Sunday, October 28, 2012

Exploring the Mississippi Gulf Coast

The Davis Bayou of the Gulf Islands National Seashore is just a bit south of Ocean Springs, which is the eastern-most point of the 26 miles scenic drive along the gulf coast. We enjoyed the drive, going through Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach, Pass Christian, and Bay St. Louis. 

One of the first things we noticed was how high some of the homes were built – much higher than those we saw in Louisiana, and the second thing we noticed was large areas of vacant lots, with what appeared to at one time had homes (and large opens at that, since there were quite a few multimillion dollar plantation homes along the route). We learned at the Biloxi Visitor’s Center that these are both the result of Hurricane Katrina (2005) ~ homes that were deemed 50% or more destroyed would only receive money to rebuild if rebuilt on high stilts, which made no sense for the plantation homes, and only those with 50% or less damage could be fixed as-is, no stilts needed.   
 

One strange, yet popular, attraction in Biloxi is the lighthouse in the middle of the road – placed there before the road was built, and just like an old oak tree; the periphery was built around it.
We enjoyed lunch at a popular restaurant around here ~ Shaggy’s ~ Brad enjoyed a Caesar salad with local shrimp and Suzanne had just a regular ‘ole sandwich, not being a shrimp eater.


We walked the beach a bit ~ the sand is quite fine and soft, the water this time of year a bit cool, but swimmable (in Suzanne’s opinion, not Brad’s).

Easy and affordable - no matter where you are! 

No comments:

Blog Archive