Settling in “At the Beach”

We are at a small beach town called Surfside Beach. It’s the off season right now so we have the beaches, amenities, and mozzies (mosquitoes) mostly to ourselves. Apparently, this place gets packed in the summer! Originally, we had expected to be in Freeport but instead, our GPS directed us to Surfside via Lake Jackson, 12 miles from here and where we go for groceries and laundry services. On the Freeport side it is very industrial with the Dow chemical plant there among other industries. There’s a very nice RV park at Quintana Beach though with full hookups and other amenities.

Surfside to Houston is 67 miles
A closer look at the Dow Barge Canal separating Quintana and Surfside

We went into Surfside to check things out on Christmas Day and found a huge long pier extending into the gulf with another one running parallel to it on the Freeport side, forming the Dow Barge Canal. You can’t drive directly from Surfside to Freeport.

Surfside pier/walkway
Freeport side – the black line on the horizon is the pier over there
Couldn’t resist adding this pic of the recycling shark at Surfside Park
We were lucky to see a freighter heading out to the gulf via the Dow Barge Canal. After being here for a couple of weeks, we saw that the canal is a busy entry/exit place for freighters. I find all the waterways, salt marshes, and Gulf waters fascinating.

While we were exploring Surfside Park, Mike noticed some Sikhs and people in Middle Eastern dress. They were fishing and picnicking. Then we heard Arabic being spoken. Sauntered over to investigate and sure enough, there were two families who had moved from New York to Sugarland (a suburb of Houston) to escape the cold and snow. One of the men had taught in Bahrain for 3 years. The other couple was originally from Egypt. We had a lovely chat. They invited us to have tea with them, (such an Arabic cultural thing), but we declined. Left feeling very nostalgic for all things Bahraini!

We’d also gone exploring to Freeport and found a Bahraini Freighter!!!! (For those of you who don’t know us, we lived in Bahrain for quite a few years so we were excited to see this freighter.)

When we were there we could see the Bahrain flag flying from the stern.

We found a wonderful small RV Park and Hotel place called The Breeze, right next to the beach…..20 steps and we’re there. The sound of the surf (and Marley’s cold nose in the morning) is our call to go beachcombing.

From Bluewater HWY which runs past our door.
A closer up view of our small rig and healed up truck.
View of the entry to The Breeze from the beach side.

This is the bridge from the mainland (Lake Jackson side) to Surfside:

UP
UP
UP
UP
AND OVER
TO THE OCEAN!

Always fun to pop over and see the waters of the Gulf.

And from the top of the bridge….

Surfside town to the west.
A closer up view.
The intracoastal waterway to the west.
The view of the intracoastal waterway to the east.
The view of residences built around waterways also on the east side of the bridge.

Beautiful beach walks….

And such cute homes (a lot of them beach rentals….

And the adventure continues…..

Solo Gull

5 thoughts

  1. Right on the corner in Surfside is a lovely quirky art shop lost of glass items. My best friend ( from Jordan) daughter Sonalea manages it…Quite intelligent young lady. Stop in and tell her Susan says Happy New Year!! Love this part of the country..

  2. Hey Suzan! Do you happen to know the name of the shop or its exact location because I haven’t seen it. Would love to go there!

  5. Ha! Went looking and couldn’t find it. No wonder LOL! Too far away for us this time. Sounds like a great little place though.

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