Surfside Beach, TX

We rented a 3 br beach house with the Caldwell family for the last week of summer.  It was in Surfside Beach, TX, which is west of Galveston and south of Lake Jackson.  Brian and I have a love/hate relationship with Galveston beaches.  We love the fact that it is an 1 - 1 1/2 hour from our house to the Gulf of Mexico.  It is close, but just far enough away that you actually feel like you are leaving the city.  We love that our kids think they are in Tahiti every time we arrive.  They can't distinguish between beaches yet so all beaches are truly awesome in their eyes.

We are not so fond of the sand in this part of Texas.  It is brownish in color and sometimes muddy.  The water is often brown and muddy as well, although I will say this trip was the clearest I have ever seen in Texas.  On the drive down from Houston you pass miles and miles of refineries and you have to wonder where and how all the chemicals drain.   Our house had a water restriction in that we could not use the water for cooking or drinking as it had tested high for arsenic levels. That was a pain.  The notice has been in effect since 2011, according to the letter on the refrigerator.

Catherine developed an outer ear infection on the second day, so she and I ended up driving back to Houston to see her ENT vs. an urgent care in Surfside. After I told the doc we were spending the week down on the Gulf, he pretty much cut me off and said that local Gulf water (and sand) can have the same level of bacteria that exists in a toilet bowl.  I was like ok, nice.

We had a fun week surfing, building sand castles, burying the kids in the sand, flying kites, playing trivia, and eating all sorts of fun things.  Beth made a slow cooker Ropa Vieja meal that was scrumptious.  We brought shrimp étouffée that we cooked a week earlier and froze.