Gallivanting in Galveston: Just a fun day.

My Monday morning sunrise walk was a treat, because with the weather forecast i was figuring it would be my only one.  Sure enough, clouds did move in that afternoon and it's supposed to rain some today.

Meanwhile, yesterday we took a tour of the NASA facility in Houston, and stopped at Buc-ees!  Buc-ees! is a gas station/convenience store/bait shop -- featuring dead bait! -- that has grown to monstrous proportions and has more Clean Restrooms! than you can shake a stick at.  You can also get Beaver Nuggets, Buc-ees! goodies like okra pickles and mayhaw jelly and bison jerky, and any tchotchke you can imagine.  It is a tourist destination in itself, at least to me.

Since i love to spend a bit of time in our Florida vacation spot each year sitting under the waterfall "examining the insides of my eyelids for cracks," i looked for a place here to do a little of that and found it.  There are hammocks, and there was plenty of wind to keep me cool, and i got a nice hour swinging in the breeze under the "boardwalk."

Our evening was spent having a lovely dinner at the Sky Bar, because we liked it so much we decided to go back.

Today, Sunny and Little Ninja are heading out, so Grace and i are not too sure what we will do with ourselves for our last day.

One thing i hope i don't have to do is field as many phone calls from the family as i did yesterday.  Whoosh!

Today is:

Battle of Britain Day -- UK

Dia de Nuestra Senora de la Bien Aparecida -- Santander, Spain

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 5, Health (sponsored by We, the World)

Engineer's Day -- India

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa)related observance
     Grito de Dolores -- Mexico (Cry of Dolores,a/k/a Father Hidalgo's Cry for Freedom Day, the evening before Independence Day)
     Virgin Mary of the Seven Sorrows Day -- Slovakia

Felt Hat Day (Traditional day upon which men started to wear their winter felt hats, similar to women beginning to wear white shoes on Memorial Day)

Get Ready Day -- US (help your community, workplace, or school to get ready for disasters or emergencies)  

Husker Harvest Days -- Grand Island, NE, US (the largest irrigated working ag show on a permanent site in the US; through Thursday)

Independence Day -- Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua (all in 1821)

International Day of Democracy -- UN

Kentucky Bourbon Festival -- Bardstown, KY, US (self explanatory; through Sunday)

Make a Hat Day -- just for fun (and if you are a guy, make a felt hat)

National Creme de Menthe Day

National Hispanic Heritage Month -- US, through Oct. 15

National Linguine Day

Opening of Parliament -- Netherlands (holiday in The Hague)related observance
     Prinsjesdag -- Netherlands  (technically translates "Prince's Day;" the day Parliament opens and the reigning sovereign, now King William-Alexander, gives the Speech from the Throne and the Minister of Finance proposes next year's budget)

Really Bad Ideas Exhibition -- Fairy Calendar (Gremlins celebration)

Restoration of Primorska to the Motherland Day -- Slovenia

Rosh Hashanah -- Judaism (ends today at evening)

Silpa Bhirasri Day -- Thailand

St. Catherine of Genoa's Day (Patron of brides, childless people, people in difficult marriages, people ridiculed for their piety, victims of adultery and unfaithfulness, widows; against adultery and temptation)

World Lymphoma Day -- the Lymphoma Association of the UK suggests raising funds for lymphoma research with a Great British Tea Break 
 

Anniversaries Today:

Greenpeace is founded, 1971


Birthdays Today:

Heidi Montag, 1986
Prince Harry, 1984
Dave Annable, 1979
Josh Charles, 1971
Dan Marino, Jr., 1961
Tommy Lee Jones, 1946
Oliver Stone, 1946
Carmen Maura, 1945
Jessye Norman, 1945
Merlin Olsen, 1940
Gaylord Jackson Perry, 1938
Norm Crosby, 1927
Jackie Cooper, 1922
Fay Wray, 1907
Roy Acuff, 1903
Agatha Christie, 1890
Robert Benchley, 1889
William H. Taft, 1857
James Fenimore Cooper, 1789
François de La Rochefoucauld, 1613
Marco Polo, 1254


Debuting/Premiering Today:

USA Today(Newspaper first issue), 1982
"CHIPs"(TV), 1977
"Columbo"(TV), 1971
"I Spy"(TV), 1965
"Lost in Space"(TV), 1965
"Bachelor Father"(TV), 1957
"The Lone Ranger"(TV), 1949


Today in History:


The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy, 1616
The French army under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow, 1812
The first Negro National Convention begins in Philadelphia, 1830
The locomotive John Bull operates for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad, 1831*
HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands, 1835
Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell becomes the first woman in the US to be ordained a minister (Congregationalist), 1853
Timothy Alder patents the typesetting machine, 1857
RCA releases the 12AX7 vacuum tube, 1947
United Nations gives Eritrea to Ethiopia, 1952
The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
*The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C., 1981
Vanuatu becomes a member of the United Nations, 1981
Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, 2008
In Australia, "Indeterminate" can now be listed on a passport as a gender, 2011
A previously unknown species of bottlenose dolphin is found by Australian researchers, and named Tursiops australis, 2011