Galveston-Freeport Ocean Trip

Best Things Nearby:
This resort is on the ocean beach. It is the only RCI resort on the ocean. You can walk out of the unit and be on the soft sand beach in three steps. This is worth its weight in gold!!! There is nothing else around for at least 10 miles - no food, shops, shopping centers, etc. This is isolated and quiet!

Best Things About the Resort:
The resort is actually on the beach so you did not have to pack up and drive somewhere and have to worry about getting sand in the car or where a clean bathroom could be found. The staff is great - they went above and beyond to ensure we enjoyed our stay. The two bedroom unit has 3 Queen beds so my kids did not have to fight over sharing a bed!

Resort Experience:
Peregrine is an older resort. It has three separate building with about 5 units per building. The units are on stilts because of the proximity to the ocean. The stilt area becomes covered parking and an outside closet for your trash collection. Inside the unit is showing its age. The ceiling is "popcorn" with some balding areas. The floor and furniture could have used a steam cleaning and it had a musty smell. Three units burned last year in a fire and were totally redone - they were great but we only got to see them not stay there. The worst part of the unit was out of there control - the water. The mineral content is so high that the water is brown (they even painted the pool brown so you do not have to see the brown water). Not just brown but smelly - high sulfur. It took 2 days to get used to the smell of the water and actually shower for any length of time. We did find out it was worse for us than others because our unit had been closed for 2 weeks due to Rita evacuations so the smell had to be flushed out. As bad as it may seem - the location to the water was worth it. If I go back to Galveston area again - I would be likely to stay there again. I consider it glorified camping not luxury like I would have preferred. LOL The resort has a pool, VCR (one TV but we asked for a second and they went out and bought one for our unit!!) and movies and games to borrow, shuffle board, basketball and mosquitoes!!!! The resort does not provide hair dryers or toiletries so bring your own shampoo soap and lotion. Also we had to buy salt and pepper and the nearest grocery shopping is in Galveston - 1/2 hour drive away so stock up on your way (the resort does provide drinking water in gallon jugs for cooking and such.

• Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
• Activities: Fair
• Amenities: Poor
• Unit Satisfaction: Good
• Family Friendliness: Excellent
• Service: Excellent

We rode the free ferry boat from old town Galveston to Port Bolivar. My husband was skeptical, but it proved to be a blast for the kids. There are signs posted telling you how long the boarding wait time is. We got right on. We decided to drive on the ferry, but you can walk on if you choose. There are signs asking you to stay in your parked car until the boat starts moving. I got out, went up stairs to the walk-on area, and videotaped the departure, and then, when we were moving, my whole family journeyed to the back of the boat, where hundreds of seagulls were following the boat. A family was there with bread. They let us have some, and the kids threw bread to the birds and watched them dive to catch each piece in their mouths.

Off the side of the ship were jellyfish, tons of them, and dolphins. This was the only time we actually got to see dolphins our entire trip. When we got off the ferry, we drove around the area of Port Bolivar and Port Alexander, but we didn’t see much – an old lighthouse was about all that was there. We got back on the ferry and rode back to Galveston.

I highly recommend that you take and hour or two of your trip and ride to ferry. You pass some kind of navy boat monument on the way, which was neat to see, but we never made it there to go inside and see what it was about.

Kemah boardwalk is a quaint little area of Kemah lined with shops and antiques. The boardwalk is owned by Laundry’s and has tons of restaurants and fun activities. There are lots of rides, $2.50 to $3 per person, or you can get a pass for $16. There is also an arcade, toy shops, and an aquarium/restaurant with a stingray experience and dancing fountains the kids can play in. After 4pm the Beast runs – a speed boat that you can not miss. Restaurants include the underwater dining experience of The Aquarium (we loved it), Joe's Crab Shack, Laundry's, Saltgrass, The Flying Dutchman, Babins seafood, Cadillac Mexican, The Crab House, The Pizza Oven, and the coffee house. A train is available to give you a tour of the area and explain its development. At the end you experience a short gun fight/robbery, which was quite cute - the kids liked it. We got Dippin Dots - our favorite theme-park treat,  flash frozen ice cream, common in Galveston area, not in Arizona, so we ate it everywhere we went! The rides are on the ocean front (right side of the area) and the shops on the left, with dining throughout. The stingray experience and dancing fountains are on the left side of the area. We spent the day here, and the kids begged to go back the next day.

