My personal lifeÉ
I live in Galveston,
Texas. This is how 
Galveston used to
look; itÕs been developed a bit since then. The New York Times described it as
Òcrumbling but achingly beautifulÓ, which captures it pretty well (To
download the article, click here.)
It also has a fascinating history.
The Galveston
seawall, built to prevent flooding after the hurricane of 1900.
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A brief historical digression: (To skip this, and go to section on boating,
cars, traveling and other interests, click here.) As far as I can tell, Galveston
first came to attention in the 1500s as the place where the explorer Cabeza de
Vaca was stranded, and lived among the Indians as a slave for several
years. In the 1600Õs, the French
explorer Robert Cavelier La Salle never bothered to
visit Galveston, but nonetheless
claimed it for France
and named it St. Louis. Its current name is derived from
Bernardo de Galvez, an 
eighteenth century Spanish governor who sent his assistant Jose de
Evia to explore the Gulf of Mexico. The faithful de Evia found an area near
the mouth of a river, which he named Galveston
Bay in honor of his benefactor. Galvez died shortly after the island
and city took the same name, never having set foot on the place, and to this
day, just about nobody has ever heard of de Evia. Subsequently Galveston
has twice been declared an independent country, first in 1817 by the pirate
Jean Lafitte, who, like me, thought it might be a nice place to retire to. It was the site of naval battles during
the Texas revolution and the
Civil War. The Emancipation
Proclamation was read to the townspeople on the steps of a church not far from
our house. Galveston
later became a kind of Òlittle Ellis IslandÓ, a major
port receiving immigrants from around the world. Until the devastating hurricane of 1900, it was one of AmericaÕs
largest ports, and a center of commerce for the Gulf. As far as I can tell, it never fully recovered after that,
though its history in the 1920s and thereafter is pretty impressive as a resort
city. In the Balinese Room, a
night club built on a pier, the likes of Duke Ellington, Guy Lombardo, and
Frank Sinatra performed. It is
said that the margarita was invented when Peggy ÒMargaretÓ Lee asked for a
mixed tequila drink. In any event,
the Balinese Room still stands, and we go there to hear music on occasion. IÕm not sure that a lot of history has
happened here since those venerable days, but it remains a lovely island
surviving because of its beaches, its role as part of the larger seaport of Houston,
and a maritime culture which continues to fascinate me.
In September 2008, Galveston
was hit by Hurricane Ike. As I
write this edition of the website in early 2010, the city is pretty much
rebuilt, and our house and boat restored.
To see the damage from Hurricane Ike, click here.
To see live webcam pictures of
Galveston please click here; to then return here, click the "back"
button while at the webcam site.
In
Galveston I spend a lot of time
boating.
To see the boat, click
here. 
We also
travel a lot in our Casita trailer.
To see our trailer,
click here.
My
other Òmechanical loveÓ is my 1948 Nash automobileÉ
To see a picture of my
Nash and other old cars, click
here. 
The
nature of my work has taken me to a lot of places over the yearsÉ
To see pictures from
Europe and Israel, click here. 
Over the years I have spent a lot of time gardening and growing
flowers in a greenhouseÉ
To see my greenhouse
and orchids, click here. 
To see photos of
other kinds of flowers, click here. 
IÕve also
taken a lot of pictures of sunrises and interesting views of the skyÉ
To see pictures of
sunrises and sky over Lake Michigan, click here. 
Family, with
password, can enter private section by clicking here.
To return to the home page,
click here.
To contact me, write to:
Drmendelson@wmendelson.com