Adrienne Culpepper: June 2009 Archives

I remember the first time I attended a Galveston Antique Dealer's Association meeting at Grace Manor on 17th and Postoffice Streets in the East End.  It must have been the winter of 2002, and Barb Gatlin (the hostess with the mostess and proud owner and operator of Grace Manor B&B) had a fire roaring in the fireplace and we were each greeted by "Gracie", the property mascot (of the canine variety) and guardian.  The last time I was there, Barb was the gracious host for the Downtown Galveston Strand Seaport's "appreciation party" for the owners of the lofts on the 2007 Lofts Tour and it was just as cozy, just as warm and just as inviting.

Customers at the shop tells us again and again about this "fantastic B&B that they just stayed in that was simply perfect" and, invariably, they're talking about Grace Manor.  Barb opens the gorgeous Circa 1905, white stucco-covered brick, 2 1/2 story beauty to visitors each day.  She offers them a fantastic breakfast spread each morning, a quaint library/reading room downstairs and fabulous, lush gardens you can sit in or just enjoy from the balcony.

Inside, the entire house is decked out with gorgeous antiques, ornate ceiling murals, and the most amazing tiffany stained glass windows along the curved staircase to the 2nd story.  It is truly a beautiful home. 

Next time you've got family or friends visiting the Island or just want to "get away" in your own backyard, give Grace Manor a shot to impress even the most "selective" of those family, friends or in-laws!  If you're coming down for a cruise, you can park for free with a night's stay there too!  And, don't forget the horse-drawn carriages know the way to G.M. and can provide door to door service!

Call Barb to check availability and rates today at (800) 810.8590.  Thanks to Grace Manor for your generous support of the 2009 Galveston Island Beach Revue!  

I think technology has made us a bit OCD about information.  Really - you can pretty much find anything out anywhere you are at any time of the day.  We often rely on Willthing's "nerd phone" (of course we all know that nerds make all the dough and get the girls, so it's not such a bad thing any more to be a nerd is it?) when we're at the - er, watering establishments, we can look up the answers to the puzzles on the inside of the Lonestar beer bottle caps.  When we're at the beach we can check our email like we haven't even stepped out of the office ("I'm right on top of that, Rose!" - youtube timer 7:30).  When it's 2:30am and you're in a strange land and are trying to locate the nearest Whataburger - wham - handheld GPS. 

That instant accessiblity to updated information has, I think, contributed to what I call "frustration from disappointing blog checking", or FDBC.  I think I'm really on to something here because I've noticed that even Yahoo won't let you refresh your screen and leave the same little pictures in the headline news box - it is constantly rotating the top-read stories so practically each time you come back to the homepage, there's a different pic or story order!  I guess our attention spans are just that short??? 

That's global news, though - they've got a lot of content to work with (and yet with all that "newsworthy" stuff out there, somehow the Octuplet mom (no, I am not providing a link to that one!) and Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwiches manage to get quite a piece of the online front-page-time pie...   For every other blog or website out there it can be more of a challenge keeping fresh, up-to-the-minute content on the site for their readers - I know sometimes it's a challenge for me and I have to really make myself sit down and blog...   

BUT, there is a site, and it's a Galveston site, that is updated each and every morning - even before many of us have crawled out of bed.  It's a site that, if nothing else, offers great pictures of our Island thru the lenses of skilled photographers Billy and Ruthi and now even has an office cam that updates the shot of the 43rd Street jetty every single minute! 

But, G-ownsurf.com offers so much more.  They've got a daily surf report (could have used that when we were in school!), useful links and Island happenings... 

Anyhow, check it out sometime - it's a pretty good remedy for early-morning cases of the FDBC.  :)