I just realized the other day that I promised a blog post of natural wonders from my trip to Houston last month! I am a bad blogger, but better late than never, I hope.
Galveston, the Gulf and the Bay, were the beaches we visited. Above is the Gulf, on a day windy enough that a dangerous surf warning was up. Here's a look down to the other end of the island:
The windy conditions made the heat and humidity (in November!) easier to take. And it apparently was perfect for the fellows we saw wind-surfing on the Bay side of the island:
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| looks like fun? maybe? |
In addition to nature in the raw, we took in a rather spectacular example of curated nature at the Moody Gardens in Galveston. Wow! What a great zoo/aquarium/botanical garden!
The aquarium section was my favorite. I was pleased to see this nice exhibit of African cichlids, fish that we—in our more energetic younger days—actually kept in a large-ish aquarium. They're really fun fish to watch, as besides being beautiful, they're quite territorial. And the moms incubate the eggs, and even protect the newborn fry, in their mouths! We were so excited the first time we saw little baby cichlids bursting out of a parent's mouth.
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| the Great Lakes here are African rift lakes, not the US variety |
There were all kinds of other great fish displays, including this large cylindrical tank, with nephew and lovely great-niece's curly locks for scale:
One of my favorite class of critters in an aquarium is always the jellyfish, and they had a whole room of them! This was the most striking of the jellyfish tanks:
Our last evening on the coast was when we saw the wind-surfer on the Bay, and were also treated to this lovely sunset. A fitting closure to our brief visit to this very interesting part of our state.
