This Fish Is Delish!

The human residents of Chez Boeckman-Walker took their summer vacation yesterday. We roadtripped it to Houston (well, Nassau Bay) so that the boys could check out a Star Wars display at Space Center Houston before it closes on September 2. Knowing how close the NASA facility is to Galveston, I decided we'd head on down so the boys could see the gulf and, as we told the boy, "play in the ocean." And being on Galveston meant one thing: lupper (that's the meal that replaces lunch and supper, sort of like how brunch is the meal that replaces breakfast and lunch) at Gaido's for fabulous red snapper and to-die-for key lime pie.

Houston, You Have a Problem
The trip to, the time at and the departure from Space Center Houston was, well, trying. First of all, the exit from I-45 to the facility has been closed for damn near a year now due to construction, so you'd think the directions to the center on its Web site would note that, right?

Wrong.

And you'd also think that a tourist attraction would have a few more signs along the route to it, right?

Wrong.

And you'd think this tourist attraction would have some, well, attractions, right?

Wrong.

If you want to pay an outrageous price to let your kids run around in an oversized (and probably very unsanitary, Melissa) McDonald's playland, then Space Center Houston is the place for you. But if you're wanting to see space memorabilia or quality educational exhibits about NASA and its 50 years of space exploration, save your money because you won't find that at Space Center Houston. But this we already knew after previous research when the boy first went gaa-gaa over space shuttles last year.

Even the Star Wars exhibit wasn't worth the price of admission, at least in my opinion. Then again, I don't live and breath and devote the majority of my brain power to Star Wars the way the husband and the boy do. But I'm a great enabler, so I hefted around camera (digital still and digital video) equipment when I could, I hefted the boy up so he could better see inside glass classes of light saber handles, I stood by patiently and did whatever I could so that the husband and the boy could enjoy some production art and maquettes from the recent Clone Wars release, some weapons props from all the movies and a full-size Jedi fighter (which, thanks to Space Center Houston's paltry budget, no doubt, was exposed to a steady drip thanks to a leaking roof or AC--I couldn't tell which).

We probably could have only spent maybe 30 minutes at the center if it hadn't been the damn playscape and another non sequitur attraction, Daredevil Island. Billed as an "'Indiana Jones' type of experience, it's great fun, I'm sure, for kids who are not into McDonald's playland and not into the 20-year-old "learn about space" exhibits (half of which were not working) with its elevated (by, like, 3 feet) ropes course, "Mayan" maza (looked like it was built from old bathroom stall partitions), tower of rubber bands and "European bungee jump" that uses a small trampoline and a crotch harness rigged up with a bunch of exercise resistance tubes to help jumpers get some good air.

Yeah, the boy loved it. Didn't seem to matter to him that we waited 30 minutes in line for roughly 5 minutes of jumping time. Didn't seem to matter to him--at least, not until later--that he cut his leg when the trampoline attendant, decked out in a blue NASA jumpsuit, allowed him to careen off the trampoline not once but thrice. Didn't seem to matter that the attendant wasn't nearly as helpful as the one stationed at the trampoline right beside the line where we waited for 30 minutes, who really helped each kiddo on her trampoline launch themselves. He said he felt like a "real Jedi" because Jedis jump. They jump a lot--at least in the boy's mind they do.

Fish Can Be Beautiful
Our escape from Space Center Houston took f'in forever thanks to (1) a never-ending train and (2) a short train that first went east through the intersection, then stopped, sat there a minute or two after the guards went up then went right back west to whence it had come, blocking traffic for a third time. Joy.

Taking that big bridge that connects the mainland to Galveston Island was quite a thrill for the three of us. And the boy seemed to delight in reminding his parents that "I've never been to an island before." As soon as we hit the other side of the bridge, I stressed to him that he couldn't say that any longer because he was now on an island and continuing to say that he'd never been to an island before was incorrect--and annoying.

We headed straight to Gaido's because it was already 2 PM and the husband was starving. We took a moment to marvel at the giant green crab on the restaurant's roof, then we headed inside, were seated and promptly began salivating over the menu. Instead of offering various fish, the menu offers preparation methods--a bevy of 'em. I opted for red snapper prepared with a coating of diced pieces of green, orange and red peppers and shoestring potatoes. The husband originally wanted a cracker crumb and herb coating, but on the waiter's advice, switched to a Parmesan and herb coating that he enjoyed with gusto.

My pepper-and-potato snapper was...just so damn beautiful I felt I was committing a crime eating it. The red and green pepper diced pieces just popped against the lightly browned potatoes strings. I so wanted to take a picture it was such a work of culinary art--at least in my eyes. The husband even offered to run out to the car to nab the camera, but I begged off. How gauche.

The taste? Just incredible. I'll have to give this preparation method a shot in my own kitchen. I'm crazy for red bell peppers, and I couldn't live with myself if I only had this type of prepared fish once.

And speaking of not being to live with myself, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I'd passed on dessert. One of my strongest memories of the trip to Galveston Mum and I took back in April 2000 was of the key lime pie slice we shared. And the slice the husband and I shared (the boy declared he didn't like it after one small bite) was just as to die for as the one I had more than eight years ago. We also got a slice of peanut butter pie (a peanut butter mousse-like fluff atop an Oreo-like crust and sprinkled with chopped Reese's Pieces), and while it was yummy, it didn't do it for me the way the key lime pie did. Oh! I was in heaven!

From the restaurant, we whipped a U on a side street to find a parking spot along with sea wall. We all changed our shoes (because unlike the extra batteries I passed on bringing along and wound up needing and the backup SD card for the digital still camera I passed on bringing, I planned fairly well for the beach trip), locked up our goodies and hit the beach.

Let me just say this: If I lived in Galveston near the sea wall, I'd be jogging that stretch every day. The breeze off the Gulf is refreshing, the sidewalk is wide and flat and well maintained and the view is so much better than the latest crap on celluloid (okay, celluloid's been out for ages) the gym's showing in the Cardio Cinema.

The boy had declared well before we got to the seawall that he didn't want to go. He just didn't want to go at all. (He'd asked about sharks and, I think, was still concerned about them despite his parents' repeated explanations that he didn't have to worry about sharks in the water not more than 2 feet from the shore.) Naturally, when we actually reached Seawall Boulevard and he could see the beach, he decided he'd wanted to go all along.

::smack::

Within five minutes, the boy was drenched head to toe. He ran in the surf, he collected sea shells, he tried to run down some sea gulls. Then he found a stick and started playing light saber with it. He'd throw it into the water and water for it to wash back up on the shore. He'd take it out to where the waves hit him about waist level and tried to use the Force against the waves. To what end, I don't know, but it kept him entertained.

We left the beach behind shortly before 6 and after a stop at HEB for supper for the boys and gas, we hit the road back to Austin. "We spent the whole day away from home," the boy observed repeatedly until he finally fell asleep (thank the FSM for small favors). He still had a bit of sand clinging to his shins when we got home just after 10 PM and got him to bed.

The boy's already planning our next trip to the ocean.