Stinky trip!

We had planned a fun weekend in Galveston at Pointe West. We had vacationed there a year ago last summer before Ike hit, and we were excited to go back. It has a private beach, pool, on site restaurant with pool-side service, a work-out room, and very nice accommodations. We spent the day packing, getting all of the food ready, stocking our cooler with cool drinks and burgers to grill on our first night there. We got Sophie and Bella out of school early and headed down.

We rented from a 3rd party this time rather than through Pointe West directly. After picking up the keys to the condo, we headed over to Pointe West to unload our stuff before heading down to the beach. Once we got out of the car, we were immediately attacked by swarms of mosquitoes (it had been raining in Galveston all week, so they were especially big and bad!). We scurried into our condo as we swatted at the mosquitoes. The minute we opened the door, an awful smell hit us. It smelled like mildew/rotten eggs/rotten meat all combined. We immediately called the rental company to tell them that we couldn't stay in the unit. They agreed to give us a full refund and said they didn't have another unit for us to stay in.

Stephen went to the Pointe West office to see if they had another unit they could rent us since the third-party rental company said they had nothing else to offer. But apparently there was a power outage to the main beach club building, so they were not able to even check other availability on their computer. The lack of power also meant that the on site restaurant was closed and the pool was out of service after dark (which is where we loved to swim after the sun had gone down at a sandy day at the beach..., they had the pool all lit up with great music blasting through the speakers last summer). The kids and I stayed in the condo and watched iCarly while Stephen tried to sort the mess out. Sophie kept her nose in her shirt the entire time we were in the villa, and Bella kept saying "Mom, we've got to get out of here; this smell is going to make us sick." Bella has a very strong sense of smell!

Despite some resistance, the rental company ultimately gave us a full refund. The kids still wanted to play at the beach, however, so after we sorted the refund issue out, we stayed the rest of the evening and played on the beach. Fortunately, there were no mosquitoes on the actual beach and the rain held off the entire time we were there. A storm started rolling onto shore around 7 pm, so we packed up our things and started heading back home. The big girls could have looked for shells all day. And the baby girl LOVED the ocean water. She got soaked and we had to take her shorts off (our bathing suits were packed deep in our bags so we just played on the beach in our regular clothes). Sonny boy, on the other hand, is a little scared of the ocean, and doesn't like the feel of sand on his feet. He kept walking on the outer edges of his feet so he wouldn't have to walk directly on the sand. He'd also freak out anytime we got a little ways into the water and yell "Watch out! The ocean gonna get you!" Here we are right before leaving for home. At least the kids had a little fun. We got McDonald's drive-through on the way home in Lake Jackson (nothing like refinery McDonald's). And as a bonus, 3 out of the 4 kids feel asleep on the way home, and we just carried them to their beds and let them sleep in their sandy clothes all night (well, "all night" is a relative term in our home; no one, except Sophie and sometimes Bella, sleeps "all night" unfortunately). I guess the rest of the weekend I'll be washing sheets!