Oil Drilling and Snapper Wings

 

Galveston is only an hour south of Houston and I meant to go down there to hang out at the beach. Instead, I found the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig and Museum, an actual decommissioned drilling rig. How could you pass that up? I must admit, I wasn't particularly looking forward to this, but as a friend once said “sometimes the things that you think will be the most boring or uninteresting turns out to be fascinating”  That was definitely true in this case.

I think I thought that this museum would be all about how great fossil fuel is and the world will fall apart without us continuing to increase our dependence on that black gold. It wasn't like that at all. I think there was one display where they talked about how many of our consumer goods were made from oil. Even when they talked about oil spills, the focus was more about how they happen, what technology is being used to make sure it doesn't happen and how to clean up the spill. I really enjoyed this museum. They talked, among other things, about the different types of oil rigs, how the drilling was done, the equipment used and what life on an oil rig was like.

Drill bits - aren't they pretty?

The harbor

I do so love the big ships

Pelicans were everywhere. 
When a fishing boat came in, it was like a scene out of Hitchcock's 'The Birds'

I did do a rare restaurant outing at Katie's Seafood Restaurant in Galveston. I ordered a couple of appetizers. I asked my server what is a Galveston specialty and he highly recommended Snapper Wings. They are deep fried and come from the throat of the Red Snapper. The restaurant thought it would be too gross to call them Snapper Throats, so Snapper Wings they became. I had to ask my server how to eat them because they come with fins and all. He told me to eat the fins like potato chips. I thought they were crunchy and rather disgusting. I also found out that Red Snappers have dark meat and white meat. I ate a couple of them, and really did not feel too good for the rest of the day.

Snapper Wings

I also had crab cakes which were excellent