't 😄 )
looking towards the flying dutchman, an oyster & seafood restaurant. i looked at the menu just now, and wanna fly back immediately, i wanna have all the seafoods! there's several more restaurants on that pier, so enough for all kinds of tastebuds, really!
blossom of a strelitzia reginae - also called bird of paradise... so exotic! they are actually native to africa, but they seem to grow well in all places that are warm & provide plenty of water.
landry's - another sea food restaurant ( and actually the peeps who run the whole boardwalk complex ). i loved the neonlight sign so much! these always remind me of mid-century americana.
yellows & blues, colours that fit well to the gulf of mexico!
i think i will never get tired of the stilted houses! i loved them, they were so charming to me! these houses were over in seabrook, you had a fairly good view on them from the outmost tip of the boardwalk. they also seem to be quite expensive, i had a look into some of them, and gulped a little 😂
more waterfront homes, all of them certainly luxurious!
a house that i would surely be interested to live in! apparently it is a little guest house.
kemah boardwalk main entrance, where the fun never stops! there were some rides that would certainly give me some heart attacks. the loop in the back for example would have been one of those! up at the front you see the drop zone, which is 42 meters high, and drops you down in a speed that might make you also throw up a little😅
on the left the scary loop, in the middle pharao's fury, which is basically swinging overhead - and yes, i would not trifle with that either 😂. on the right the century wheel & in the front you have the rockin' rocket, which i am not entirely sure what it does, but i would say it rocks you into all kinds of directions.
i think out of all the rides i have seen there, the flare, as it is lovingly called, would probably make me puke. 🤮 it looked interesting though, but just as a photo motive 😂
such an oldschool sight, a wooden rollercoaster ride! this part of the park was made up a little western-style.
more weird wooden rollercoaster construction. i kinda liked the geometrical aspects of it, vertical & horizontal lines, creating many forms.
cute snack express booth in front of a pretty innocuous-looking century wheel. i am always up for ferris wheels ;)
peace, love & crabs! i think i found this on the rear side of joe's crab shack restaurant.
palm trees & blue skies! never would i have thought that this would be something i would find endearing, especially since i am such a non-tropic kind of person. but while the temperatures really did do a number on me & my moderate temperatures loving body at first, i still couldn't help embracing the magic of the palm trees!
christmas tree disguised in halloween attire. i found this so out of place, just the contrast of christmas combined with halloween was worth documenting! also, these trees are not common here, so i let you in on a secret: this was a fake one 😜
snatched a candid picture of a babe in front of that spooky tree 😜
loved this swordfish fountain that we found at the edge of the boardwalk complex! that was also the last picture i took by the boardwalk, because then we made it back to baytown for...
... this! for a very late lunch ( or super early dinner ) darius, his mom & i went to el toro's in baytown to eat one of the most ambrosial meals i have ever tasted ( & that is a tough thing to say, 'cause nearly everything i ate on this trip was mouth-watering ). this was a filled & fried avocado ( filled with shrimps & monterey jack cheese ), spanish vegetable rice & refried beans. this was a heavenly meal! i couldn't finish it, it was a lot, but i still left as a happy little creature, 'cause i could take the leftovers home with me & eat the rest later on, dwelling on that fantastic taste for a more prolonged time!
i don't know anymore the exact date we went, but on one of those first days in the first week we made it to galveston island, which is the name giver of the bay it's situated in. it's about 165 square kilometers big, 43 kilometers long & 5 kilometers in width at its widest point. the city of galveston is the biggest settlement on the island, right after jamaica beach. we of course made it to galveston city & checked out the galveston seawall & the adjoined beach & dipped our toes into the gulf waters!
this luxury condo building is called the emerald, overlooking the seawall & stewart beach towards the gulf. these complexes, of which there were many, had such a special kind of vibe, monumental & very american. some of them were apartment complexes, some hotels.
galveston island also sported a boardwalk amusement park, the historic pleasure pier. you pay entrance for the whole park ( about 30 dollar ) and can ride and stay all day long. still, the silhouette from afar was already a nice sight on its own, & since i am not an amusement park thrill seeker, i wasn't super sad that we didn't check it out more thoroughly. for me, experiencing the beach was much more exciting, because i found out how wonderfully warm the golf of mexico is! while i kept joking about how it felt like warm piss, i thoroughly enjoyed these waters, as i have never been to such warm seas! the german seas are always rather chilly, with about 20 C at most, but this felt like at last 30 C! it was wonderful to dip my toes in ( and later eventually bathe in it! ). i treasure the memories made at this beach so much, it made me fall in love with galveston island even more!
we went down to the beach finally & i squealed with joy about the warmthness of the water. i tried to find special shells, too, but wasn't that successful. a lot of incomplete ones, but overall, the sand barely revealed bigger treasures other than kelp. maybe, with a bit of a more extended stay, and the right kind of weather before the visit ( bad weather often brings treasures ;P ), i may be able to discover sea jewels in the future!
murdoch's rear building from below. i am still absolutely fascinated by the stilt construction. it looks so wobbly & unstable, but apparently it holds up well!
loved how the water rippled here 😍
seriously, i could have gotten rid of all my clothes right then & there for a swim :D
hello from us ❤
we walked a little closer to the boardwalk. there's about 16 rides you can hop onto, plus midway games ( like whac-a-mole for a example ).
laughing gulls exploring the beach. the sand at the beach was very fine, so fine that it slipped through every crack available to it 😝 i had to learn the hard way later on 😂
a little special willet friend! they love to prowl around on the beach & look for tiny crabs & worms. usually they will winter further south, but you can still see them around when the western population comes to visit the east.
almost nothing on the horizon than a speed boat & tiny, tiny ship in the back!
that was the closest we got to the pleasure pier, after that we returned to the car & made it back home to baytown.
drive by postcard of some lovely pastel-coloured condos! don't you agree that sometimes these sceneries looked a little like wes anderson movie stills, only golf of mexico-style? i was constantly reminded of that! these condominiums belong to the four seasons on the golf vacation complex & while they actually look pretty simple & not too expensive, you will have to pay around 800 dollars for two nights if you wanna book these. pretty high ass steep prices i'd say! no wes anderson moment for me then 😂
next on the america chronicles: a first trip to houston!
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