Galveston, oh Galveston...

What we intended as a mere stopover on a longish road trip from Austin Texas through to Lafayette in Louisiana proved to be a lovely little visit tinged with the regret that we didn't have time to stay a bit longer. The motive for coming here was simple enough, apart from it being a half-way point. We wanted to see the sea again. We'd been inland for a couple of weeks and the idea of stopping somewhere on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico really appealed to both of us.

Here' s the view from the less-fancy-than-it-sounds Casa del Mar, where we stayed in Galveston, of the Gulf shore in the morning. Another fine day with temps in the 80s, cooled by a sea breeze, was in store.

Gardeners might even struggle to understand this bit, but I was also here to see the oleanders. I had heard that Galveston was famous for its oleander displays. The truth worked out to be a bit less wonderful than that. Yes, there are oleanders everywhere, and they often look like this, about 1-2 metres tall at best and most pink-flowered, although apricot bloomers were spotted here and there. They hardly knocked your socks off with the displays, but they do look nice enough. As Galveston is mostly a sand island, it just proves that if you are living in a hot and sunny spot with poor sandy soils, oleanders will never let you down. Just don't eat them!

What we didn't know much about was Galveston's history, and that's what gobsmacked us as we drove around the place. Streets upon streets upon streets of lovely old weatherboard, two-storey homes, plus a large 'old town' area comprising several blocks of historic business premises, such as this one.

Some of the buildings wore this plaque, attached in 2000 to mark the centenary of Galveston's (and America's) worst natural disaster. A hurricane flattened the place in 1900, killing somewhere between 6000 and 8000 people, which must have been almost everyone there at the time. After that they built a sea wall to protect the town, but back in 1900 Galveston was just an exposed sand island which formed a natural harbour between itself and the mainland. When the hurricane hit, the sea engulfed the whole island and many of the inhabitants didn't stand a chance.

Lovely as the historic central business district is, it's the residential areas surrounding it which are the real trip back in time. It's not just a couple of streets' worth of historic houses, it's dozens of streets in each direction, hundreds of blocks. We stopped off in just one street to take some photos and almost all these photos are from there. Elsewhere the houses are of the same period; in the less affluent areas of town the old houses are simply lived in and not always in the best condition, but there are so many hundreds and hundreds of these old houses to admire as you drive around.

Locals aren't afraid to paint their houses in bright colours, either.

In this area fairly close to town many of the houses were being painted and redecorated, and some looked a bit 'chocolate box' new, but give them five years of weathering and they should look perfect.

No two houses were alike. I've always been a fan of higgildy piggildy as a streetscape style.

Local painters are doing a roaring trade.

All the houses look to be lived-in. When I saw this charming 'harvest season' arrangement on a front porch I first thought there's probably a 'Martha Stewart Living' magazine reader living here, but then again maybe they've been doing this for generations, without any tips from Martha to help them rediscover their roots?

Down by the harbourside area, a row of modest workers' cottages still stands. While the grand mansions are also here in numbers in Galveston, and tourists flock to tour them, I was impressed by the way all the different classes – rich, middle and working – still had plenty of old houses standing, and being lived in. So often the term 'historic houses' really means 'rich people's old houses' and that always irks me. I'm more interested in how ordinary people lived, and Galveston preserves that superbly.

Alas, we had already booked and paid for our accommodation in Lafayette, Louisiana, and so by mid afternoon we had to leave. The bonus treat was the way we left, accompanied by a pod of dolphins! We discovered there's a car ferry to the next sand island up the coast – Bolivar Peninsula – which saved us many road miles, a few hours and the hassle of going via Houston. And so we caught the (free) ferry for the 20 minute ride across the bay.

One local bid us a fond farewell and said 'come back soon'. Well, no he didn't, I made that up. He went 'crawww crawww' but in seagull language I think it means come back soon, or maybe give me some food. Anyway, we said goodbye.

Bolivar Peninsula turned out to be an amazing place, too. Now this is probably like Galveston Island was back in 1900, just a very long, flat and exposed sand island. And so every house here, and there were miles and miles of colourfully painted houses here, sits up on the tallest stilts, hoping the stormy waters will merely swirl below them instead of carrying them away. Good luck, Bolivaris!

Towards the end of the long drive along the Bolivar Peninsula these oil derricks popped up in clusters, slowly nodding and dipping, nodding and dipping, as they pumped up their earnings.

No, I won't conclude this little postcard from Galveston with a You Tube clip of Glenn Campbell singing his hit song, but should you ever somehow find yourself in Texas, not sure where to stay, here's a hint. Stay in Galveston not just one night. Book in for a few. There's lots of good seafood here, and along the long beachfront boulevarde the place is like a typical beachside tourist resort, with neon lights, burger joints and hotels aplenty. But behind the glitz is an historic town that's a very special place to visit.

Tummy time USA (4)

It seems we're always playing catch-up at the Tummy Time USA blog. It might be morning down here by the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Texas as I write this, but tummy time is still back in Austin, having enjoyed yet another great sampling of good American cookery.

If you read every blog posting on this trip, you'll recognise this photo from the previous post, where we had so much fun listening to the music of the Texas Swing Kings at Artz Ribs. But we also tucked into Artz' ribs and other delights while the band played on.

