Views and "Galveston, oh Galveston..."

I was inspired to begin writing this Blog after several years of reading Blogs written by friends, but also, and perhaps more, as an outlet for expressing myself in a "creative" way. Recently, after "signing in" to my blog account, I noticed that my little blog has received over 1100 views since I started writing about six months ago! REALLY??? I mean, that's a lot! For those of you who don't "Blog," This site, Blogger, or Blogspot, has a default setting that counts the number of views a blog receives as well as the "audience's" country. For example, when my sisters, or my mom or my friends in California or New York etc view my blog, they are recorded as "United States." When my niece viewed my blog while she was in her study-abroad program, it counted her as "United Kingdom." Recently, I reviewed some of my posts. I was brand new at this technology when I started and had no idea how to share my posts on my social networking sites so they have very few views. My friend, and fellow blogger, Sue shared how to link Facebook to my blog and since doing so, I have received many more visits. Interestingly, after reading a couple of earlier entries, I think they are possibly more entertaining than some of the later ones but since they were not shared via Facebook, they received fewer visits. While I am astounded by the number of views I have received, I am even more amazed at the number of countries my "audience" has grown to represent. Places like Russia, Burma, Germany, Malaysia and a few more are all included in my tally. REALLY??? WOW! (OK, yes, I know, I hear all of you buzz-kills...these "views" are probably either the result of some crazy "Google search" that sort of matched some word in the title of my posts, or some random computer looking for something that also "sorta matched" some word or phrase that I used, BUT, it's still cool.)

Recently, Haime and I visited Galveston. Both of us enjoy visiting the coasts and beaches of just about any place we can find them. We are amazed at the differences between the coastal water ways and beaches in the U.S. The Texas Gulf Coast is, of course, the easiest for us to visit and we both love it, but for different reasons. Haime actually likes to go to Corpus or to Port Aransas most so he can fish. I've tried telling him that the fish actually hang out around all areas of the gulf but those are his favorite spots. I actually like to go to Galveston more, I am a bit of a history nut, (yes, I know, I'm just a nut...WHATEVER), and Galveston just seems to ooze history.

Anyway, Haime and I attended a play in Galveston recently: Ed Asner as FDR. WOW! We have both enjoyed Mr. Asner's acting and were amazed at the incredible job he did in his portrayal. The play follows FDR's rise from a "Polio-inflicted-upside-down turtle" to a highly popular U.S. President. The play covered an incredible amount of information, including: FDR's "New Deal" policies; his presidential campaign strategies; his policies, both foreign and domestic;  the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and our entry into the war and much more. In short, it is a combination of an entertaining portrayal of a famous President and a very interesting history lesson. The play lasted just under two hours and as Haime asked afterward, how the heck did he memorize all that stuff?

Elissa

While we were in Galveston, we took some time to check out the Elissa. I have always been fascinated by old sailing vessels and have marveled at the fact that more of them didn't sink. The Elissa is considered a "tall ship" and started life as a British merchant vessel in the late 1800's. Look at the picture at the left, if you compare her petite size with the enormous size of the floating city pictured behind her, I think you'll agree, it is amazing that she survived without sinking! There is just something that pulls me to these ancient vessels and makes me wonder about the captains and crews and their families and the cargoes and all of the stories this old girl could tell if she were able. WOW!

TTFN,

Lois