We were looking for something inexpensive to do today, so we decided to check out the Galveston Ferry that goes over to Bolivar Island. It doesn't get much cheaper than FREE! The Texas state department of transportation= Texas taxpayers (?) pays the costs of running this ferry service back and forth across to Bolivar Island. The ferry holds up to 60 vehicles, and they can carry semis, RVs, etc. There seemed to be a full load both ways today. We decided to be walk ons today, so we left our car behind thinking that we could walk around on the island. Well, it's a little bigger than we thought, and a little too far to walk to anything. So we rode the ferry to the island and straight back, we never got off. You can see dolphins for free as well, so I got excited about that, but couldn't get any good photos coming or going. The dolphins were just barely showing themselves. The ferryboat was fun! I could have ridden it all day back and forth, back and forth, trying to get some good dolphin photos. It's a good thing we had jackets and sweaters with us. It's ALWAYS colder on the water! The gulls rode with us on the tanks on the side of the boat both coming and going...maybe they are commuters! :-)
Then there was another bunch of them at the stern. The captain announced you were only allowed to feed the gulls at the back of the boat, so guess they were waiting for handouts. No one was feeding them or the frenzied fliers would have been even worse than they were--hundreds of them were following and dive bombing the ferry...Wait a minute...I should have said it like this--we were followed by a feeding frenzy of frequent fliers as we ferried across! We went past Seawolf Park (home of a WWII destroyer escort and a sub), which we will visit on another day....we went past a concrete (?) tanker that is a roost for birds, we saw lots and lots of freighters/tankers out in the gulf AND we saw some dolphins from a distance...I think it was about a 20 minute ride across to the island, very enjoyable--however, it's strictly a no frills ferry service. We both love being out on the water.....we'll do again soon, next time we'll bring our car, our bikes and explore what's on Bolivar. From what I understand, it got hit pretty hard by the hurricane, and it's mostly residential.....probably not too much to do or see there. But that's ok, it's fun to get there and back--cheap entertainment for Sparky!
