Daily Archives: October 3, 2010
La Brisa Brunch and a Pasta Boat . . .
Today about 10 am we drove up the road a couple of miles to the La Brisa breakfast buffet. La Brisa is a close-by Mexican place that we really enjoy, but this was our first time doing their weekend breakfast buffet thing.
Turns out their breakfast is just as good as their lunch and dinner. They will make you an omelet or migas to order with the ingredients of your choice. Then they have all the standards, country fried potatoes, bacon, ham, biscuits, and both link and patty sausage, They also have beef and chicken fajitas, warm tortillas, and tamales. Jan said their biscuits are the best she’s ever had at a buffet. And they also had a nice spread of fresh fruit cut up, including watermelon and fresh strawberries.
Leaving La Brisa, we drove a little further up the road to WalMart for some groceries. Jan wanted to pick up some stuff to try out her 43rd wedding anniversary gift, a Pasta Boat.
Hey, what can I say. Jan is definitely not high-maintenance!
Anyway, the Pasta Boat is a neat gadget that lets you cook your pasta in the microwave, and then drain it thru the holes in the lid. The handles are hollow and can be used to measure spaghetti servings. It also comes with a steamer tray that lets you steam potatoes, shrimp, oysters, clams, etc. All in all, a neat gadget.
And Jan’s world-famous tuna noodle casserole with whole-grain macaroni came out great. And since she was in a cooking mood, she also made a great-tasting chocolate cake in the convection oven.
With a little Hagen-Daz Vanilla Bean ice cream, it was a fantastic meal.
I mentioned last week during our trip down to Galveston, about Murdoch’s Souvenirs. Murdock’s started out in the late 1800’s as a bathhouse. They rented bathing suits and provided showers for tourist visiting the beach. At its peak, it had 542 shower / changing rooms, 251 for women and 291 for men.
Destroyed in the Great 1900 Hurricane, it was rebuilt after that hurricane, and other storms in 1909 and 1915.
After the 1910 rebuild, two things happened. Mr. William J. Guyette Sr opened a gift shop in the bathhouse, and then Gaido’s Seafood Restaurant opened there the next year.
Gaido’s still exists further down the Seawall, and is considered one of the best restaurants in Galveston.
The bathhouse lasted until 1961 when it was finally destroyed by Hurricane Carla. Since the days of bathhouses were pretty much over, it was rebuilt as two separate buildings that housed gift shops, both named Murdoch’s.
In 2005 the two separate buildings were joined by a walkway / breezeway that allows you sit out and enjoy the ocean view.
On September 13, 2008, Hurricane Ike destroyed Murdoch’s once again.
But not to be overcome, a little over a year later, Murdoch’s reopened with an exact copy of the old one.
Because the state will not allow anyone to sink new pilings into the beach, and some of the pre-storm ones were destroyed by Ike, they actually reused pilings from the original 1890’s bathhouse.
We’ve been visiting Murdoch’s for over 30 years, and it’s nice to see it’s still around.
More tomorrow…
Thought for the day:
“Isn’t it great to live in a society where the penalty for lying to a congressman can be up to 30 years in jail, but the penalty for a congressman lying to you is another two years in office.” Peter Schmuck
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