Galveston – one last time

Corinne Family 2 Comments

After New Mexico, it was time for the big highlight of the trip. Our youngest daughter, Janelle, was to defend her dissertation after 5 years of hard work at Texas A&M Galveston. So it was off to Galveston.

Hello Beach and the Gulf of Mexico. It was nice to see you again.
Janelle and Dez, her therapy dog. No, Dez really isn’t a therapy dog, she is Janelle’s housemate’s dog. But sometimes it seemed like Dez’s silliness is what got Janelle through her dissertation writing.

We had two weeks reserved at an RV park near Janelle’s house.

The pool at Sandpiper RV Resort. The pool was used MANY times during our hot and humid stay.

We also had family and friends coming in. First Janelle’s godparents and very good friends Leola and Doug drove down from Michigan in their RV.

Callie flew in from Rochester to join us and stayed with us in the Blue Flame.
Our friend Mary Ellen and her son ONe also flew in from Rochester. Callie, Janelle and ONe have known each other since birth.

We had a few days before the big event, so on Sunday morning we all went to the Galveston’s Own Farmer’s Market where Janelle and her friends volunteered during the pandemic by helping with curbside pickups. By this time, the Market was open to the public again. Thank you vaccines!

At the Farmer’s Market being COVID safe. L to R: Callie, Janelle, housemate Ashley, Dez the Wonder Dog, Melissa, Corinne & Leola.
We made it a point to walk the beach and swim in the Gulf as much as we could.
Mary Ellen and I took a walk one morning.
Mary Ellen: “What’s this?”
“Trash!” Mary Ellen was a good citizen and helped clean up the beach. Janelle would be so proud.

We had a storm roll through one afternoon while Mary Ellen and I were on the East end of the island. A notification came through on my phone about waterspouts in the area. I gave a call back to the campground, and Jim, Doug and Leola got to witness a waterspout right off the shore of the campground.

Leola got a picture of a waterspout on the Gulf side of Galveston Island.

Another day, Janelle gave us a tour of her lab space and the Sea Life Facility.

Masks were still required on TAMUG’s campus. Here in the Sea Life Facility checking out the tanks: L to R: ONE, Mary Ellen, Janelle, Leola and Doug.
One of Janelle’s good friends is researching alligators.
We walked down to the boat docks while on campus and Janelle spotted a plastic bag in the water. She pulled it out and immediately said, “Look, a baby blue crab!” I have no idea how she spotted it inside the bag so quickly. We all took a look and then sent the crab back into the Gulf.

The Big Event

The day finally arrived. Janelle was to defend her dissertation. There were 15 of us in the room and 55 people on Zoom. If nothing else, COVID has upped everyone’s Zoom skills, and more of these defenses are being seen all over the country, if not the world. It was showtime.

Janelle defending her research on the “Bottom-up effects of mangrove encroachment on basal consumers in the Gulf of Mexico.”

After the excellent hour long presentation, we all had to leave the room for Janelle to answer the questions of her dissertation committee. So we headed back to her house.

A few hours later, we all got a group text message from Janelle; “Dr. Goeke has entered the chat!” Yay!!!! Success!!! Janelle is now a PhD.

A tweet from Janelle’s advisor.

It was time for a party. We broke out the champagne, had food and drink, Janelle’s friends came over. Celebrate!!!!

One of Dr. Janelle’s friend made her a manatee cake swimming in a sea of blue Jello!

Now that the defense was done, we set our sights on getting Janelle’s worldly belongings packed up. Callie flew home, a few days later, Mary Ellen and ONe did the same. Leola and Doug got their RV loaded up and headed back to Michigan. Jim and I stuck around a few more days to help Janelle pack boxes.

How many UHaul “U-boxes” are needed for Janelle’s world possessions? She ordered three. Fortunately only two were needed and she was not charged for the third.

You are probably wondering about Janelle’s belonging and why are they going into storage. Janelle is taking a few months off to rejuvenate. While exploring the western U.S., she’ll also be pursuing post-doc opportunities.

If you want to follow Janelle on her summer adventure, check out her twitter account at https://twitter.com/TrophicTopics. You don’t need a twitter account yourself to see what she is up to. Just visit that link periodically.

We then wended north towards home. This trip seems to have been a short one, only 11 weeks. Well, short by our standards.

Good-bye to the Gulf of Mexico. Till next time!

We arrived home two days ago and have been playing catch up with massive piles of laundry, mail, cleaning, etc.

The Blue Flame got a much needed bath this morning. It only took two hours.

It feels good to be home. But stay tuned, we may have another adventure up our sleeves sooner than you might think!

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