Boyds Untethered

Along the Galveston Seawall you will find 70 benches like this one. Created as part of Project S.I.T. (Seawall Interpretive  Trail) they are covered in hand painted ceramic tiles. Each bench telling the story of the economy, ecology or history of the Texas Gulf Coast. This particular one tells the story of the 150,000 German prisoners of war that were held in Galveston during WW II. I think you should be able to read it with a little zooming and scrolling.

This statute on the Galveston Seawall is a memorial to 6000 soles that were lost here during the hurricane and tsunami of 1900. One of the write ups I read on it talked of the sturdy construction.... and the belief that it would be able to weather future storms.  That same article suggested that you might want to be well inland if it was ever put to the test.

The seawall is a pretty big part of life here in Galveston. If you zoom in on the plaque in this pixture it will tell you all about the origins of the wall and the very important part it played in creating a safe city and one that could grow. Over time the seawall has been expanded.... from the original 3.3mi to the 10+ miles it covers today. The wall is topped by a road (Seawall Blvd) that provides access to the beaches.... and a pretty great sidewalk.  That 10.3 miles of sidewalk is thought to be the  longest continuous sidewalk.... in the world.

Have you ever noticed that many of the shells that you see as you walk along the beach.... have a small and perfectly round hole in them? This is the work of the carnivorous sea snails that live and hunt under the sand along the waterline. Their prey are the small bivalves (shell fish) that live there too. Once they latch on to a victim they use a “drilling tongue” to bore inside.  When they reach the soft body that lives inside they turn it into goo and suck it out the hole.

Late in 2020 we sold our house in Colorado and moved to Galveston TX.  The intent was to trade winter for the ocean and move a step closer to the possibility that we would at some point live in the Caribbean. Linda likes to say that we are now “untethered”.  We signed a one year lease for our apartment and will decide at the end of that year.... where next? Here’s a pixture of that ocean. This one was taken underneath one of the two fishing piers that we pass on our beach walk each morning.