We were celebrating Larry's retirement when most people were watching the news for information on Hurricane Ike. Lucky enough most of our family was out of harm's way when the hurricane hit. Stacy and Allison decided to weather out the storm in Houston. Maybe we will hear from them concerning their experiences with the hurricane. Sherman got a lot of rain but little wind.

I've been watching the news and surfing the web with regards to the storms and my interests have been with Surfside Beach where we rented a house and Galveston which we have visited. Both received extensive damage and yet I am relieved by how much survived.

I was sad to learn that the Balinese Room in Galveston, did not survive. The history of that pier fascinated the romantic side of me. At one time the building on the end of the pier was a gambling hall visited by the rich and the famous of the time period. But it was illegal at the time so they put the gambling hall at the far end of the pier. A buzzer was sounded in the gambling hall when the Texas Rangers entered at the beach end of the pier. By the time the rangers entered the gambling hall everything was in order.
	We also rented a house in Surfside Beach, Texas. Here is a picture. I don't think it's there anymore and I think it was gone before Ike hit. I was reading about a Texas law. Something like the Texas 'open beach' law. It has something to do with the area between high tide and low tide not being able to be owned. It is always open to the public. So when a storm pulls out the sand underneath a house such as this, and the tide comes in, the owner may lose their rights to ownership, and the house may have to be demolished.
Another thing we noticed was the damage to the entrance to the Flagship Hotel. This is how it used to look. Now the driveway is gone. The hotel is on an island. Galveston State Park suffered a lot of damage. And I understand that Sea Rim Park is considered a total loss.

 I think I like the idea of visiting and not living there, of being a turtle and traveling with my home.