We back-tracked to the Convention
Center, which had a lot of phoenix motifs around. Every town has their
symbols, which usually fits with the school mascot (for this area was a manta
ray). In addition to letting us know where to locate the Texas City Museum
A local artist had drawn a series
of murals, each one which focused on the highlights of each decade. These
were pretty kewl to look at.
The rest of the gallery in the
Center had other displays of local businesses and such, which were nicely
presented. There was a wind sculpture out in the side yard that I found
amusing because of how odd it sounds when you say “The city of Texas City .”
The Texas City Museum Whitehall had about the
birth of the U.S. Navy (and even that was a small display).
The most
interesting exhibit here was that of the Disaster of 1947. One day in
April, a French ship filled with ammonium nitrate fertilizer and sulfur exploded
at the docks. With the force between two-and-four kilotons of TNT, the
explosion flattened everything for a blocks, tossed huge debris even farther,
and caused the deaths of hundreds (most of whom were spectators who thought
they were a safe distance away from what they thought was a simple “dock
fire”). All windows in a mile radius were shattered, and the blast was
felt as far as Denver .
To a city that was resuming normal life after a destructive world war,
this was their “hometown Hiroshima .”
This watch, hands stopped at the time of the blast, really drove that
home.
The exhibit gave detailed
information on the events leading up to the blast, some footage (taken by an
amateur who was out on the dike), and what happened in the aftermath. In
a rare display of comradeship, the different oil companies in the city helped
each other repair the damage done to their plants, as well as rebuild the
destroyed sections of the city. It also helped pave the way for new
safety regulations for the oil industry. As the city essentially “rose
from the ashes,” the phoenix was adopted as the symbol of the city. I
considered this a fabulous historical find that we’d stumbled upon.
I checked online to see how
powerful the blast was. A few months ago in the Texas
town of West ,
an explosion at a fertilizer plant had the nation’s attention, especially when
the footage of that went viral. On the list of man-made non-nuclear
explosions, the one in West ranked at number seven. The blast in Texas City came in at
number two. I won’t go into the specifics (as those details about energy
released, destructive radius, and such) can be easily located online, but
suffice to say even by today’s standards what happened in 1947 was devastating.
It was nearing lunch, and the host
at the Museum didn’t give any details about places to eat, so we figured we’d
just find something in Kemah. Heavily damaged by Hurricane Ike, the
Boardwalk was the summer place to go for many area people. It contains
amusement park rides, a boat marina, and many restaurants. It was the
middle part of the day when we got there, in what was known as the “Lighthouse
District” (which didn’t have any lighthouses). To me, Kemah really looked
no different than the main drag in Lake George (NY), with a Coney Island-style
carnival attached to it. This was also similar to Pleasure Pier in Galveston .
Interesting to look at, but not stimulating enough to hold our attention.
We located
a place with a pirate motif, called Skallywag, as that looked it might be good
for lunch. This turned out to be a bar, not a pub. There was a
limited menu of grilled and fried items, but not really the variety of what we
were looking for. Other than bar stools, there wasn’t any seating.
The bartender rolled a barrel out and pushed some chairs up to it in
order to make a table. (Mum said in fun way that she’s never eaten on a
barrel before.) That was really nice. Since the menu wasn’t what we
wanted, we didn’t stay. I have to say the people who were hanging out for
their noon-time drinks were extremely friendly and welcoming. If we
weren’t in “lunch priority” mode, we all agreed that hanging out there for a
short time to have a drink and socialize with the patrons would’ve been very
fun. If you get to Kemah, you should stop by.
Just down the street a short
distance was the Greek café, Bakkhaus, and that’s where we got lunch. The
menu had some light American fare too, and also had a friendly staff and good
environment. I ordered a grilled chicken gyro which ended up being
freakin’ huge. I had to pull some of the meat out on to my plate just to
be able to refold the bread and eat it like a taco. It was very good.
From our vantage point, the
Boardwalk was pretty empty (it was still a work day after school had restarted
for the year), but we could guarantee this place would go freakin’ crazy when
the evening arrived (and heat broke). There wasn’t much to see here, and
no need to spend any more time.
Continuing
up route 146, we came into Seabrook, which I’d read was supposed to be like
Kemah (but less commercialized). From what we could see, this was a more
an area of permanent residents (wealthy beach front property and rental condos).
Nice to look at, but not much for the visitor. After turning back
onto NASA Parkway
(to head back towards Webster), we could see one lighthouse off in the distance
on Nassau Bay
The reason why we’d come back this
way was to stop at the Bay
Area Museum
Well, as is one of our usual
procedures, we stopped and got ice cream. All the Ben & Jerry’s
locations had closed in the Austin
area a couple years ago, and it was my understanding that all their stores had
closed. (All the Austin
ones happened within the same week, so it made it appear it was a corporate
directive, as opposed to something with the franchise.) We’d seen the Ben
& Jerry’s location across from our breakfast spot all week, and we knew
we’d hit it sooner or later. Ben & Jerry’s is one of the few ice
cream places where I don’t get a milkshake, because I can enjoy some of my
favorite flavors (like Phish Food) without having to resort to having a pint at
home (which then begs to be consumed in a single sitting).
The afternoon swim was followed by
a light dinner at Jason’s Deli, as we’d need to get up early the next day in
order to get Mum & Dad back to the airport. I still had other things
in mind to fill the day (since I had the rental until noon on Sunday).
For more information on the places visited or mentioned:
Jean Lafitte: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Lafitte
Texas City
Disaster of 1947: http://www.local1259iaff.org/disaster.html
Kemah Boardwalk: http://www.kemahboardwalk.com/
Skallywag Suds N Grub:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/skallywag-suds-n-grub-kemah-2
Bakkhaus: http://www.bakkhustaverna.com/
Seabrook: http://seabrooktx.gov/index.aspx?NID=9
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