Sunday, November 24, 2013

A Side Trip

to Biloxi, Mississippi.

We took the coastal route to get there, on US 90.

There are some beautiful homes and huge live oak trees with Spanish moss dripping from those trees, and the beach goes on for miles.


My brother was stationed there many years ago when he was in the Air Force.  Our family visited him there and I remember how the beach looked then.  A long way to get to the water if you wanted to step around all the crabs that were there and there were no waves!!


I am seeing Biloxi with a different set of eyes.

Mississippi has only one lighthouse and it sets in the middle of a four lane busy highway.

It was built in 1848.  It survived the Civil War and more than 20 hurricanes with Katrina being the last one.

We just missed the last tour so we were unable to climb the 57 steps to the top.



The Visitors Center is just across the street from the lighthouse with plenty of parking.  It is a real beauty inside.

We walked around learning what we could from the nice displays.



There were some nice sculptures made from the dead trees and driftwood Katrina left behind.

We particularly were impressed with this horse head.






Coming in to town, we noticed these carvings in the middle of the four lane highway.

This is the Katrina Sculpture Garden.

The sculptures line the road.  They were made using a chain saw from the trunks of the trees that did not survive Katrina's wrath.



We were told this was the place to have lunch...Beau Rivage.

You will notice the flag is at half staff in memory of President Kennedy.

The place was beautifully decked out for the Christmas holidays.









And the food was absolutely delicious.

On my plate was alligator sausage (just had to try it), pulled pork, ribs, fried green tomato, yams, catfish, green beans, jambalaya, and mac n cheese.  The salad was exceptional.  Then we had dessert.  We were glad we stopped here, but we ate TOO much.

People that know us know if there is a refuge close by, we will make the effort to visit.

We met Tom and Sally who are in their 5th year there, and Melissa, volunteer coordinator. 



We wanted to see the cranes.  Sally gave us some ideas with not a lot of hope of seeing them at this time of day. I finally spotted these two way off the busy road.

I should have taken my Cannon for this shot!!!

I don't give up easily, when I yelled, "there they are!"  They were the only ones we saw...but it made me happy, happy, happy!!!

We enjoyed a short walk on the trail and were delighted to see the pitcher plants are still fresh, not too many though.

It started to sprinkle on us so we headed back to the truck.

We circled through the volunteer area where we decided this was not a place we would be interested in staying.



We drove back to our lodging through the fog of the coast, then decided we better go back on the interstate.

We had a wonderful time on our day off.

Until next time...






















7 comments:

  1. I know you guys have probably done it, but since you are kinda in the neighborhood driving along The Natchez Trail was a ball! Lots of places to stop, learn a little history and take some great photos! :) Very peaceful!

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    1. We traveled the Natchez Trail and yes, it is full of history. We really enjoyed that trip.

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  2. I worked with Tom and Sally the two times I volunteered at Mississippi Sandhill. The RV sites are a bit of a challenge to get into. ;)

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    1. It was not the challenge of getting into the site...it was not nice in our opinion.

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  3. Been a while, but we've visited the Mississippi Sandhill NWR.... love that area... especially the food! Looks like you're having a good time.

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  4. Biloxi looks like a neat town. The housing area is a really important part of the volunteer experience, isn't it?

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  5. no sandhills were visible there when we visited

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