Thanksgiving in Galveston: My Family Excursion

For the last 10 years, my family and one other family have headed out of town on Tuesday night to spend Thanksgiving weekend camping. This year, we spent Thanksgiving in Galveston. We selected Galveston because of its great weather, beach camping, and the fun things to see and do.

Since Galveston State Park was full, we stayed at Dellanera Park and RV resort. It’s a city-owned park about 9 miles from downtown Galveston. The park sits behind a berm on the Gulf of Mexico. Park amenities include:

• A playground
• 79 sites with a combination of water/electric/sewer
• A few sites with water/electric only
• Laundry room
• Small store
• And small play room.

Check out the camping section of Texas Outside for other places to stay in and around Galveston.

We spent Wednesday morning biking on the beach and over to Galveston Island State Park. Across the street from the State Park campsites is a nature area, which we explored for about an hour. The trails are flat and wind through the grassland then across and around the bayous. The terrain the same, which gets a little boring after 25 minutes of riding, so we headed back toward the beach and rode through some of the housing developments. There are some unique and magnificent houses along Galveston Beach.

Thanksgiving in Galveston: From the Beach to Lone Star Flight Museum

We returned to the beach then home for lunch. Beach time includes playing in the water, playing bocce ball, and flying kites. The wind was too light for the big kites, so we used cheap kites for kite wars (last kite flying is the winner). That always gets the juices and giggles flowing.

Later that day, we explored other fun things to see and do near the RV park. First, we stopped at the Galveston Health and Racquet Club to see if we could play tennis on their great courts. We also considered using the other amenities within the 9,000-square-foot facility. Those include basketball, swimming, water slide, aerobics, and strength equipment. After being allowed to, we paid the guest fee for visitors: $35 per week or $12 per day.

Down the block from the Health and Racquet Club is the Lone Star Flight Museum, home to one of the premier historic aircraft collections in the world. This 100,000-foot-facility has aircraft from the 1940’s, and the displays are well done. It’s a great place to spend some time if you like aircraft, or if it’s raining or cold outside.

Across the street from the flight museum sits one of the newest editions to Galveston: the Schlitterbahn Galveston Island Water Park. What a fun place, and it is open year round! You can’t go wrong to spend Thanksgiving in Galveston unless you miss the Schlitterbahn.

During the winter, there are more than a dozen heated (84 degrees) waterpark attractions including four tube rides, three speed slides, three kids activity areas, a secluded beach, hot tub, and the tidal wave river. The park has at least 31 attractions. Adults and kids of all ages can have a good time at Schlitterbahn, rain or shine. In the summer, another side of the park is open and the number of attractions double.

After Schlitterbahn, we checked out Moody Gardens. Moody Gardens is one of the premier educational/recreational facilities in the Southwest. It also provides horticultural therapy, education, and employment for persons with a wide range of physical and emotional disabilities. Some of the attractions at Moody Gardens include:

After all that fun exploring, I was more than ready for an excellent dinner. Ours included Honey Baked Ham and all the fixings. Then the games started – ladder golf , backgammon, and dominos. The games ended with the 11 of us playing King Kahuna.

We spent Turkey Day close to the campsite so we could watch the game, drink beer, and make sure the turkey didn’t burn. Thanksgiving meal started with injecting a turkey with an off-the-shelf jalapeno and garlic injection, seasoned with lots of Tony Chachere’s, pepper, and other seasonings, stuffed it with dressing, and set on a Weber grill for 5 hours. Of course, we added charcoal and mesquite as needed. Wow, it was incredible! Plus, dinner included all the other sides – mashed potatoes, gravy, bean casserole, rolls, relishes, and a magnificent corn casserole. Since we were all too full to move, we stayed at the picnic table and played games into the wee hours.

Friday, we waddled out of the campers, hit the bikes, and rode along the seawall in search of the perfect beach bar (good music, great view, games, frozen drinks, and low prices!). We were really looking for pina coladas, margaritas, and a seafood lunch.

The seawall runs along the beach for at least 12 miles. After 5 miles, we started our search for that bar and restaurant.

Each local we talked to recommended a place a few blocks down the seawall, but each place they recommended was closed. After all, it was the day after Thanksgiving.

After riding what seemed like 100 miles, we finally ended up at the Poop Deck. It met a couple of the perfect beach bar criteria – cheap cold beer, one worn-out well-used pool table, a good view of the beach, and Jimmy Buffet on the jukebox.

We checked out another couple of closed seafood restaurants along the seawall before heading to an outside restaurant called Caseys. It met two of our criteria (an outside patio with a view and frozen pina coladas and margaritas), but the waiters were on island time (which means “no big rush, we are on vacation also”). The food was a little pricey. We rated it just above okay (after 100 miles of bike riding, the pina coladas were rated a 10). After all the food and drinks, we all rode slowly along the seawall back to the campground. What an awesome way to spend Thanksgiving in Galveston!

Late Friday afternoon, we drove into town so we could shop the Strand. The Strand is fun to visit because of the shops; history, museums, and culture; events and festivals; restaurants; and nightlife. The non-shoppers biked the Strand, then rode along the wharf (restaurants, fresh fish markets, and boats along the channel), and through the historical district (some very nice restored homes built in the late 1800’s).

The real reason we went downtown was for the lighted boat parade in the channel. A festive parade of about 50 boats of various sizes decorated with Christmas lights, palm trees, Santa’s, and some rather inebriated boaters paraded in front of the crowd on the wharf. That was a unique experience that put a smile on our faces, Christmas carols our heads, and the Christmas spirit in our hearts.

Then we headed to Shrimp & Stuff (one of the few places that multiple locals recommended) for some inexpensive and good fried seafood. After that, we returned to the campsite for games, and to eat the pie and ice cream we couldn’t eat after the filling Thanksgiving dinner.

On Saturday, we played golf at Galveston Island Golf Course. The back nine of this course is fun and challenging with lots of water and natural hazards. You can read the review of Galveston Island Golf Course and find other nearby courses in the golf section of Texas Outside.

Back at the beach, we flew kites and played 10 holes of frisbee golf (we made up our own holes; for example, between the two palm trees; up the ramp; and hit the sign without hitting grass or cars, which is a one stroke penalty). That evening, we cooked venison three different ways: deep fried, barbequed, and bacon-covered with stuffed jalapenos and garlic – outstanding! Somehow, later that evening we ended up on the playground for some silly games and friendly competition including chin ups, swing bar leg wrestling, group sliding, and more (we are all kids at heart – I hope no other adults or kids were watching these late night antics!).

Sunday, we broke camp and headed up to Kemah. We rode bikes around town; walked the boardwalk; had drinks, nachos, and margaritas on Cadillac Bar’s deck while overlooking the boats coming and going through the channel; fed the sting rays; listened to some of the musicians playing in various parts of the city; and had an early dinner at T-Bone Tom’s Steak House (very tasty). We caught some good music on their patio.

You can find more fun things to see and do in Galveston or other nearby areas in the Discover Texas Section of Texas Outside.

Then our tired and depressed group (‘cuz we had to leave) got in our motor homes and headed back to the Big D for another week of work. I highly recommend spending Thanksgiving in Galveston. Any year is good.