Galveston

Sacred Heart Catholic Church of Galveston

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In 1892 the first Sacred Heart Catholic Church was built in Galveston, Texas. Unfortunately it was completely destroyed in the horrific hurricane of 1900. A replacement church was constructed during 1903-1904. Like the Bishop’s Palace across the street, famed Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton designed this, the second church on the site.

Note the dome, center

The beautiful church marquee

 

 

 

 

 

Following is a quote from a 1981 Texas Historical Commission Historical Marker placed at the church: “The present building, the second for the parish, was constructed in 1903-04 during the pastorate of the Rev. D. J. Murphy. A prominent landmark in the city, it features ornate octagonal towers, flying buttresses, elaborate ornamentation, and a variety of arches. The design reflects influences of the Moorish, Byzantine, Gothic and Romanesque styles. The building’s original dome, damaged in a 1915 hurricane, was redesigned by Nicholas Clayton.”

Bishop’s Palace in Galveston Texas is remarkable

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Known as Bishop’s Palace, this Victorian style mansion was originally the home of Josephine and Walter Gresham. Gresham was a railroad magnate and hired famed architect Nicholas Clayton to design the home. The structure was completed in 1892, and it survived the disastrous 1900 hurricane.

From 1923 until the 1960’s the house was used as the residence of the Bishop of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese. It is now owned by the Galveston Historical Foundation. Guided and self guided tours are available for an admission fee.

Sandpiper RV Resort on Stewart Beach at Galveston Texas

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You can’t miss the Sandpiper RV Resort after you get off the free ferry and drive towards Seawall Blvd. Sher and I saw the large sign for the park as we headed towards a local CVS store.

When I stopped later at the office, a very nice fellow told me that yes, they did have a back in space available. At $40 (using a 10% senior discount) we decided to stay, considering that I was told that the park WiFi had been upgraded last summer and was very strong.

Paved roads, level concrete pads.

This is a nice park. The sites are all on concrete with paved roads. It has full hook-ups including cable TV and the so-called upgraded WiFi. Yes, that is our only complaint about this park. When we were able to connect to one of the several routers, the load speeds were very slow, and connections kept cutting out. This was very disappointing as the office had said the WiFi was strong.

If you don’t care about having good WiFi then staying at Sandpiper RV Resort is a decent choice.

On the road to Galveston, Texas via the Bolivar Peninsula

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Today we headed to Galveston Island from the town of Winnie, home to the large flea market known as Larry’s Trading Days. The direct route took us down to the Bolivar Peninsula, a very narrow spit of land with the Gulf on one side. Most of the way the road ran right next to the Gulf shore.

We stopped at the sign for a historical marker and ended up at a fascinating park that was once an artillery battery that was built in 1925. Fort Travis had several gun emplacements and several magazines.

There’s our RV on the ferry

View of Galveston from the ferry

We then went on down to the free ferry that runs daily from the south end of Bolivar across the water to Galveston Island. We had a little delay for the ferry, as we did not make the cut for the first ferry that came to the dock and had to wait for the second ferry boat. The ferry ride was really pretty cool as we saw lots of large ocean going cargo ships.

This is a Pilot boat that leads the huge cargo ships in and out of the harbor

Sher and I are planning on seeing the sights here in Galveston for at least a day or two. We’ll let you know what we see, and we’ll give you all another campground review as well.

Took the ferry to Galveston, Texas

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On the ferry

On the ferry

We enjoyed a combination of good timing and good luck when we took the free ferry from Bolivar Penninsula to Galveston a couple of days ago.

The fellow at the Texas Welcome Center on I-10 told us about this ferry and suggested that we plan to follow the coast down to Galveston. We waited in line for about 30 minutes and then were directed to board the ferry. What a treat it was when we ended up at the front of the ferry boat. The best view on the vessel.

The good timing kicked in because just as the ferry left we were blessed with the beautiful sunset over the water.

 

 

Sunset on the water

Sunset on the water

The ferry

The ferry