Enjoying our time at Galveston

We've been sightseeing and exploring around town and the east end of the Island. There are neighborhoods with beautiful old colonial homes and churches that have been here since the hurricane of 1900. We visited the east tip of the Island where there used to be a fort before the 1900 hurricane leveled it. Since that big hurricane a huge seawall has been built to shelter the east end of the Island and the town of Galveston. The main ease/west road along the gulf is built on this seawall and this is the highest land on the Island.
We visited a seafood retail shop on the harbor and watched them unloading fish from the fishing boats. Tables were heaped with fish and shrimp and you picked out what you wanted and they fileted it for you and packed it on ice for the trip home. We bought some fresh flounder and grouper for a few fish dinners.
Today our new friend Frank Bowser took us on a kayak trip through the bay. He is a volunteer with the park and had access to the kayak shed. We each had our own kayak and went for a four hour paddle through the marshes and bays to see the nesting shorebirds. We saw laughing gulls, great egrets, oyster catchers and black skimmers. Quite an interesting wildlife sanctuary here.

The eastern tip of Galveston Island. The shipping channel comes along here carrying ships from the Gulf to Galveston Harbor. Cruise ships also enter here during the high season.

Fresh from the boats, fish at Katie's Seafood Shop.

Kayaking on Galveston Bay.

This is the Oyster Catcher. Note the strong beak for prying open the shells.

Pelicans on the posts of an old viewing platform destroyed by hurricane Ike.

Another duck I have to look up. Any ideas?

By the way, the black and white shorebird in the previous post is a Black Bellied Plover.