The Christmas Quest, Part 3: Swimming in December

Here’s an interesting fact about life: People will travel from all over the world to visit someplace like, say, Washington DC. They’ll spend all day at the Smithsonian and see only a fraction of the exhibits. And they’ll think to themselves, I’d have to live here for a month to see everything there is to see.

But then if you talk to people who actually do live in Washington DC, they’ll inform you that they rarely go to the Smithsonian. Really, only when they have out-of-town guests.

I suspect that this also occurs in fascinating cities like Paris, Moscow, Istanbul, and Venice, and it’s always struck me as such a sad phenomenon that it’s so easy to miss out on the beauty of where you live right now.

Well, the beauty of La Porte, Texas, the suburb of Houston where I currently live, is that:

1. There are (sometimes) sunny warm days in winter, and
2. I live close to some pretty neat swimming holes.

The two best swimming options are Sylvan Beach, a little bay beach with imported sand that’s only six minutes from my house, and Galveston Beach, which is 45 or 50 minutes away on The Gulf of Mexico. Both beaches have rather murky water, but as someone who grew up swimming in Muddy Creek, I remain undaunted.

However, like the person who lives in Washington DC but never visits the Smithsonian, I kept living so close to the water but never swimming in it. How silly! 

With my Christmas Quest (if you need to catch up, here’s Part 1 of the Quest and Part 2 of the Quest), I aimed to change that. 

Item #25: Swim at Sylvan Beach

Item #9: Swim in Galveston

Unfortunately, I didn’t account for how chilly and autumn-ish December is in Houston. As I neared the halfway point of my quest, I looked at my weather app and realized there were only two decently warm days left⁠—the last two days of 2023.

So on Saturday, December 30, I went to Sylvan Beach with a terrible flaking pool noodle I’d found on the curb once and tried to have a nice swim in 66° weather.

Unfortunately, the tide was out, and the swimming area at Sylvan Beach is roped off, resulting in water that didn’t even come up to my knees.

I made a valiant attempt to swim in its shallow depths with my useless noodle. Then, deciding it was enough like swimming to “count,” I put a jacket on over my swimsuit and just splashed around for a while. 

List Item #50: Do Something Glittery for New Years

I knew I wanted to do something for New Year’s, I just wasn’t sure what, so for a while, I just left the last item on my list blank. 

Did I want to go to a New Year’s party of some sort? But staying up late…the traffic coming home…drunk drivers…

Did I want to go watch fireworks somewhere? But staying up late…the traffic coming home…drunk drivers…

Eventually, I just wrote “do something glittery” because that was vague, and I could interpret it however I wanted. I don’t know why I wrote “glittery” when I really meant “festive,” but whatever.

Well, New Year’s Eve was the only remotely warm day left of the Christmas Quest, with a projected 72° in Galveston, so I drove South, sipping iced tea and hoping I’d come across some festive way to celebrate the new year in Galveston without having to stay up too late.

First, I swam. It really was wonderful. The only drawback was that I forgot my terrible noodle in the car. I swim for pleasure not exercise, so I’d rather just bob along on something floaty. Still, I didn’t feel like going back for it, so I plunged in and promptly pulled a leg muscle. 

Ha. Oh well, I had fun anyway.

List Item #8: Visit the pier coffee shop

I saw on Google Maps that there was a coffee shop extending over the water, and I wanted to visit, so I walked over there after my swim.

Now, I didn’t take any pictures of the place, but oddly, one of the free stock photos that comes with WordPress is of this exact location. Here’s what it looks like.

Charming, right?

Unfortunately, I ended up disappointed. It wasn’t really a coffee shop so much as a convenience store. There was no tea, so when an employee finally showed up, I asked for a hot chocolate and received something giant, expensive, and far too sweet for my taste. 

The only seating area was up top, where I found a bar that was actually rather charming. I sat there for a bit, enjoying the view and sipping my hot chocolate. But I have to be honest: every time I’m in a bar, I feel uncomfortable, like I don’t know the rules. Is it okay to sit here drinking the hot chocolate I bought downstairs, or is there an unspoken rule that I’m supposed to buy a drink from the bar?

