Galveston--the last Hoorah

We love Galveston--people bag on the dirty beaches and water. But we are cool with it--we know a good spot that's not crowded, the water is warm and we get used to the smell of seaweed.

We didn't catch anything this time. Last year it was all about the blue crab! It was too windy maybe?

Seagulls making a meal of Ellery's Doritos. Better they eat it than she.

We ate at this place called "The Spot." I had oysters on the 1/2 shell and Mom, you'd be proud--Soren tried one and liked it. (Good No. European boy) He noticed the above menu offering of a hamburger meal costing $200 and was a bit verklempt. I had to explain what a bottle of Dom was.

The above is the chapel of the Sacred Heart. Spanish catholic influence. Many of the other homes are great examples of Victorian architecture with a Carribean influence. We toured Moody mansion--35,000sq ft built in the 1870's. The house was fitted with speaking tubes connecting the kitchen with the main rooms like a rudimentary intercom system. So cool. Beautiful goldenrod ceramic tiles in the bathrooms! They didn't allow pics to be taken though. :(

The Strand is the historical district and has this cool old time icecream/candy parlor.

Well, summer vacation is coming to a close. I bought Soren's textbooks yesterday and I am SO excited. I am building the syllabi for September. Some of the literature we will read is as follows as it pertains to the places we will go:

Ghana (not going there, yet. But I need to start with Africa since the human race began there as far as recent scholarship can tell):

Am asking housekeeper goddess, Rose, to recommend something.

Britain:

Gulliver's Travels (abridged)

British Poetry--("Beware the Jabberwock my son!")

The Brehon Laws

Greece/Egypt:

Children's Homer (abridged version of the Odyssey)

The Egypt Game

So. America:

The Black Pearl

Does anyone have other suggestions for me?

India:

Panchatantra and Hitopadesha (moral stories)

Excerpts from Rudyard Kipling ("If" you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you. . .)

and Ghandi's Satyagraha (non-violent resistence)

Hong Kong:

A Single Shard

Writings of Confucius

Tao Te Ching

Huang Zunxian's expression of what's it's like to be a Chinese immigrant to America c. 1884.