scenes from the weekend: kemah
Back in May 2004, when Alex was a mere 2 months old, Marcus took me to Kemah for my first Mother's Day lunch. Back then, Kemah was a scrappy little Texas town on the coast, with a small pier supporting 2 or 3 restaurants looking out on the bay. It was nothing fancy, but the restaurant we visited had good seafood and refreshing drinks and was family-friendly enough (all critically important for two brand-new parents, as we were), so it was a great time.
Fast-forward to this weekend, when on Saturday, we had our final meeting with Alex's teachers for the year, to get her final results. She did really great, and is raring to go for 5th grade, so the rest of the weekend felt pretty celebratory. And since, having had our last parent-teacher conference, Alex's summer holiday could finally begin, I told Marcus yesterday afternoon that we should go visit somewhere to make it official.
"Galveston?" I suggested. Marcus wrinkled his nose.
"Nah, it's too late to go down there," he responded. "How about Brazos Bend State Park?"
"Where the alligators are?" I looked at him like he was crazy.
"Oh, they won't bother you," retorted my British husband with staggering confidence (this from a man who, last I checked, is from a country completely devoid of alligators, so I'm not entirely certain where his comfort in his alligator knowledge comes from. In any event, he was missing my point).
"I'm not worried about the alligators," I answered, with (perhaps too enthusiastically) a huff. "I'm simply pointing out that it's 90 degrees outside, with crazy humidity, and alligators live in swamps. You know, where the mosquitos are. Sweating and getting eaten alive by insects is not my idea of fun. At least the beach will have a breeze."
"Fine," he said, resigned. But as we started packing up to leave, I suddenly remembered that first Mother's Day.
"Dude, what about Kemah?"
His face lit up. "That's an idea," he said slowly. "I hear it has built up quite a bit since we were last there. Let's try that."
And so we did. And to say that Kemah "has been built up quite a bit" is the understatement of the century -- this place is a bona fide town and amusement park now (albeit a very cute and compact one):
It was breezy and relaxing and low key and it looks like we might have rediscovered a lovely little day-trip getaway. And it was the perfect way to launch Alex's summer holidays.