The whole place smelled like dead fish, and I don’t plan to go back. But if you’re the sort of person who likes bars, or if you’re walking on the beach and want a quick coffee to go, you might enjoy it. 

I decided to head to the other side of Galveston Island, which is full of charming old buildings. As I neared downtown, I saw the trolley pass.

List Item #26: Ride the trolley

I’d ridden the trolley in Galveston once before and wanted to do it again. I didn’t know the schedule, but when I saw it pass I knew it must be nearing the main station, so I headed there, waited for a few minutes, and sure enough, there it came around the corner.

It costs $1 cash. Nifty system. And it was lucky I hopped on when I did because I caught the last round of the day. They were shutting down a bit early for New Year’s.

My friend Tiffany had told me that there’s a street in Galveston called “The Strand” that’s full of old buildings and cute shops. After riding the trolley in a loop, I walked over to the Strand with some vague notion that something fun and new-yearsy might be going on. Also, I hoped to listen to a street musician (List Item #24). 

Unfortunately, there were no street musicians around. I heard what sounded like live music, but as I approached excitedly, I saw that the musician was in a bar. He was right next to an open window, and I listened from the street…did that count as a completed list item?

I couldn’t decide. 

I passed a touristy storefront and screamed when a man walked out with a snake around his neck. Then I felt bad for screaming, so I asked the man about his pet, and somehow ended up petting the snake, whose name was “Boba.”

I overheard a cashier tell another store worker that most of the Strand shops were going to close at 6 pm. 

I ate all the snacks I’d brought with me.

It wasn’t even 6 pm yet. Midnight was over 6 hours away. All I wanted to do was go home and watch my Korean drama. But that didn’t count as something festive, now did it?

Then I saw a tea shop. “Oh,” I thought, “I’ll buy a festive tea! I can sip it while watching my Korean Drama! That will be festive enough!”

A Quick Note about Jacob

Here’s one funny thing I forgot to say about my date with Jacob (which I wrote about in Part 2): our date was in the afternoon, so I ordered a less-caffeinated green tea, and he got the same thing. But they gave us both Earl Grey. I didn’t complain because the Earl Grey was delicious, even though it had a slightly higher caffeine content.

Well, Jacob told me later that the tea kept him wide awake.

But you drink coffee, I noted, bewildered. That has way more caffeine.

Turns out he only drinks decaf.

Anyway, we made plans over New Year’s weekend to meet up at Sylvan Beach the following Wednesday. I was secretly roping him into another of my Christmas Quest tasks (more details coming). I told him I’d bring tea.

So on that last day of 2023, as I searched for a festive tea to ring in the new year, I was also searching for something decently decaffeinated to share with Jacob. I ended up with a blood orange smoothie rooibos tea⁠—festive and caffeine-free.

Then I watched fireworks the whole drive home, and I watched fireworks out the window as I watched my Korean drama and sipped my festive tea, and I went to bed and woke up at midnight as the booming roar of a gazillion fireworks went off at once. Turns out, in Houston, you don’t have to drive to any particular location to see fireworks. 

The Second Date with Jacob

I felt a little apprehensive about my second date with Jacob. I didn’t know how to tell him that I wasn’t looking for anything serious⁠—that all I wanted was a fun little date. I called my sister Jenny and her pal Kathrine, who advised me to ask, “Why were you on Bumble?” and open the conversation that way.

I also was running out of time to complete my list, so I decided to rope him into

List item #27: Have a picnic with sharable food and tea, and

List item #33: Buy a cake.

Looking back, so many items on my list were really about connection. I had this idea that if I had a picnic alone with sharable food, surely some strangers would come by who’d want to share it with me. I put “buy a cake” on the list because they always look so yummy, but I’m never frivolous enough to buy a cake instead of making it. 

But I always had a notion of taking the cake to the picnic because what’s more shareable than cake?

