Steve went to work at 6:00 a.m., so I got an early start towards Galveston, Texas. I drove through Houston along the way, and decided to stop. Houston has an interesting and unique skyline that reminds me of Legos.

I stopped and found a cafe and got some work done for awhile, then drove the last stretch to Galveston. I hit rush hour traffic exaggerated by a car accident. It took me about 2 hours of stop-and-go driving to get 20 miles. The last 30 miles went quickly. 

Galveston is an long narrow island off the coast of Texas. It's a favorite beach destination for Texans - especially Houstonians - but was devastated by Hurricane Ike in September 2008. The water in Galveston Bay was green and brown, the wind was swirling waves around. I had never seen the Gulf of Mexico before and didn't know what to expect. The color wasn't appealing and I was disappointed. But upon reaching the island I drove inland along Offats Bayou and inside the bay the water was a pure deep beautiful opal blue and I was so surprised and invigorated that I forgot about the horrible traffic.

I met up with Casey (who I'd met in Austin), who generously invited me to stay with her. We went out exploring and took the ferry to Point Bolivar.

The sun was setting and it was very beautiful.

We regrouped and grabbed a bite to eat - seafood po'boys - and went to a couple bars. The first one had a good sense of humor about the hurricane.

We stayed out pretty late and I felt bad because Casey had medical school intern rotations at 7:00 a.m. the next morning. I didn't, so I slept in late.