Galveston

I'm back home now from our wonderful trip to Houston.  I took so many pictures, I will probably be sharing them for weeks - such beautiful quilts - so much inspiration!

On Wednesday Michelle and I went on a bus tour to Galveston, Texas with about 40 other quilters.  It was a fun day! We met several of the women and enjoyed getting to know them. Of the ones we met: two were from England, two from Canada, one from Oregon, one from Germany, two from Kansas, and two from Australia!

Our first stop was the Painted Pony 'n Quilts shop.  This is a huge shop, full of wonderful fabric, patterns, books, notions, etc.  They were very accommodating to our large group, even providing cookies, fruit and water! I found a treasure here that I'm very excited about - I will share that later!

In Galveston we took the ferry over to Bolivar Peninsula.  The tour guide told us that the peninsula was at one time completely destroyed in a hurricane.  I learned that in Texas, you are not just "from Texas" you are a "6th generation Texan", or your family "has been in Texas since the 1850's" etc. Our tour guide's family has been in Texas since the 1850's and she shared a lot of Texas history with us which was very interesting.

Once back in Galveston we went on a "window tour" of some Victorian style homes in the area. Most of the homes in Galveston are built up, either high porches with a lot of steps or even 10-12 feet up with garages or storage rooms underneath, because of the flooding.  The guide said one can buy flood insurance but it's so expensive that most people cannot afford it.  She also said because of the weather and living near the gulf, the homes are expensive to maintain.

This is The Bishops Palace - the 1892  Josephine and Walter Gresham House.

We were supposed to tour the Sacred Heart Cathedral but it was All Saints Day (November 1st), so it was closed.











Below is a huge old hotel on the Gulf Coast.  I believe it was called The Galvez.

We ate a wonderful lunch at the Sunflower Cafe' in Galveston and our last stop before heading back to Houston was at the Cactus Quilts shop.  It's a much smaller shop than the Painted Pony 'n Quilts but they were also very nice and accommodating and gave us snacks and drinks.  All in all it was a fun day with a nice group of people!  And I got two more quilt store license plates to add to my collection :)