COMMENT OF THE DAY: IN THE CLEAR WATERS OF THE GULF “I take my kids there every couple of weeks all summer and we are in and out of the water all day. I don’t know what it used to be like in the 80s but when we go to Stewart beach now the water is clear, we see dolphins almost every visit and fish literally swim between your toes periodically. I didn’t go down there for a couple of years after moving out here because of the horror stories I heard. They were nonsense then and they’re still nonsense now.” [Jimbo, commenting on Galveston’s Flagship Hotel Fades into the Sunset, Leaves a Few Big Chunks in the Gulf]
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I think we are getting away from what we should be doing. Go back to nature. Flowers are what put us at ease. Storms come and storms go. Have you ever gone for a walk in a park and forgotten all your worries. When you see the color of the flowers in spring. It makes you forget about all the office stress. When you go home you just want to kiss your wife and hug you kids. Laurel here in Houston of Laurel’s florals. told me that when she is preparing flowers for a wedding she is always stress free. So take her advice and go smell the roses.
Wow, interesting spam there antoine…
To the OC: I agree, most of the popular areas of the beach are far cleaner than most people make them out to be.
Mind you, I’m down there fishing almost every weekend during the summer, and the people who usually gripe about the conditions of the water claim they’ve “refused to go there for years.”
Then again, I usually clean up trash when I’m down there. And, the clarity of the water depends on wind and tidal conditions. “Green” is one of the best conditions for fishing, “clear” usually results in a bad fishing day for most of us. (Imagine how ineffective lures are when fish can see 5x better than they normally can =)
!c
Drone,
I completely agree. We typically go to the beaches near Beachtown and the Galvestonian on East Beach. The water has been remarkably clear and clean for the last few years. Last Summer, we saw swarms of hundreds of stingrays right at the edge of the waterline several times. None of us had ever seen that before. Likewise, I bike/walk/run along Buffalo Bayou several times a week and even its water has been clean and clearer than I’ve ever seen it before.
The people who continue to scoff about the beaches and the bayou probably haven’t been to either in a decade. One neighbor was complaining about tarballs at the beach. When I asked him how long ago that was; he said “In the 80’s”.
I’m OK with all the gripers, it will keep them away from the beach and that’s more room for the rest of us that know how wonderful the Galveston Beaches are!
The beach in Galveston may not be the best in the world, but by being only 45 minutes away from the 4th largest city in the nation, it’s got a leg up on those beautiful beaches that you have to take a plane to see.
When one is thousands of miles away from good beaches, Galveston begins to look ok.
@Bubba: Having spent plenty of time on beaches in Hawaii, the West Coast, and the East Coast, I can say that, yes, in terms of what the average person finds typically interesting about a beach – no, the upper Texas coast does not match those expectations. However, having paddled many places on the gulf coast by kayak, I can say there are aspects of the coast that can be found few places else – most especially, the salt marshes. While these marshes may not have pretty white sands, picturesque cliffs, and stunning young beauties to stare at, they do have an assortment of wildlife and amazing fisheries that are found few other places.
I’d rather paddle by myself down a bayou to a back stretch of salt marsh and chase 30″ redish in 5″ of water than be stuck in a crowd of “perfect beauty” on the shores of Miami.
To say that “when one is a thousand miles away from (what you consider to be) good beaches, Galveston begins to look ok,” could easily be re-stated as “When one doesn’t look good enough, or isn’t rich enough to marry a playboy model, my wife starts to look ok.”
!c
It depends on what your definition of good is. Ask a 5 year old and they will tell you that a beach with warm calm water, plenty of fish, crabs and shellfish to look at and play with and miles of sand for digging is about as good as it gets. So the sand isn’t white and there aren’t overhanging coconut palms, big deal.
The tar ball situation definitely seems better than when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s. The washed up seaweed, not so much. I know the water is brown because the sand is churned up from the shallow bottom, but I’d be interested to know what exactly a typical sample of Galveston sea water contains? What are the pollution levels like and how does it compare to somewhere like Miami beach? Oh, I guess you’re going to tell me to speak to that Google fellow. BTW, it’s a long way from paradise, but it sure beats having no nearby beach. I always feel better after a day spent down at Galveston.
Galveston is what it is–a relatively sleepy beach town near and dear to Houston’s heart. (For those of us growing up here). The reason for the muddy brown water is because the Mississippi River washes out right by us and we get the churned up muck at our doorstep (look it up if you don’t believe)–not dirty water just Mississippi mud!