Bolivar Peninsula

Surely Galveston Can Do Better Than "Galveston"

Notwithstanding the recent Galveston-based Carnival cruise liner whose faulty engines landed its passengers in a world of hurt (and national headlines), the island is again throwing its arms open for the upcoming summer season. Last week the Galveston Island Convention & Visitors Bureau announced th ... More >>

Look for Gulf Appellation Oysters After the New Year

Wondering where all the Gulf appellation oysters are this year, after the big to-do over Pepper Grove and Ladies' Pass oysters in 2011? Not to worry, says Jim Gossen of Louisiana Seafood, one of the area's largest oyster suppliers. They're right around the corner. Gossen -- along with noted oyster ... More >>

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 10 Crawfish Joints

For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston bars and restaurants. Along wi ... More >>

The Five Worst Tropical Weather Events in Houston History

The hurricane that hit Galveston in 1915 didn't have a name, but it left a mark.​Houston and Galveston, like any cities along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the U.S., are always vulnerable to tropical weather. The scariest of these events is most definitely the hurricane, with its fierce wind ... More >>

Suck the Head!

The Top Ten Crawfish Joints in Houston

Houston's Top 10 Crawfish Joints

Photo by Tony ChenYou must make the crawfish do a puppet dance for your amusement before eating it. Fact.​Yesterday, we showed you the proper way to eat crawfish. Today, armed with that knowledge, we're going to show you the best places to eat them in Houston. It may not officially be crawfis ... More >>

An Oyster by Any Other Name

Pepper Grove oyster on the half shell at Branch Water Tavern.​At this past weekend's inaugural Foodways Texas symposium, one of the most eagerly anticipated seminars wasn't held in a conference room, and it didn't come with a PowerPoint presentation. Attendees instead slurped down all manner o ... More >>

Texans-Cowboys Isn't Until Sunday, Spend Your Saturday Morning Cleaning The Beaches

Do it for the crabs.​Tomorrow morning, rain or shine, thousands of Texans across the 367 miles of state coastline will take to the sand, gloves on and plastic bags in hand. Call it a goodbye and thank you to summer, and hello fall.Groups will be gathering at 28 sites at 9 a.m. for the annual Adopt ... More >>

Our Mother of Mercy

How far did cardinal go in tearing down Ike-ravaged church?

This Week's Cover Story: Ire Greets Dedication Of Bolivar's New Catholic Chapel

Civil War over a Bolivar church​Ordinarily, the dedication of a new church building is cause for unbridled, unqualified celebration. Such is not the case in Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula, where the circumstances surrounding the dedication of the new Our Lady By The Sea Chapel and Catholic ... More >>

He Said She Said: Did We Shave Our Legs For This? More Cornball Country Comedy

Not all country music has to be about down-and-out truck-driving lifestyles, D-I-V-O-R-C-E, abusive husbands and the dissolution of the American Dream. More than any other genre, country lends itself so nicely to parody and self-satire. The best country music is self-referential, where the artist k ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Bolivar Mardi Gras

Photos by Brittanie Shey​When Texas Traveler last went to the Bolivar Peninsula, she got a flat tire in the sand, and the small towns of High Island and Crystal Beach were still struggling to rebuild a year after Ike. The flat tire incident was scary -- a nail no doubt from one of the many des ... More >>

Hayes Carll

The Archbishop Outlines Which Galveston Churches Are Not Long For This World

​The list of Galveston Catholic churches that the Archdiocese wants to tear down is out, and it's somewhat grim reading.The Galveston County Daily News reports that Archbishop Daniel DiNardo wrote island parishioners of the plans, not making everyone all that happy in the process.Among those that ... More >>

Life, Post-Ike: The Comeback Kid

Without as much to lose as Galveston, Bolivar surges ahead in its recovery.

