Some days of our road trip are better than others.
Our day out in Galveston was one of the better ones – possibly even our best.
We’d considered staying in Galveston during our time in Texas, but decided to spend a week in Houston instead and visiting Galveston as a day trip. In hindsight, I wish we’d done it the other way around as we loved Galveston.
It helped that there was beautiful weather the day we visited as it was sunny with a high of 82°. We arrived late morning and headed to East Beach; despite the nice weather, the beach was empty as it was a Monday morning in November.
Truffles has never been the biggest fan of the beach. She likes playing on the sand, but hates going in the ocean. She doesn’t even like getting wet in the bath or going out in the rain, so it was a huge surprise when she started running through shallow pools to chase her ball.
We ended up spending about 90 minutes on the beach, with Truffles spending the entire time bounding through the water. I think she’d have happily played even longer, but Shae and I were getting hungry and so we headed off to lunch.
One of Shae’s friends had suggested going for lunch at Shrimp n’ Stuff on Avenue O which was a great recommendation. I ordered two pieces of fried catfish with fries and coleslaw, while Shae went for a tilapia po-boy with fries. The food was delicious and the portion sizes were huge – we could’ve easily split a meal.
The outdoor seating at Shrimp n’ Stuff is pet-friendly, so Truffles was able to join us and kept giving us the eyes as she wanted to try our food.
After eating such a big lunch, we decided to walk it off by exploring the Strand Historic District in Galveston. This was a cute area which didn’t feel kitschy; that was a nice surprise considering what a lot of beachside towns can be like.
The Strand Historic District was very pet-friendly as many of the stores allowed dogs inside, so we perused several of those. There’s also a wall mural that offers a great photo opportunity.
It was also only a short walk to the dock to check out the shrimp boats.
The same friend who’d recommended Shrimp n’ Stuff recommended visiting La King’s Confectionery on Strand St. She hadn’t steered us wrong so far, so we stopped there and got a mint chocolate milkshake. The milkshake was so enormous that even two of us couldn’t finish it, which was a shame as it was very tasty.
We’d loved how much fun Truffles had at the beach earlier that day, so we headed back there so she could run and play even more.
The sun set about 30 minutes later which was probably a good thing as I don’t know if her legs could’ve handled much more running.
After getting back in the car, we started making our way back to Houston but had an important stop along the way. While in Australia last year, we met Allison on the Kangarrific Wine Tour. She used to live in Texas and gave us a ton of recommendations of things to do during our time in the Lone Star state.
One of the things she’d suggested was visiting a Buc-ee’s but we hadn’t seen any over our previous month in Texas. There was finally one on our route back, so we stopped by to check it out.
Buc-ee’s is a chain of convenience stores, many of which are huge inside – much larger than regular convenience stores and gas stops.
I can see why they’re so popular as their staff was friendly, they have a huge range of things in stock along with fun snacks like Beaver Nuggets (caramel sweet corn which is very addictive).
They’re also – somewhat strangely but entirely deservedly – known for their bathrooms. This is something Allison had mentioned as they’ve won awards for their cleanliness. Having checked them out, I can vouch for how clean they are!
And with that, we made our way back to the hotel after an incredibly fun day out.
Final Thoughts
We only spent a day in Galveston and wished it had been longer. It had a nice beach, a cute downtown area, great weather in November and was just an all-round interesting place to visit. If we return to Texas in the future, Galveston will definitely be on our list of places to revisit.
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