Weekend at Bernies...errr Galveston

This past weekend, B and I finally decided to use a free two night stay at "The Victorian Condo & Resort" in Galveston. I won it at work a few months ago, but we just couldn't get the timing for when we could get away for an entire weekend. I decided to get off from work an hour early to try and beat traffic, but after getting the rest of our stuff packed, and then dropping the shorties off at mom and Steve's, we didn't end up leaving until around 4:30pm. We missed most of rush hour by taking the bypass tollway, but once we hit highway 45 it was gridlocked. We found out later from Brent and Robin, who were meeting us at Clear Lake to have some pizza at my now favorite place down here, "BJ's Pizzaria and Brewery", that there was a big accident which backed up traffic for miles.

"BJ's" was AWESOME! Their pizza was a Chicago style, but not upside down like F&O's back home. The cheese was thick and rich, the sauce was amazing, and the crust was off tha hook! It was even better the next morning! We had to wait an hour for Brent and Robin to get there, so we decided to try out the appetizers. Steak fries w/ ranch, and cheese sticks w/ marinara...mmmmmmmm! And to top it off...one of their middle-ales..."Jeremiah Red", which was pretty good as well. While eating our meal I saw a guy behind us had some shotglass beers or something, and Brent told me it was a thing they had, like a sampler platter for their brewed beers. That was enough for me, so I had our waiter send out the seven sampler. I went from light to dark, and by the end it was gross, but the first four or so were really good! Soooo...fyi, for those who like a beer and pizza, and come to Houston...we'll be hitting BJ's! Heck, we'll be hitting BJ's any time we have visitors! ;) Oh yeah, they have a huge big screen for games, and Iowa/ISU was on! And of course the Hawks won! RAWK!

On to the condo/resort! It was on the end of the island where 45 comes into town, so we didn't have to drive far. The condo was really nice, and big enough to sleep around 6 people. It had some bunk beds for two kids, a fold out couch, and then a break away room with a double-sized bed. Brent and Robin stayed and played cards and talked until around 1am, then drove back to Humble. On Saturday morning, we slept in a bit then had IHOP for brunch. It was so nice to have some alone/down time to just focus on each other. It was really nice to hang out with Brent and Robin too, as I see us doing more things together. We picked up the shorties around noon, and then headed to Moody Gardens for some Christmas fun! They had Santa there for the children, so I got all the kids together to get a picture with him. It turned out great. We then went through their "Festival of Lights". Basically it's like what Water Works does, except it's not as long, and it's something you walk through. They had a bunch of things you could do along the way...watch a guy juggle things on fire, ice skate, have some KETTLE KORN!!!, etc. The one thing I was most blown away with, was the nativity scene of lights. I don't know why it blew me away, but it did. It was nice to see something like that, in something like that. When we got done with the walk, we went inside and watched a 3D movie in the IMAX theater called "Santa vs the Snowman". It was a short 40min film done by the guy who does the Nickelodeon cartoon "Jimmy Neutron". It was pretty amazing to see a 3D film, and it made me wonder why more films aren't done in 3D (and IMAX!!!). The best part was watching Braden with his glasses on, trying to reach out and touch things he was seeing coming at him! It was hilarious. Before it started though, they showed another 3D movie preview of a film they're also showing called "Sharks". It was then that Jaelyn finally put on her 3D glasses and a shark was coming right at her...it scared her to death! Took her 10 mins into the film to put on her glasses again! HA!

We came home Sunday, watched some football, then fell asleep for naps. What a nice weekend. I think the best part was looking outside on the balcony, and seeing and hearing the ocean...I could live like that.