My Turtle Patrol buddy Connie McCreight and I began our third year of cruising the west end of Galveston in search of turtle sign. Turtle Island Restoration Network on the island provides UTVs to cover the distance from Galveston Island State Park to San Luis Pass in the search for our endangered gulf coast turtles. If we find turtle sign, our job is to attempt to locate the nest full of eggs before the coyotes, snakes, birds and crabs do. As you can see, we ran across a plethora of other animals along the way. Dogs love to chase our little vehicle, birds love to check us for possible bread droppings, and beachwalkers want to know our story. Once we reach the expansive San Luis Bridge attaching Galveston to the mainland, we know we can turn around and head back, scanning the dunes along the way for anything out of the ordinary.

Near the western end of our island lays an array of colorful buildings appropriately known as Pointe West. I spent a summer there before moving to Diamond Beach. It is far from the madding crowd of Galveston, with wide open beaches and a feel of truly living in the midst of nature. While I loved my time there, it was desolate in the winter and a trip to the grocery store meant a minimum one hour round trip. While I love contemplative alone time, it was a little too much for my social nature. As we neared the busier beach of Jamaica, apparently a local artist had built a driftwood stonehenge to add to the sunrise. You never know what you’re going to see on the island. When we reach the three-story “lotto house” we know it’s time to turn south toward the bay facility, and return our little UTV.

As if the day wasn’t adventurous enough, I headed over to Offats Bayou to pay the marina rent and there was Conner Cochrane bragging about his yellowfin. Since I am never shy when it comes to acquiring seafood (especially the free kind:) I asked him where my fillet was. This sweet young man then insisted that I take a couple of fillets. What you see on my plate is one-half of one fillet! It was bigger than any steak I’ve ever been served, and fresher to boot. Never have I enjoyed a better piece of yellowfin. I told the marina owner, Bill, I will never again complain about the rent going up:)