Over the holiday weekend, my wife and I took the kids to the Galveston, TX area. We had a blast! The kids really enjoyed the Pleasure Pier. The idea of a theme park, set out above the ocean water was very exciting for them. We had the opportunity to check out some other neat places in the area as well such as the Houston Aquarium. They have a restaurant that wraps around a 150,000 gallon, cylindrical fish tank! We also went over to Kemah, TX, where they have a nice boardwalk on the bay, with some more amusement rides, a stingray reef and some nice shopping and restaurants. Finally, on the way out of town, we decided to stop at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and check out the exhibits. The more activities we decided to do, the more stuff we found to add to a list for future vacations or trips.
For those that don’t know, Galveston is an island, just off the mainland of Texas, a little southeast of Houston. In 2008 hurricane Ike wreaked havoc on Galveston and the surrounding area. Registering as the most expensive hurricane in Texas history, and the third most expensive hurricane to make landfall in the United States. On a previous trip my wife and I took without the kids, we had a chance to take some tours of the city. There are still buildings and homes today that are condemned, ruined and just sitting vacant after the hurricane. There are lines painted on the buildings that show how high the water level was. The Pleasure Pier I mentioned earlier, was a hotel, before Ike completely demolished it. Murdoch’s is a store that sits out on a pier, it was also demolished. Hurricane Ike could have easily been the end of Galveston, a city that no doubt, thrives on tourists and vacationers.
By listening to the stories on the tours, and seeing the people in the area, it became very apparent that the city of Galveston, the surrounding areas and the insurance companies all finally came together to rebuild. Building Galveston back up and improving the area and upping the ante by adding a theme park. All of this would not have been possible without people choosing Galveston, TX as a vacation spot. There are plenty of other places that people could go to vacation. There’s Florida, the Carolinas, California, Hawaii or even venturing over to another country like Jamaica or Mexico. Instead, plenty of people still choose this as a destination for a vacation, as evident by the large number of RV’s and travel trailers parked along the beaches, the number of hotels, restaurants and retail stores that line Sea Wall Blvd.
Of course all of this stuff that we did cost us a lot of money. We do that don’t we? On vacation we often throw our budgets out the window and don’t think as clearly or as rationally as we might on a normal day. But you know what? That’s ok! It’s vacation after all. While we were there I was struck by something though. As I was handing over the cash and letting the waiter run my credit card I realized, “I’m in Texas.” Whatever money I am spending not only gives me the things I am ordering or paying for, but it also helps my state economy. That’s a pretty good feeling. I think it’s really important for us as consumers to realize the power that we have. We want to make sure that the money we spend if at all possible is benefiting our local economies as well as our national economy. Obviously we shouldn’t buy something that is sub par simply to support someone, but oftentimes we can make a choice to get a quality product or service and support our economy. This is the principle behind the “Made in America” philosophy, and it’s one of the reasons it’s so important here at Presco. When you buy from us you not only get the absolute best products on the market, but you also help build up manufacturing in America and help make our economy strong.