After a few days (and some long nights) in Austin during South by SouthWest (SXSW) Music and Media Conference, I linked up with a few high school buddies. We drove to Houston for the Houston Rodeo championships – which was definitely an experience. I was expecting guys riding bulls and some cow calves getting lassoed. What I didn’t know about were events like chuck wagon races and bronco riding (which seems terrifyingly horrific for the rider). The most unexpected event, before moving on from the rodeo ramble, was “Mutton Busting”, better described as “little kids riding sheep”. (google it!)

While I was there, I learned that Galveston Island, which was at the tail end of a Spring Break influx, was only 45 minutes away. After my friends left Houston for their respective home-states, I headed out for Galveston – where I received a warm welcome from a few twitter-ers (tweeters? twits?). Specifically, RoShelle Gaskins with the Galveston Island Convention & Visitors Bureau, who tweets as @galvestonisland and Christine Hopkins, who handles PR for the Hotel Galvez, The Tremont House and Harbor House Hotel.

I ate at quite a variety of restaurants Galveston, a town that is still in recovery from Hurricane Ike  in 2008. I got a chance to meet Executive Chef Jerry Helminski from Bernardo’s (in the Hotel Galvez) before diving into an amazing Sunday brunch buffet. On a completely different end of the spectrum, I had fried pickles for the first time at The Spot, a biker-friendly shack overlooking the sea wall. (which was built after the hurricane of 1900 that devastated the area).

My initial intention was to spend a night or two on Galveston Island, but after a few days parked on the beach at Galveston Island State Park, I just couldn’t pull myself away. The entire island is very dog friendly, so Sid and I had a blast running on the beach several times a day. I wound up sticking around for almost an entire week!

My favorite photos from that week aren’t the most beautiful aspects of Galveston Island, but rather reminders of the devastation that hit the island two years ago. Many of the locals, including some of the State Park Rangers, explained to me that recovery from Hurricane Ike has been slow due to limited Federal aid.

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