Are Texans embarrassed by their state’s beaches? (Houston, Corpus Christi: landscaping, tax)

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

I've only been Matagorda, Port Aransas, Mustang Island and SPI. Dropping the little Google Maps guy in Galveston, that water looks brown and nasty... of course maybe it depends on the time of year. The water looks so much nicer further the South you go down the Texas coast.

Too far from Houston or other major Texas cities. Also too wild and too many weird rip currents in the bays and outlets. Now that black sand is being hyped, how about brown water?

[SkyeAnjel]

I love Galveston! It is really nice these days along the sea wall. There is so much to do for little kids, teens and adults. Moody Gardens, rain forest cafe, pleasure pier and endless restaraunts and bars plus all those historical things you can do. The water isn't blue but I still find it beautiful. Take a quick trip across the ferry and your on the Bolivar peninsula, Crystal beach, where you can still drive on the beach, have a campfire and just all around summer fun. There is always a festival or event of some sort. Everything is what you make it. We have a beach, and it is affordable....so many states don't.

[lonestar2007]

That's right.

[Trainwreck20]

We ended a week long stay on the west end of Galveston (as we do annually) last week and on Saturday the 3rd the water was so calm and clear it looked almost Caribbean-like. My daughter happily floated on her back in the calm water of the gulf. It was, admittedly, a rare occurrence to be able to stand in waist-deep water and look down and watch the crabs and see the shells. There was hardly a wave at all. The prior days had quite a bit of surf, which is also fun.

Anyway, we are already booked for next year .

[lonestar2007]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

We ended a week long stay on the west end of Galveston (as we do annually) last week and on Saturday the 3rd the water was so calm and clear it looked almost Caribbean-like. My daughter happily floated on her back in the calm water of the gulf. It was, admittedly, a rare occurrence to be able to stand in waist-deep water and look down and watch the crabs and see the shells. There was hardly a wave at all. The prior days had quite a bit of surf, which is also fun.

Anyway, we are already booked for next year .

Wow! That sounds great. Wish I had been there.

[austinaggie]

We went the last week of July and also stayed on the West End. The water was just as TW20 described. Very clear and very blue-green and the weather was awesome with sunny skies and relatively little humidity. I’ve been going to Galveston since I was a kid in the 70s and have always loved it. People like to talk trash about it but there are PLENTY of people who seem to like it just fine because we saw a ton of people there and they all seemed to be having a wonderful time.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by austinaggie

We went the last week of July and also stayed on the West End. The water was just as TW20 described. Very clear and very blue-green and the weather was awesome with sunny skies and relatively little humidity. I’ve been going to Galveston since I was a kid in the 70s and have always loved it. People like to talk trash about it but there are PLENTY of people who seem to like it just fine because we saw a ton of people there and they all seemed to be having a wonderful time.

Did you stay at Pointe West or somewhere else? The one thing that can be a negative is the lack of restaurants. Of course, we end up saving a ton of money and just eating/cooking in the condo, so it could be a positive.

While there were quite a few people there, it is never 'packed' and you can easily find 50 yards of beach to call your own. Right off the boardwalks there are clusters of people, but really not that many - while we were there, there were maybe 6 or 7 groups of people (maybe 30 people total) within 100 yards of the boardwalk 'drop off'. I suppose on the 4th of July or Memorial/Labor day, it might be more crowded? There are a lot of people from Houston that own second properties down there, but a lot more can drive on the weekends just for the day.

[austinaggie]

We used to own a condo at Pointe West but no longer have it (long story involving Hurricane Ike). We were one of the original owners! However, we stayed at Jamaica Beach in a house on the canal. That is our preferred type of rental. We feel like we get the best of both worlds. Fishing off one of the decks of the house and a short ride to the beach. This place also had kayaks that we could use so my husband and kids went kayaking in the canals and had a blast. We went “into town” one day for a look about through Murdoch’s (a tradition my kids expect during every trip) and lunch at The Spot (mediocre but fun atmosphere for the kids). Cooked all our other meals at the house. The beach close to our rental was pretty packed with lots of families and the boardwalk and restaurants were hopping when we were there. It was so nice to see the water looking so clear and calm. If only it was always like that! We had a really nice little vacation.

[kemahkami]

Yup, very clear conditions for a period of time recently over at Galveston, even with the water moving. Certainly destroys the idea that the "normal muddiness" comes from sand being stirred up: it's all entirely from river sediment.

[austinaggie]

In my last post I said boardwalk but meant sea wall! For some reason the term
sea wall escaped me so I just used the term boardwalk. Hope I didn’t confuse anyone!