My father's birthday included Robot Gorillas

Today The Admiral is 65.  Sixty Five.

The Old Man has been around the sun now a few times, and so we pay him his dues.

This weekend we headed into Galveston where we stayed in a condo on the beach and generally took it easy.  The days of running all over, Griswold-like, during any vacation seem to be receding in the rear-view mirror, and I'm quite pleased with this turn of events.  I am content to bob in the ocean and worry only about my next meal.

The Admiral then ran off, arms out at his sides shouting "vrroooooom!  VROOOOOOMMM!!!!".  This is a B17.

Unfortunately, we hit Houston at about 3:30 on a Friday in August, right before school started, so we were one of several million people on I-45 heading down past Hobby when I noticed, first, that our tire pressure alert had gone off.  I said nothing to Jamie so as to not cause undue panic, but was feeling the car handling poorly soon afterward, but funny thing about that stretch of Houston...  its almost impossible to pull off for a couple of miles.

Now, I will say this for the drivers of Houston:  their roads may have been designed by crazy people, but I had more people letting me know I had a flat tire than you can imagine, and people BLOCKING for me as I eventually managed to get off around Scarsdale.  And THEN we basically rolled into this surprisingly garage, and the guy patched my tire basically for free since he felt sad he didn't have the exact tire or fix-it kit he'd want to do a good job.  So, Houstonians,  I ask you to patronize Premier Foreign Domestic Cars when you have a chance.

We made it to Galveston only about an hour late, went to The Spot for dinner on the seawall.  Then back.

The next day we swam in the sea, then The Admiral and I went and got a new tire for the CRV while Jason, Amy and KareBear went to The Bishop's Palace on Broadway (which I pledge now to visit on my next voyage to Galveston), while the Admiral and I detoured over to The Lone Star Flight Museum.  For a small (inexpensive, too!) museum, they had an impressive batch of planes.  What was mostly impressive was that almost 3/4's of what they had was still airworthy.  So, in the morning we'd been bobbing in the ocean and watched a P-51 Mustang, a B-17 Flying Fortress, a T6 and a Stearman bi-lane go over, and all four were at the Museum while we were there, so we could walk right up to them.  I'm no plane aficionado, but for some reason I find the P-51, P-47 and F-4U interesting birds, and they had all three (no B-26, P-38 or P-40, but who is quibbling?)!  They also had B-17 which I stuck my head in (I wasn't supposed to, I think), and this thing, which is one of the models The Admiral worked on back in his Air Force days in Vietnam.

The Admiral asks too many questions about how he should pose.  I am not patient for this litany of questions.

He told me 10 times what this thing is, and I think its an A-8.  But that isn't actually correct.

edit:  I am told this is an A1-H, but The Admiral worked on the A1-E.  Both called the "Skyraider".

Last night we went to the Olympia Grill for dinner.  Had a lovely time.

This morning, Jamie woke me up once and said "You don't want to see the sunrise, do you?"  And I said "Hrrruughh?  Murrgghhh." and went back to sleep.

The condo we were in was pretty snazzy, up on the top floor of the Galvestonian with view both south and east, and so I could see her compelling argument, but at 6:45, all I could think was "pillow.  face.   Gnnrraaghhh."

10 minutes later she tried again, and so I got up and watch the sun just post-rising today.  And then I hit the beach for an hour.  The fishies were swimming exactly on the surface all around us, and pelicans were dive-bombing all over the place getting their morning meals.

We then packed up, and had to leave, enjoying a final meal at the themed "Rainforest Cafe" (where, if you have kids, you may have been.  Its really goofy.).

The League makes a pal.

The Admiral is one for stoicism in the face of nonsense, and perhaps I should not have pointedly asked the "safari guide" for their "most adventurous table", but we had a pretty good view of both the animatronic apes and elephants.  And, somehow, it seemed fitting on The Admiral's 65th, which is actually today, that we ring it in with the freaking out of robot gorillas and the faux-thunderstorm and other such, uh, whatever that is.

But I can recommend the Rainforest Ricky.  Its a tasty treat.