Galveston

This is a brown pelican posing on a piling. I think the pelican wanted to be in a photo.

 

Today I thought I would visit the Ocean Star Museum which is situated on an old oil rig. I wanted to learn more about drilling for petrochemicals in the Gulf of Mexico. Admission was only $8 for seniors plus I bought a shark tooth for Offspring #2 at a reasonable price at the gift shop. My total came to $11. I parked for free a few blocks away instead of forking over $10 for the parking lot. I bought a new sun hat with a larger brim for $15.I saved money by bringing my own lunch and drinks.

I enjoy the brightly colored houses in this area of Texas.

Somebody had a dead tree so they carved a peace sign into it. Ingenious!

Here is my view from the 3rd floor of the oil rig. I was outside when I took this picture. In the distance I could see the Disney cruise line parked. That walkway you see down below is how I got over here from the pier. Lots of brown pelicans and cormorants flying around here.

I got lost looking for this Opera House. So I used my phone. I saw a man wearing a black apron come out of a restaurant and just as I was about to ask him where the Opera House was, my phone said, "You have arrived." We both laughed. This is one of the buildings that survived the Hurricane in 1900.

George H. is in the Hall of Fame inside the Ocean Star. He and another guy helped to engineer oil rigs at one point in his life. This museum paints the oil industry as being good for the environment. Plaques claimed that fish, coral, and other sea creatures prefer to be under oil rigs instead of the open sea. Sounds like malarkey to me although to be honest, I use gasoline in my car. Most of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be south of Louisiana.

Then I went to the Rosenberg Library. The librarian asked if she could help me. I said I was just wandering. She said I looked like a wanderer. We both laughed. Then she says to her coworker, "See, I can entertain customers." We both laughed again. Then she said to me, "Our only rule is that you keep your shoes on." I said I would keep my shoes on. Later one of my toes was rubbing the neighbor toe so I went into the bathroom and stuck a little wad of toilet paper between the toes. I broke the rules. Nice library, though. On the fourth floor was a museum dedicated to the 1900 Hurricane. There were pictures of dead bodies piled on a barge that they towed out to see. All the bodies eventually floated back to Galveston. There was a letter written by a 5th grader about her experience. Her father was a teacher and he asked her to write it as a way to process her feelings. She did a great job. There was a very comprehensive exhibit about the disaster. This is were Al Roker came to do the research on his book. I was glad I read that book before I came. I decided to sit down and read a local bird guide and the Houston newspaper before leaving. 

I was trying to find the Opera House when I came to the Galveston County Courthouse. That statue is of the Jewish Rabbi who saved so many lives during the disaster. I saw a sign for Galveston County Historical Museum. I go inside the courthouse and ask a guard if I can visit. He tells me to go ahead straight down the hall. Straight down the hall is another great museum about the 1900 Hurricane but also the history of the area. They had more information about the hurricane. They had a dozen little boxes each holding a ring or piece of jewelry that a victim was wearing when they died. They had blood stained bloomers and undershirts and baby clothes on display. They had musical instruments and clothing and shoes and hats and costumes and Mardi Gras costumes and guns and typewriters and telegraph machines and knives and military uniforms and small reproductions of old ships. They had money from the Civil War era and Native American cooking utensils and pelts and tools. This museum was free of charge. Such good luck I am having today.

This is the oil rig from outside on the main floor.

And this is a cormorant sitting on a rock as I walked in.