The Balinese Room

For many people the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Galveston, Texas is the Strand, the seawall, the old villa's and so on, but for me it has always been the business piers along the seawall. Unfortunately these have all been destroyed by Hurricane Ike as of September 12, 2008. Of the old piers one of the oldest and most interesting was The Balinese Room pier at 21st Street and the seawall.

The Balinese started its storied history in 1923 as the Chop Suey and became The Balinese in the early 1940's. It was quite the place then, THE place to be for big name entertainers in the pre-Vegas days. Hope, Benny, Sinatra, and ZZ Top all played there. You can read more about the Balinese's history at thebalineseroom.net.

This panorama was stitched together from 17 shots taken with my Oly E-3 and 12-60 lens. They were stitched together, straightened using distortion correction, and color corrected in PS2. I'm sure it was one of the last pano's made of the pier before it untimely destruction by Ike.

Panoramics of this size don't exactly lend themselves to display on most screens so you'll have to click the image to look at the larger version.

Hope you enjoy it.