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| One of Biloxi's numerous beaches |
Absolutely beautiful.
This area was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in
2005. Most of the devastation in New
Orleans was caused by the dikes breaking.
Here, the devastation was from the winds and water surge of
Katarina.
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| Still devastated. |
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| Still rebuilding. |
Almost 10 years later, they
are still trying to recover and rebuild; but what a spectacular coast they have
here.
Miles and miles of pure white sand
beaches and the, for the most part, calm beautiful Caribbean Ocean.
We have lucked out and spent almost a month
at an RV park that is right across the road from the beach.
Our RV spot is ideal and even has a little
sliver of an ocean view from the kitchen window and a nice view from the
outside area.
It’s a wonderful place to
spend a month.
What more could you ask
for:
all the amenities of a decent sized
city, casinos with gambling/shows/food, spectacular beaches, great bars and
restaurants, and yummy seafood!
Many of the buildings that survived Katrina have signs
marking the high water spot in their establishments. It’s humbling to see how far inland the water
surge went and how incredibly high it was.
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| Camille and Katrina |
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| Katrina high water mark |
There are still numerous empty lots/blocks that you can see that used to
have some type of business and/or houses that are just gone. All that’s left is the driveways and, in some
cases, the foundations. The beach road
here used to be lined with gorgeous historic mansions many of which are totally
gone.
In their place are historical
marker signs that give the name of the house/plantation, a description of the
building, and a brief history. All of
the signs end with, “Destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005”. Really gives us a dramatic perspective on the
power of these hurricanes.
One really impressive thing they’ve done is to create a sort
of artistic memorial in the median of the beach road. Beach Boulevard is a four lane road that runs
right along the beach. Most of it has a
nice median strip. There are some really
nice, large trees (oak?) in many areas of the median. But some areas are almost totally bare where
the trees snapped off due to the winds of Katrina. Instead of just getting rid of the remaining
tree stumps (which in some cases were quite tall), they commissioned a couple
of artists to create animal wood carvings out of the stumps. These are not those big clunky chainsaw wood
carvings that you sometimes see. They
are very fine and delicate and have been preserved like a finely carved wooden
bowl. There are owls, eagles, dolphins,
seahorses, all kinds of things. It is so
impressive and such a great idea.
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| Beach Boulevard tree carving. |
While we were in Biloxi, we took a long planned trip to
Phoenix to spend some time with our family.
Our son-in-law, Drew, is the tournament director of the annual LPGA
tournament in Scottsdale and Sara and Jonah were going to be there for the week
of the actual tournament (Drew had been there for over a month).
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| Jonah really missed his Dad! |
Of course, Emily lives there and we got the
chance to meet her new boyfriend (who seems like a very nice guy).
And to top it all off, there were baseball
spring training games for Pat!
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| Jonah's 1st spring training game. |
Lots of
stuff to pack into a few short days. We
had great weather and got to see all of Jonah’s new accomplishments since we
last saw him in mid-December (rolling over, sitting up, army crawling, eating “real”
food, etc.). He’s just as perfect as
ever! A few days before we left Biloxi
for Phoenix, we got word that Pat’s mom, Beth, who was in an elder-care
facility was failing rapidly. So we
scrambled around and got Pat on a flight from Phoenix to Portland while I
returned to Biloxi, Big Bertha, and “the 5th”. For those of you who don’t know, I’m afraid
of flying! I know, I know…..it’s safer
than traveling by car, I’ve flown all over the U.S., to Mexico three times,
Europe twice………but I really don’t believe those big things should be able to
take off, stay in the air, and land! So
here I am (scared), flying solo (without Pat), and here’s my itinerary from
Phoenix to Biloxi, MS: Leave Phoenix at
6:00 a.m. (meant getting up in Northeast Phoenix at 3:45 a.m.), fly to Seattle
(yes, I flew to the NW corner of the US from Phoenix to get to the gulf coast
of Mississippi), change planes (and terminals) to catch a flight to Houston,
spent 5 hours in the Houston airport, catch a flight to Gulfport/Biloxi, arrive
at “the 5th” at 10:30 p.m.
Obviously, I survived; but I deserve a chance to whine once in a
while! Pat spent five days in Oregon and
got to see his Mom and say goodbye before she passed away late Friday afternoon
while he was flying back to Biloxi.
We had a couple of weeks to sit back, veg out, and enjoy Biloxi and the Beach. We discovered a great beach bar.
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| Shaggy's on the beach. |
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With a great beach drink.
And great appetizers.
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| Tuna bites and seaweed salad-wonderful. |
Of course, Pat discovered great seafood.
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| Oysters (ugh) three ways! |
And, we relaxed and enjoyed the beach.
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| Last afternoon on Biloxi beach. |
