Galveston and Kemah are trashed. Rob and I visited both places this summer. We ducked into The Balinese Room http://www.balineseroom.net/ to get out of the rain. Rob had never been inside and wanted to check it out. They let us walk all the way to the back and look around. It was the 4th of July weekend and they were setting up for a private party in the ball room. As we walked along the pier, we could see the ocean through holes in the wood floor! It was awesome! We sat at the old bar at the front, sipping a Corona with lime and chatted with the bartender while looking at a wall full of pictures of famous people who had 'played' there (music and otherwise!). ZZ Top played gigs there when they were just a 'little old band' from Houston. They even wrote and recorded a song about it. The place always held a certain mystery for it's reputation from the days of prohibition. Later, it was just a familiar site to we native Houstonians each time we went to The Island. Invariably, someone would say as we passed this old, weathered structure jutting out into the water, 'Look, there's The Balinese Room', like it was some kind of a shrine. Well, to us, in it's own unique way, I suppose it was. A part of our local history that had survived many other storms was finally taken down by Ike. Galveston will recover and rebuild but the Sea Wall won't be the same without The Balinese.
It's sad, y'all....
