Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Mississippi Gulf Coast - Bay St Louis


Bay St Louis is about 25 miles west of Biloxi on route 90. It is a delightful drive along the coast. My son, Todd, was in the area on business and recommended that we visit. The village has little shops and antique stores in abundance.




We stopped at the old train depot. Pictured below. I kind of thought there was a Spanish influence in the design. The depot housed a small museum. There were a number of displays of Mardi Gras costumes which are pictured below.



















There were some examples of wood carving sculpture.





We drove by this boarding house from a bygone era. Very quaint.



We ere looking for a place to have lunch and happened across the Blind Tiger a pet friendly restaurant. We have never been able to bring our dogs in with us prior. We decided to take them in and if it did not work out we could always run them out to the car.










Pillo sat in Carol's lap and Gizmo sat in the seat beside me. I did share my burger with Gizmo my Yorkie. Neither dog made a sound. We  walked a bit along the waterfront before heading back.




Mississippi Gulf Coast - Biloxi

We recently spent several days visiting the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Biloxi was our home base for the week. Almost every building is new since Katrina. The Biloxi Lighthouse took a terrific hit from the storm and many thought it would be lost. However the damage was fixed and it continues to be a beacon it the center strip of route 90 in Biloxi.




 



Across from the light is the newly rebuilt visitor center. This replaces the old anti bellum building that served as the visitor center that was destroyed. While the new center is beautiful, the prior center had a certain atmosphere that is gone forever.





The water here is very calm. The beach is protected by a barrier island. Below Carol is standing on the boardwalk.




The decision was made not to cut down all the trees that were damaged by Katrina. Instead they were turned into wood sculpture by local artisans.








Sea oats are being planted in several areas along the beach to prevent erosion. Although not pictured several areas of the beach were being groomed by heavy equipment.
 
 We were blessed with great weather. The first day the temperature reached 80 degrees. We had our dogs with us and they enjoyed walking on the sand.