We spent about 6 hours at the NASA Space Center, closer to Houston than Galveston. We got two-for-one coupon admission at Sam’s Club in Houston. It seemed like it was about 5 miles off I-45; we thought we had passed it, but eventually the signs led the way.

When we first got there, there was an indoor playground called Kids Space Place. If you have been to Makootu’s Island or the old Club Disney, it was very similar to those indoor play areas, and inside you can explore and experiment with commanding the space shuttle or living on the space station. The activities are set up to replicate life like an astronaut. It was a large climbing structure, and the kids loved it. We pulled the kids out of there and went to the flight simulator. I did not ride, but it looked like it would shake the boots off of you!!! We got a ticket for the tram tour – it is free, but you need a ticket. It takes you to see many aircraft and the training facility for the astronauts – we got to see some doing experiments and training through a huge glass wall.

They have a nice gift shop, and we got astronaut ice cream – another kid favorite! As you are boarding the tram, they take a picture of your group – it costs $10 and is on display when you get off. We tried to get a picture ourselves, but none of them turned out quite as nice, so be prepared to want the picture. There was an astronaut gallery that had pictures and information on all the astronauts that have gone into space with lots of space suits to view – my son loved that. Other exhibits were on the space station itself. There was a film, shown on a five-story screen that shows you what it takes to be an astronaut.

We visited Moody Gardens on a rainy day. It was not well marked on the street signs (a small blue sign near the road sign was the only marking), but I had good directions, so I found it fairly easily. Moody Gardens consists of three large pyramids--a science discovery pyramid that was on music, the rain-forest pyramid, and the aquarium pyramid. In addition, they have a restaurant with picturesque views of the bay and landscape, an 8-story IMAX, a ride simulator, and a paddle-boat ride. Each part costs separately, or you can buy an all-day pass for $31. That is what we did.

We started in the rain-forest pyramid, which was great, with many tropical animals, and they did not appear to be in typical cages, but instead it seemed like you were in the rain forest, with sloths, macaws, bats, flamingos, crocodiles, piranhas, and more. We wanted to go back inside after we left, but your pass/ticket only allows you to go through once.

At 11:30am we saw our IMAX movie on sharks. They said that it was the most popular of the two choices. The other choice was about the Africa safari. It was a 3-D movie but did not hold my kids' attention. I think my husband liked it, but it was more informational than entertaining.

Next we headed to the aquarium. It is divided into regions of the world. I think it was my favorite part. I really liked the sting rays and the penguins. My daughter loved the touch tanks with horseshoe crabs, stingrays, starfish… We spent most of our time here.

Finally we went to the science pyramid. Both kids loved it the most and begged to go back. Exhibits feature how sound is made, a step-on piano, drums, guitars, etc. My daughter even sang karaoke into a microphone – she thought she was a star!

We were exhausted, so we decided to go home without riding the paddle boat or the ride simulator, but as we were leaving, I asked if we could come back tomorrow to complete our pass. They made a note of it on my passes and we came back the next day to finish our Moody Garden experience. The paddle boat goes out everyday at 2pm. It slowly tours the bay – I would not pay separately for the ride, but it was nice to do once. The ride simulator was set up for Halloween, and we decided to skip it so it didn’t scare the kids.

The beach outside our resort had the softest sand. I was comfortable to walk around barefoot. The sand was firm enough that you could drive down on the beach. Some drove down with large fishing poles attached to there trucks and fished several poles at one time - it was fun to watch. The beach was shallow for quite a ways out from shore. I never did get out far enough to go under water while standing. It was knee-deep for several yards, and then waist-deep and back to knee-deep again. The waves broke at the knee-deep water and made for a fun ride with blow-up rafts as well as nothing at all. We all loved collecting small sea shells and even found one large conch, but it was living, so we left it there!