Houston - Help Please

[Skiprr]

If it were a Sunday, I'd say brunch at the Hotel Galvez would be a must.

Is it overpriced? Yes; especially now that it's a Windham property. Is the food good? Yep. Why is it special? 'Cause the hotel has been there since 1911 and is a Galveston icon.

A consideration for a day-trip lunch.

[apostate]

She (Kellee) wants to take a little day trip to Galveston or just hit the beach for toes in the sand and water, good place to eat some seafood type of trip.

If she likes the beach, a day trip to Galveston sounds like a wonderful 2nd day if you avoid rush hour. A walk along the beach or sea wall might be a breath of fresh air, figuratively if not literally. If you don't want to plan too much, you can take I-45, which will turn into Broadway, which leads to Seawall Blvd. Find a place to park on Seawall Blvd or on the beach and enjoy the scenery. There are other things to see & do in Galveston, but if you only have one day free and your wife likes beaches, why make it complicated?

I don't have any particular food suggestions. Gaido's and Casey's are well known, but I've never eaten at either, per se. When I visited kin on the island we used to eat lunch at their home and dinner at the Pelican Club, but I think that was to get away from the tourists.

[4copas]

Thanks for the suggestions. If we can avoid rush hour traffic, how much time does it take to get down there leaving from MD?

[seamusTX]

It would take about an hour to get from the Medical Center to Galveston outside rush hour. You're marginally better off taking 610. Google maps are pretty good about these routes and trip times (thought not perfect).

This is a great time to visit the island. The beaches are all but empty, and you can still wade up to your knees if not swim. Gaido's and Casey's (no relation to me) are fixtures, but you can check your diet at the door. There might be 50 decent restaurants here aside from chains. I never tried to count them.

Pretty much everything a tourist needs to know is on http://www.galveston.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Not that I would discourage anyone from visiting Galveston, but Kemah is a decent few hours' trip for lunch. In other directions, Brenham or Victoria. There are all kinds of nooks and crannies of Texas culture and history within an hour of Houston.

- Jim Casey

[n5wd]

I was also going to suggest Kemah as a place where she can find some good sea food. We did dinner at Landry's on the boardwalk in Kemah last time - Pam was having some problems with smells getting to her, but the waitstaff was so kind and courteous to0 -- they let her sample four or five fish-type entrees before she found one she could tolerate. Needless to say, we'd recommend it to anyone. Joe's Crab Shack also gets a lot of the local catch as well.

We should be back down there in a couple of weeks, if everything goes well and she does get her chemo this week - was hypovolemic last week, so they had to infuse several litres of 0.9& Sodium Chloride in H2o (normal saline) last week.

Now, here's my request for all you Houstonians... we're going to be staying at the Rotary House at MD Anderson the next trip, and I'm wondering what the best range/gunshop in the Medical Center/Rice University area would be? It looks like I may have some time that I can spend while my wife's tied up with her tests (say three or four hours) and, though I wouldn't want to go too far, a little side trip wouldn't be out of the question. Recommendations, anyone?