Boudin Balls with a Gooey Surprise

Photo by J.C. ReidOn a recent trip to the Bolivar Peninsula with a carload of friends, I stopped in the small town of Winnie, Texas for a quick pit stop at the local Texaco gas station that had a hot food counter serving mostly pizzas and fried foods. These counters, combined with a few picnic tabl ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Bolivar Peninsula

Photos by Brittanie SheyCrystal Beach, TexasSometimes vacations don't always go as planned. Texas Traveler hadn't been to the Texas Coast since last summer, a month or two before Ike hit. We'd seen the footage and heard the stories -- it was just too depressing to imagine our favorite beaches cover ... More >>

Stingaree Music Festival and Texas Crab Festival in Crystal Beach, Texas

Photos by J.C. ReidReason to celebrateTwo of the biggest annual events at Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula east of Galveston are the Texas Crab Festival and the Stingaree Music Festival. In its 24th year, the Crab Festival traditionally has occurred on Mother's Day weekend and celebrates every ... More >>

Documentary's Year-Long Study Of Bolivar Characters Ends With Ike

Photo courtesy www.themessengerthemovie.comThe man who directed the new documentary The Messenger, Shawn Sterling Welling, is a self-described "self-absorbed, amateur film director" who happened to have a friend with movie-making equipment laying around. He literally stumbled upon The Messenge ... More >>

Now Bolivar Wants In On The Whole Gambling Thing

We've already noted that some Galveston residents are hoping that legalized gambling is the island's ticket for a post-Ike comeback; now it's Bolivar Peninsula getting in on the action.Galveston County Commissioner Patrick Doyle who represents the devastated area, tells KHOU the devastation is a big ... More >>

Searching for Hurricane Ike Victims

Some may never be found.

The Search For Ike Victims In Galveston County Ends

The job of looking for Ike victims in the debris piles and swamps of Galveston County -- a nasty, brutal job that drained the searchers both physically and emotionally -- is over.The county's second and final search for missing Ike victims ended recently with eight people from the Bolivar area still ... More >>

Finally, Some Good News For The Bolivar Peninsula

Good news has been in short supply on the Bolivar Peninsula since Ike hit, but something that could pass -- these days, anyway -- as good news was announced this week.Crenshaw, a pre-K-8 elementary and middle school on the peninsula, will reopen February 4, GISD announced to the applause of resident ... More >>

Ike's Wake -- The Video

This week's feature story by John Nova Lomax looks at the struggles on Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula in the wake of Ike. Photographer Dan Kramer filmed a video to accompany it, and art director Monica Fuentes edited it. We were going to hire Varnaline to write a new song to go with it, bu ... More >>

2008 in Texas Albums and Local EPs

The Safest House In The World

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Ike

Over the Weekend: Avant Garden, Silver Jews, High Island, Oak Island and Galveston

Chambers County Smacked by Hurricane Ike

It May Take Martial Law To Empty The Bolivar Peninsula

San Francisco Wants to Help Us Recycle

Helping Hand Spurned

If It's On TV, It's True

Houston Music Festivals

The last three weeks of this month promise to be hard on your wallet, eardrums and liver

Random Checks at the Bolivar Ferry, Up Close Communications, Ted Poe, Gene Green and Mac Haik

Galveston escapes with a close call

The Houston 100: From Mack Hayes to Hersal Thomas

Stingaree Music Festival

Hayes Carll hosts a sandy shindig in a reverse hurricane

SARTIN'S

Despite natural disasters and failed marriages, this seafood joint lives on

Crab Man

Meet Doug Sartin, onetime heir apparent to a Texas barbecued crab dynasty

Beach Patrol

Hands off the Bolivar ferry, Al Qaeda!

Ruffled Feathers

The Audubon Society wants some killer birds to stay off its land

Best Place to Launch Fireworks

Crystal Beach

Buff Bathing

Get a perfect tan at McFaddin Beach

Taking a Toll

A bridge to Bolivar might be good for business -- but not for the birds

Blue Crab Standard Time

Take your time when eating Gulf blue crabs

Letters 08-03-2000

This Sand is Your Sand

At the Village of Surfside, it's not just the beaches that are eroding. It's the Open Beaches Act.

His and Hers

Gulf Coast Fried

At Floyd's Cajun Shack, the prince of funk rules

Sanctuary

The oil is gone from High Island, but the birds still come. So do the bird watchers.

Hot Plate