Mississippi & Alabama Coasts

It was hard leaving New Orleans but we consoled ourselves with boiled peanuts. I guess they're not for everyone but we like 'em. The pod next to the peanuts is from a Magnolia tree....love the plants around here.

Gulf sand is soooo sugary - beautiful! We stayed at Buccaneer State Park in Waveland, Mississippi. The park just re-opened this summer after being wiped out by Katrina in 2005.

Katrina leveled an 8 mile wide swath from the shore to about 16 miles inland. The congregation of St Clair left the foundation of their old church...we could tell it was something of a shrine for them.

There were miles of empty shoreline with skeleton piers. In nearby Bay St Louis we talked with the curator of the local historical society. His home was a 1804 stone mansion on the shore and when he was able to return after the storm there was nothing left but the front porch stairs. Before Katrina there were over 700 homes on the National Historic Registry in Bay St Louis - nearly half were lost in the hurricane.

Holiday time is feels strange down here but these decorations were lovely.

Biloxi is home to some huge casinos but also some beautiful beaches and this shrimp boat harbor.

This Southern live oak is thought to be over 400 years old - it was definitely an amazing tree. It stands on the grounds of the Southern Mississippi college campus in Biloxi right across the highway from the beach. The building behind it and several others were boarded up (Katrina damage) but the tree survived.

Thunderstorms and rain in the forecast convinced us to trade our tent for this little cabin in Ocean Springs, Mississippi - our hillbilly home away from home.

When the weather cleared we spent two nights on Dauphin Island - a barrier island of the Alabama coast just south of Mobile and north of the oil spill. The beahces looked gorgeous - we did see crews out watching for tar balls, etc. Unfortunately the island suffered from some really poorly planned development. Luckily the Gulf Islands National Seashore encompasses some of the other barrier islands in the area.