Surfside

Summertime, right?  Well, I guess it's time we head to the beach.

In southeast Texas, "the beach" is not the prettiest beach you've ever seen, by any stretch of the imagination.  We'll leave South Texas beaches out of this.

We realized we had not been to Surfside beach in many, many years.  Since high school and college days.   So we decided to pack a picnic and head south.

The beach at Galveston is only about 45 miles south of Houston.  Further southwest, close to Freeport, is Surfside Beach, about 50 miles due south of the big city.  It's right where the Brazos River finally empties into the Gulf of Mexico.  See the little red flag on the map?  Not that far at all when you live in a car culture like Houston.

Things have changed a bit over the years.

For one thing, the beach is now closed to auto traffic, although you can still drive onto the beach a couple of miles to the east, towards Galveston.  I remember driving and driving along the beach years ago before the place got crowded.  Surfside Beach is also smaller than it used to be.  Some of the oldest homes are actually now IN THE WATER, complete with NO TRESPASSING signs and broken glass.  Really. (I didn't take my camera with me on the walk)

It was a rather overcast day, but we still got a lot of sun.  The sargassum seaweed was indeed just about everywhere, but it didn't smell all that bad, unless you got up pretty close in it.

And, don't look now, but the gangbangers are taking over.  I saw quite a number of skinheaded, tatooed, rough-looking characters during my walk on the beach.  Sure there are still a few families with children.  A few.  And a few young couples.  

The water was pretty much as I remember it: gray, cloudy, with LOTS of suds.  Whee!

I think it's time they updated their signs a little bit.  I didn't know you could even GET a license to drive a golf cart.

All in all, a very nice day at the beach.  We just set up a couple of chairs, had some food, some tunes and reading material, and enjoyed getting blasted by the constant 25 mph wind coming off of the ocean.  There's something special about the beach, isn't there?  Something truly awe-inspiring about the vast oceans.  They have bewitched humanity ever since we crawled out of them.

Here's a couple of Chamber of Commerce shots of Surfside.