Gone to Galveston

Michael Watson grew up landlocked in Dallas. But every summer, he and his family made the trip to Galveston for time on the water. He’s doing the same – just a little more frequently – with his own family now.

“I’ve fished since I could walk,” the attorney and father of three says. The Watson family would stay at the La Quinta on the Seawall for a week at a time. “That was my family vacation,” Michael says. “Fishing on the jetties. It was the way I spent time with my dad,” who passed away in 1997.

“Then I came here for law school in 1996 and met my wife Jennifer, who was a good reason to stay in Houston.”

Today, Michael still loves fishing, and he’s sharing that love with his own children Camille, 11, Ellis, 8, and Evelyn, 4. They’re in Galveston “every other week, at least. It’s a lot closer than people think.” Michael says he’s partial to the 61st Street Pier and the Galveston Fishing Pier (at 90th and Seawall). At the latter, Michael says, “They’ve got a restaurant called Jimmy’s on the Pier. We’ll sit there at 10 at night and order burgers and po-boys and fish while we’re sitting.”

Michael also likes kayak fishing. “It’s pretty easy,” he says. “I got into it because a friend had a kayak. So I started renting them. It was like $65 to rent one all day. After doing that for about two years, I said, ‘Forget this, I’m buying one.’” That was some eight years ago. Three years ago, Michael bought another kayak for his children. “I bought mine off a website called texaskayakfisherman.com – it’s a 16-foot. And I bought the kids’ 12-foot at Academy.”

Ellis, 8, knows how to check the solunar tables to find four-star fishing days based on the tides. He and his dad will calendar them together to be sure they hit the best days. “Ellis will wake up in Houston at 5 a.m. and help me load up kayaks on our Sequoia,” Michael says, “and we’ll be down there at 6:30 and stay down until dinner.

“I get to be with my kids for eight hours with no TV, no phone, no iPad. Sometimes we’ll pull an all-nighter, and sometimes we’ll sit there if nothing’s biting and pass the time with a game like, ‘What’s your favorite food or color?’ I’ve got their full attention.”

Cousins Jeff Young and Al Pratka also love being in Galveston for reasons similar to Michael.

“Al and I have been going down there together since we were babies,” says Jeff, who is in the construction business. Now they spend time on the water together with their own children.

“It all brings back fond memories,” says Al, an insurance consultant. “My father was a boater, my grandfather was a boater. I lost my dad two years ago, and my son feels tied to the water, too, because he’s had really neat memories with my dad.

“I was 11 or 12 when I got my first boat,” Al says. “It was little bitty, and with a 7½-horsepower motor, you could only go so fast. But me and my cousins, who also had a house on the Crash Boat Basin [between the Scholes airport and Moody Gardens Golf Course, connecting to Offatts Bayou],  all had these little boats. We’d just run around together. The only time we’d go home was to get something to eat or if we were running low on gasoline.”

Both Jeff and Al are “passionate about Galveston and spending time there with our families,” Jeff says. “I’ve got two young boys, 5 and 10, and it’s wonderful to go down there and give them the freedom that we just can’t give them in Houston.”

Jeff and his wife Jill have a home on Tiki Island. “The kids pretty much have the run of the island,” he says. “They can get on their bikes and ride anywhere. You’re not going to let your 10 year old ride to the corner store for Gatorade in Houston. But in Tiki you would.”

The next generation of cousins – Jeff’s boys and Al’s 10-year-old son Riley and 12-year-old daughter Ellie – now have their own boats. “I found the boat I bought for my kids on Craigslist or 2coolfishing.com. It’s nothing pretty by any means, but they can bang into a pier in it and learn.”

“Down there,” Jeff says, “we’ll fish, take a ride in the boat, play in the beach. It’s all family time. And if I check my phone twice a day when I’m down there, that’s a lot.”

Looking for something to do in Galveston this summer? See fun summer events in Galveston.