So when Jacob wanted to meet again, I suggested we go to Sylvan Beach, and I said I’d bring tea and a snack. Then I went to Kroger and picked up a cake.

This cake-and-tea picnic was the first time I told Jacob about my Christmas quest. But I didn’t tell him that “go on a date” was part of the quest, because that just felt weird. 

Jacob made fun of me good-naturedly for bringing a whole stack of paper plates and a pile of extra forks. “Hey,” I said. “You never know, some strangers on the beach might want some of this cake! We can’t eat it all by ourselves.”

Our date proceeded much like the previous one had, only with a prettier setting and un-caffeinated tea. This time, I was a lot better about sharing the conversation instead of doing all the talking. The friendship vibes were flowing. The romance vibes, not so much.

Two men in their 50s walked by. One of them said, “Happy Birthday!”

“It’s not my birthday, I just decided to buy a cake,” I said. “Want some?”

The men came over. I pulled out my extra plates and forks, giving Jacob a bit of an I told you so look, and cut them each a slice.

Their names were Jesus and Jorge. Jesus lived in the area, and his cousin Jorge was visiting from Mexico. Jesus spoke fluent English, and Jorge didn’t.

Jorge silently ate his cake while Jesus told us all about:

• How he learned to deep fry a turkey for Thanksgiving
• The trip he took to Oregon (this was after I said I was from Oregon. Jesus was very excited about a trip he’d taken there, but everything he mentioned⁠—Redwoods, Lake Tahoe⁠—was actually in California.)
• The trip he took to the Grand Canyon where his wife was too scared to go up in a helicopter.
• The trip he took to Israel, where he “walked on water” because the Dead Sea was so salty. He said that a bunch of people followed him into the water. Jacob and I thought this was hilarious⁠—a guy named Jesus goes to Israel, walks on water, and has a bunch of followers⁠—but Jesus either didn’t find this funny or else was so eager to get on with his story that he didn’t find time to stop and laugh.

After a good while of listening to Jesus’s travel adventures I felt like it really was time for me to go home, so I started quietly gathering up the picnic supplies, and Jesus and Jorge thanked me for the cake and left. Jacob helped me carry the picnic supplies to my car. 

Now what? I never did get around to asking him why he was on Bumble.

Jacob put the leftover cake on the passenger seat of my car “Do you think we’ll do this again?” he asked.

I hesitated. “I’m not really looking for a relationship,” I confessed.

I suppose I must have looked rather pained and pitying because he said, “It’s fine, just be yourself.” 

Really, I was trying to decide if I should say, “We can still be friends!” Because I genuinely enjoyed hanging out with him, but I knew I was never going to feel romantically toward him. Still, I bit my tongue and didn’t say it. I guess in the moment it didn’t seem kind to friend-zone him so blatantly.

I was relieved that Jacob didn’t seem super surprised. I supposed he’d gotten the hint from my general non-committal, non-flirtatious demeanor. 

We hugged goodbye. He said, “It was great meeting you.”

“It was great meeting you, too,” I said. 

I can only hope that now he has an interesting story to tell his family.

That concludes the Jacob saga. None of you are allowed to accuse me of leaving you on a cliffhanger this time, LOL.

I must confess that my venture into online dating went about as well as it could possibly have gone. However, I don’t think I’ll try it again any time soon. I realized that dating apps are full of people who either want a serious relationship or casual sex, whereas I want friendship with maybe a few romantic sprinkles. There is a friendship version of Bumble, and I might try that on my next quest.

More Adventures Coming!

Can you believe that I’ve written three blog posts about the Christmas Quest and it’s still not over? It goes to show that the only thing you need to live an exciting life is simple bucket list and a little bit of bravery.

The next blog post will include a story of a prank gone awry, seeing a band for free in exchange for my book, and attempting to make a bowl out of backyard clay (just because I was curious).

However, I have a very busy end-of-February, so the next post won’t be up until early March.

Take care! If the winter blues are getting you down, I recommend complimenting a stranger’s hat.

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