Quintana Beach and Galveston! Beach Day #2 and #3

Summer and I slept like babies Wednesday night and spent a liesurely Thursday morning in our super nice hotel room.

I read Proverbs Chapter 3 aloud and Summer read from her Devotions From the Beach book that I gave her. We have had some wonderful conversations on this trip. It's been such a blessing to have this precious  time together. Summer and I text and have phone conversations every day or two - but to have these days together to visit and talk has been great.

It was a little after noon when we got in her van and headed to a different beach....

across the Old Intra Coastal Waterway......

I loved going up and then down....

....to Quintana Beach.

It's not even an hour from Surfside Beach where we were on Wednesday.

Right off the bat we saw a Great Blue Heron!

And Summer spotted a treasure!

A Shark's Eye!!

The largest a shark's eye will grow is two and a half inches -

and this one is right at that!!

You can see there's plenty of privacy and not many people.

It was another sunshiny day in Texas!

Wednesday I wore shorts and a top but Thursday I decided to wear a swimsuit and a 'Beach Gown.'

I call it that because when we returned to the hotel that night, a lady was checking in and told me, " I just LOVE your BEACH GOWN!" So beach gown it is!

We drove on down the beach until we came to the fishing jetty which is a great place for shell seekers. And Summer is an avid one.

We turned the umbrella as the day went on to keep us in the shade.

We have had some great meals on the beach.

This day we had Southern Shrimp Salad.....

and Cranberry Chicken Salad......

along with Laughing Cow cheese and some fancy crackers, grapes, pickles....and more.

We set up our chairs around 1:00 and stayed until 8:30.....

and drove back to the hotel as happy as we could be.

Summer had her fun shell seeking and napping and I read and sat and just soaked up the sun, the sounds of the waves and watching the birds.

So we have had quality time together as well as alone 'me' time.

Beach Day #3 was not spent entirely on the beach.....

after two days we opted to drive the 45 minutes or so to Galveston.....one of my Happy Places.

We rolled into Sonic to pick up our iced teas and headed on to the ......

The Bluewater Highway Trail.

No Interstate. No big roads. 

This was my first time to arrive at Galveston from the East.

We had to cross the San Luis Bridge.

We arrived at Benno's for lunch at the perfect time - after the lunch crowd!

Not many diners at that time.

And that's not beer in that beer stein!

Benno's serves wine the same way they serve beer!!

One year they tried using wine glasses and then the next year it was back to beer steins.

I asked about that and they said they kept breaking the stems off the glasses.

Works for me!!!

Summer ordered crab fingers.

And I ordered what I always order - the Shrimp Pasta Salad.

Summer mentioned we were from Dallas and that we have been coming here for 25 years and that her mama ALWAYS orders the Shrimp Pasta Salad.

Well, the lady came back to our table after we ordered and said they were out of the salad.

She told them we had come from Dallas and it was our tradition to order it.

Then she said if I was willing to wait a few minutes - one of the staff would go to their catering location and make one up for me. How kind was that???

No wonder we love this place!

Later, when we drove over to the Strand and the piers - we saw the Benno's Catering place and realized how far they had to go to get my salad! Talk about going the extra mile!

We had such a good time waiting for the salad.....we shared news from mutual friends.

One can't keep up with everyone. She showed me pics and we chatted on and the time flew by.

After our late lunch, we shopped at Academy Sports - we needed a small ice chest for my leftover salad - the other three we had were in the hotel room. I found two pair of shoes for Louis Dean ON SALE!

Size 13 is hard to find!

He's going to be so excited!

Then we went to the one and only Goodwill on the island.

I found an orange Coldwater Creek top and a cool sweater type cover.

We skipped Murdochs because the further you went down Seawall Blvd the more crowded it became.

We did stop at Gaido's where I picked up  Shrimp Bisque to go - that was Summer's dinner tonight.

We began the drive back to Lake Jackson and after we crossed the San Luis Bridge - we opted to drive along the water's edge of Folletts Beach.

So we did get a beach into our third beach day!

Summer did some birdwatching while I walked a ways on the beach.

We lingered long so we could see the sun setting.

You can camp free on this beach for up to 14 days.

It was not crowded by any means but it was interesting to see the campsites of those who were there.

Several had beach fires.

Now that's on MY bucket list!

Our beach getaway is just about over and we will head back home tomorrow.

I'm about to take my shower and put my beach nightgown on.

I bought the pink wrap at The Cracker Barrel on the way down - on clearance for $12!

And I shall use some of the beauty products Summer gifted me for my birthday.

It's actually on the 24th but this has been a birthday celebration for both of us. 

Hers is October 26.

We are going home tomorrow and that means we have one more day of adventure as we drive back.

I see some Goodwill stops in our future!