Surfside Beach, Texas

My daughter's spring break was LAST week for some strange reason, a week before everyone else's. We went down to Surfside Beach, Texas. It's near Galveston, SouthWest of Galveston about 35 miles along the Intercoastal Waterway. Very nice, both my wife and I loved it. The beaches are very nice and clean.

The houses are all up on stilts. So the neighborhood is pretty interesting. But, in Surfside, there is ONE stoplight and nothing close to a chain or megastore of any kind. It looks like there are only a few hundred people living there really.

Here are some of the houses...






There is a Jetty going pretty far out into the Gulf. I think it's almost a mile out. It protects the waterway going inland to the InterCoastal Waterway and lets big ships in and out.






And the Beach:

I like the geodesic dome house. Back in the 1960's,, my Dad hooked up with a guy who had designed some,, and wanted a partner in building them. My Dad built 2 of them. One here in Lake Lure,, and a larger one in Asheville NC. We tore down the one in LL many years ago,, but the one in Asheville is still there.
I need to go get some pictures of it. this reminded me to do this,, Thanks!

Kevin,
As you crossed the Surfside Bride that crosses the Intercostal there is a Marina to the North. I kept our boat there for many years and fished offshore with it. If you would have driven the Beach Road North you would have ended up in Galveston 40 miles away. Makes for a nice drive. At the time we were at Surfside there was not a bridge at San Louie Pass so you couldn't drive to Galveston. We have spent many nights camping on the beach and staying in the Marina. First time on the beach was in 1964. Not much there at that time. Galveston drew the larger crowds. But Freeport is close by and is a shorter run to get offshore and better fishing.
All of the old beach houses that were along the beach are now gone due to the rising water. The water has probably moved ashore 200-300 yards. We have not been to Surfside for many years. Glad to see the changes.
Jim

Jim:
That is some nice history. We did indeed drive up to Galveston for the day. My daughter likes to rent those 4 wheeled bicycles. What you are talking about is from a long time ago then, because I saw a plaque on the toll bridge ($2 cash) that it is from the 60's. Yes, it is a very nice drive. And man-oh-man, you should see the nice houses up towards Galveston now. I'm so thankful I have my wife, because she didn't like the newer houses, they are too "uppity" for her. We liked the area more around Surfside a whole lot more.

Here, I'll try and post some more pictures. We've pretty much decided to retire in Texas eventually. My wife spent her summers with her grandparents in Burgas, on the Black Sea. So she is always wanting to move back to the ocean. Hmmm....I'm thinking summer home??? Maybe if the stock market recovers....

The house we rented was directly on the beach, with a wooden walk-over to get down to the sand.

Here's the walkway, and you can see my wife and one of our dogs.


Here's the house and you can see why it needs the wooden walkway.


On the down side. Our two dogs get pretty excited and Rainy, who is 2 years old, actually fell off the walkway. She landed in the brush, but it was about 8 feet down. She is so, so lucky. We actually rushed her to the closest vet and they took some x-rays. Nothing broken, but we got some pain medicine and you can still see the slightest limp. This happened 8 days ago. My wife was pretty shaken. We went to the vet over in Freeport, and they were actually really nice.

Here's a few more pictures:



Here is the main attraction in Surfside. It's a drive through Daiquiri stand. They have all flavors. We went every day. In fact, I think everyone did. I hope they survive this situation these days.



Here you can see that wooden walkway better. My dog fell right there on the right, in the corner. These houses would be the neighboring houses. They are all rentals. Well, actually the little blue one is for sale. They want $395,000. But with it's own walkway over to the beach, that is the cheapest house around.

Nice pictures, looks like a beautiful area!

Kevin,
In the past a lot of the houses were on the other side of the sand pile, which I think was put there to protect the houses. That is how much the Gulf has moved to shore and no more houses. What the water didn't get hurricane Ike did. Surfside was always the low income beach with Galveston, Rockport and Port A being the higher income beaches.. From looking at your pictures things have changed. :wink:

The not so good old days
By the way we went to visit friends that rented this blue house for Ney Years Eve 1991 It was in a weeeeee bit better shape at that time.

Jim:
Thanks, and yes, you are correct. The Gulf has taken advanced inland. In the aerial view picture you posted. We drove on the street closest to the water. But there isn't a beach anymore. The road is right up on the water. There are some big rocks, probably put there on purpose. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures. There is a beach, but it's down closer to the Jetty.

I can see how Surfside was the low income to those other places you mention. Although we did compare it to Port Aransas and kind of felt like it is cleaner and better kept up. But we haven't been to Port Aransas since the hurricane back in 2017. Our neighbors had an apartment there in one of the larger apartment buildings. It was quite a mess for them. As far as Rockport and Galveston go, yes they do have more money. But they are bigger towns to begin with.

Interesting. Thanks for the old pictures.

Glad you enjoyed the old pictures.
Just some history of Galveston beach. When we moved here in 1962 you could drive off the seawall access roads to get down to the beach. Also at the South end of the seawall you could drive down to the beach at the end of the seawall.

I live within a couple of miles of Surfside - in the small town of Oyster Creek. Most of my beach time has been spent surf fishing, which was my main "past-time" for many years. Didn't spend time on Surf Side beach, went back up to near the pass (San Louis), on the other side of the Freeport jetties to the mouth of the Brazos River. Also ran offshore out of Freeport, had a charter boat there for years. After Hurricane Ike got my boat, I started hunting again, bought wooded property west of Brazoria.

Lots of special memories from the beach over the years!

Mike Holmes