Galveston and to Austin

Pics: 1) playing Titanic on the Galveston ferry, 2) a beautiful mansion in Galveston, 3) Carmen, Sam our host, the other Sam, Enrique, and Theresa at dinner, 4) Sam and me after he taught me to surf, 5) the 4 of us with Mike, Julie, and Sam, 6) at 'the' NASA

On Wednesday we woke up leisurely and went down to the beach a little before noon. Our CS host in Galveston, Sam, was already down there teaching kids to surf. The oil has not yet reached Galveston and the water felt great. Enrique and I went straight to the sea while T and C laid out. After a bit we tried to play frisbee but the wind made it difficult, especially for people who'd barely ever played. Finally Sam finished his class around 12:30 and after he ate and returned, he endeavored to teach us how to surf. I must admit I was a little skeptical, but as it turned out, I got up on the 2nd try! I was so proud of myself! lol Carmen tried twice, but didn't want to do it any longer, and Enrique (who'd surfed before) did fairly well, making it up quite a few times (in between some rather nasty spills). While I fell off a bit, the worst problem I encountered was one time when Enrique was pushing the board back into the surf and we were all next to him - a giant wave hit the front of the board and whipped it around smacking me in the neck so hard it thunked and bounced back. I thought it displaced my jugular and was coughing and holding my neck which really hurt. Sam was sort of panicking, and thought he may have to put me on the board and push me back to shore, but after a minute the muscles stopped spasming and I was fine. It feels a bit bruised today, but nothing major. Around 2:30 we finally went back to the house as Sam was darn near falling over from exhaustion and I was quite worried that I'd be very sun burnt from all the waves crashing into me for over an hour.

Once we returned we all took showers and packed up the car, then we took a group picture wit

h Sam, his roomie Mike, and Mike's g/f Julie (who is just as sweet as can be). We were sad to leave, but we had to get going since the NASA space center was on the way to Austin and given the hissy fit Enrique threw when we didn't stop to see th NASA facility on the way to New Orleans, I figured we needed to stop at this one. I hope very much to see Sam and crew again, and that we can all plan a trip to the Outer Banks together, or maybe even Spain. :)

At the NASA facility it cost $5 to park, then they wanted to charge $20 to just go in! We were like "no way!" But then Theresa started talking to the security guard who was French (and she also speaks French) and he told us to go in and say we had a plane to catch at 7 pm and we just wanted to get gift shop passes good for 45 minutes.

That was fine with us since all we wanted to do was take some pictures anyway. So, we got our passes and went in, walked around looking at the different

activity stations and spaceship modules, then went to the gift shop and bought space food for some of our future CS hosts.

Unfortunately, when we left it was rush hour and what should have taken a little under 3 hours to get to Austin, took about 4. We were really happy to finally make it and it was so good to see Patrick again! (I met Patrick last summer in a hostel in Salzburg, Austria where we hung out for several days). After unpacking we played Rock Band until it was time for bed.

Today, we walked all around the University of TX campus where Patrick went to school and ate lunch at Kerby Lane which is a famous Austin restaurant. We also visited the state capitol which was very pretty and went to an art museum on campus.

Patrick knows a ton about the history here so he was basically a guide, giving us random trivia the whole day and often walking backward, just like the real tour guides do! lol It was hot as hades, but we had a good time. After we got back tonight the girls and Patrick all went swimming in the apartment pool while Enrique worked on the computer.

Anyway, it was a very long day so I'm going to bed, exhausted. lol