Now, I could have easily opted for a familiar looking rack of baby back ribs at Artz, but I did notice that several diners at other tables were chowing down on what looked like brontosaurus ribs, which I later discovered have the formal name of 'Artz Country Style Pork Ribs' and so I ordered those instead. The aroma is smoke. The texture is one of imminent collapse the moment a tooth gets near it, and the quantity is large, despite there being, technically speaking, just two ribs on offer. The little pot in the centre contains home-cooked beans in a spicy sauce, and potato salad and coleslaw make up the numbers, along with half a pickle, two big raw onion rings and a little pot of tomato ketchup.

Pammy got the same coleslaw, potato salad, beans and ketchup, but she opted for Artz Shrimps, two spicy skewers of prawns, as we Aussies call 'em, that she said were very nice indeed.

As far as traditional food goes, the combination of artless presentation and sheer, finger-coating deliciousness at Artz Ribs was hard to beat, but the day after, at lunchtime, we enjoyed another side of what's on offer in Austin.

This is the quiet interior at Perles, on South Congress Street (most of the patrons were inexplicably out in the 90°F heat of the inadequately shaded area at the front, but we were exhausted by that same heat and wanted to escape to the air-con and the iced tea inside).

Salads are an odd thing in America. If you order a salad, you get it first, usually plonked in front of you within one minute of placing the order. At least this time round the salad took a few minutes to arrive. This nicely compiled, almond-decorated toss of baby lettuce leaves included finely sliced red onion and radish. The gerbera is there because it was there. In Australia we have salads 'on the side', but over here they're an appetiser.

For my entree, which is what the Americans call their main course, I had (for the second time in Austin) a truly delicious South-West style variation on your classic deep-fried salt and pepper calamari. In the South-West style they cook the calamari along with lightly battered slices of peppers. This time round, at Perles, they used both red and green peppers. Two nights earlier, at another spot, they used just green Jalapeno slices as well as slices of lime, and I do think the first version was slightly better than Perles', although in both cases the calamari flesh itself was very tender and tasty.

Pammy opted for tuna tartare with a quail egg on the side, served with salad garnish and lightly toasted sourdough. Notice how she always chooses the healthy and interesting option? She's been doing it for years. Pammy takes her time reading a menu and always finds things that others haven't noticed. The verdict? Excellent!

We called the waiter back moments after he had glided by, depositing these on the table in one smooth motion. "Excuse me, what are these?" For a moment it was as if we had pointed to the knife and fork and asked what they were, but with only the slightest pause and intake of breath he explained: "These are hush puppies, they come with all our seafood meals". Now, you'll have to let me fast-forward for a moment and explain that now I am in Galveston and have had time to Google 'hush puppies' it all becomes clear to me. The waiter was patient with us... hush puppies are served traditionally with seafood in the US. They're little deep-fried balls of cornmeal dough (ours had real corn kernels inside, plus they were lightly spiced, too). But I wouldn't exactly jump up and down about how wonderful they are. They were OK, but sometimes it's a mystery why certain foods catch on to become such a national culinary institution. It might be all about the sauce. Our dipping sauce was a light sour cream sauce. If there's one thing I've noticed about American eaters, they're dedicated dippers and dunkers, that's for sure.

Another claim to fame for Austin is our first two cups of truly good coffee from a large, Italian, benchtop espresso machine. On the left is Pam's Americano coffee, on the right my cappuccino with an extra shot. Both were enjoyed at Annie's on South Congress. In one of my earlier blog-postings I had mentioned that the coffee here so far had merely been no worse than instant coffee, but since then we have met the enemy, and he's awful. The 'enemy' of good coffee is a dripolator/percolator glass carafe where about an inch or two of truly dreadful, stewed coffee remains on the heat pad, having been made several hours earlier. The waitress at the breakfast diner comes over with the deadly black inch of awfulness swirling at the base of the jug of death and asks us "do you want some coffee?" Whatever you do, no matter how longing for a hit of coffee, say "no".

As well as enjoying a truly fab cup of fresh espresso machine coffee at Annie's we also tried their breakfasts. I couldn't resist the idea of a breakfast taco, but unfortunately they brought out two on the one plate. Way too much breakfast for me, but inside the taco was a light and tasty mix of scrambled eggs flavoured with chorizo sausage and only a little bit of cheese. That red sauce on the left was a very good fresh tomato salsa, I discovered only after taking the photos. I should have artistically drizzled the salsa over the tacos, shouldn't I?

Pammy's healthy breakfast omelette (three eggs) was filled with vegies such as broccoli florets, corn and carrots. The fruit on the side looked a bit odd to us, but you get all sorts of things piled into little ramekins which are then parked on the plate when you discuss ordering something 'on the side' with the wait staff.

And so the theme of dining well on interesting food continues here at Tummy Time USA. Our stop here in Galveston, Texas is merely an overnight stay on the way through to Lafayette in the heart of Cajun country in Louisiana, where Tummy Time V will no doubt have a lot of boudin, gumbo, jambalaya, blackened fish and much else to talk about. However, before we chow down again the next thing we'll be telling you about is Galveston itself. Talk about the home of historic houses! It looks wonderful and we're exploring it before we once again get back on the road and head East.