Last summer was full of adventure for our family! Our summer began with a mission trip to Belize and ended with a surprise trip to Texas. My husband’s job required that he travel to Texas for at least a month, so he loaded up the RV and headed to Texas with our two dogs. Noah and I had to be home for classes on Mondays so we flew back and forth to stay with Jamey. 14 hours away from home for almost two months working in the heat of Texas summer with fire retardant clothing, gloves and a hard hat. I am thankful Noah and I could visit. Truly. But this was so, so hard. Home doesn’t feel like home when Jamey’s not there. And when we were in Texas he was working 10-12 hour days with no time off. So behind the beautiful, fun pics is just a family trying to make the most of a rough time. Things aren’t always what they seem. We were thankful it worked out that we could still be together as a family even if we didn’t get to see him much, as he was working to cover two shifts every day at the job site.
This was our first trip to the Texas coast. We stayed at Blue Water Rv Resort located on the Blue Water Highway, just south of Galveston Island. Here is the link: http://www.bluewaterrvpark.com – Location was the reason Jamey chose this Resort. It was fairly close to the job site. There’s no shade to speak of here. The park has Canal front, Wetland view or Ocean view sites available. They also have a few “cabins” for rent. The Wetland view is nice- the water comes up with the tide and the sunrise is lovely with this view. The Ocean view is right on the highway so we didn’t stay in one of these sites. We stayed August- September so there wasn’t much traffic, except weekends and Labor Day, but I’m sure summer is packed. They have a traffic counter when you cross over the bridge and only allow a certain number on the island at a time. Locals said that in the summer the wait to get back on the island can be long.
We loved staying on the Canal! We had a little dock to fish from and the sunsets here are stunning!
The Rv resort has a nice canal front swimming pool, covered picnic area by the pool, a game room with ping pong/ game tables/ TV and a decent little restaurant onsite. We did our school work in the shade by the pool on most days.
Beach access is just across the two lane Bluewater Highway. There are several places along the highway where you can access the beach by car! We are so accustomed to super soft Florida gulf sand- it was a real treat to drive on the beach here! We saw several people with their RV or tents on the beach camping. According to the county beach rules, you can camp FREE on the beach. No water, electricity or sewer available but it would be fun to spend a weekend camping on the beach. We drove on the beach a couple of times. Once we had a campfire and played Bocce Ball. Noah and I taught our dog Lila to swim in the waves! Taking the dogs to the beach was great fun and the RV resort had a nice dog wash area in their dog park so we could rinse them off on our way back each day. There are lots of golf cart rentals in the area too. They will even deliver them! You can drive golf carts on the beach and most of the access ramps will accommodate golf carts. We planned to rent one but Jamey only had one day off during the trip so we spent that day in Galveston Island instead.
Beautiful Beach 
Noah Riding on the Beach 
Seahorse Grill
My two favorite things here were riding bikes on the beach and fishing. I LOVE fishing! The men in the park were probably annoyed with me because I asked them all what they were fishing for and what they were fishing with. I met a nice older gentleman in Walmart who gave me some great tips on where to fish and what to fish with. Turns out we were in the perfect location to catch Red Fish, Sea Trout and Blue Crabs! I enjoy fishing even when I’m not catching anything. It’s so peaceful and relaxing! Blue Crabs were abundant in the canal so we had crab cakes too!
I did finally catch a decent sea trout, so we had to cook it for dinner. It was delicious! It doesn’t get any fresher than straight from the sea to the frying pan!
Jamey finally got a day off! We headed to Galveston Island to check out the historic area known as The Strand. The lovely architecture has endured many tropical storms and even hurricanes. I highly recommend a visit to LaKings Confectioners Shop if you are in the area. There are so many great restaurants and museums in the area. With limited time here, we missed out on some of the things we wanted to see but we had a really great day!
Our trip ended abrubtly two days before our scheduled departure due to an incoming tropical storm.
The winds were horrendous at the onset of the storm. Our RV shook in the storm. Hour by hour I became more and more nervous about staying on the island as the canal began to flood. Jamey decided it was time to leave. We packed everything as quickly as we could in the torrential rains. We headed home within an hour of the decision to leave. Shortly after leaving we learned that the storm had been upgraded to a hurricane and was named Imelda. The storm made landfall near Freeport, Texas and caused 5 billion dollars in damage. We made our way safely to Louisiana for the night, then continued on to Tennessee the next day. Home never looked so good! So thankful for God’s protection over us as we traveled home!
I would definitely visit Freeport, Texas again. Galveston Island was a little too crowded for my taste but another day trip would be nice! Maybe next time we will just go for fun and even stay a few days in our RV on the beach!
Psalm 121:5 The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. 7The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; 8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
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