The Gulf Coast - Mississippi

This past weekend we took a trip down to Biloxi, Mississippi (I learned that it's Bull-ucksi, not Bill-oxi, a Northerner mistake) to visit with my friend Diana and her husband. She came up last October to visit me for a long weekend when Adam was in Pittsburgh and I was still in MA. I had a great time showing her around the Pioneer Valley and Boston and was excited to plan a trip to visit her. This trip was a long time in the making - we finally found a time that worked for all of us and it couldn't have been a better weekend!

We arrived Friday morning and immediately went on a driving tour of Biloxi. I was so excited that we were spending the weekend by the beach. It's definitely a treat for us Northerners, especially now that we're even further inland.

On our way home we stopped at the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum. George Ohr was a potter from Biloxi, back in the 1800's who was way ahead of his time. He was creating vibrant, enameled works and was actually criticized for this, because it was much flashier than what the Victorian era was used to. He also made some pretty interesting puzzle mugs and had a very distinctive crinkled look to his pottery. The museum was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina, when a casino barge was thrown up onto land.

The museum was designed by Frank Gehry and it has a really distinctive look to it - a work of art in itself.

We walked around a bit, there are only 3 different exhibits - it's a really small museum - and went for a little tour through the pottery studio where they offer classes.

We also stopped to see the Hurricane Katrina monument in a park on the main drag in Biloxi. There we found this amazing old tree that was carved into a fish statue. There were a ton of different fish and animal statues around the city carved from trees that were victims of the hurricane. It was a neat way to memorialize the destruction that happened.

Back at Diana and Jason's house, Adam found a new friend, Sophie, who loved giving him kisses.

We took a walk around the town common and saw a 2,000 year old tree named Patriarch and how high the water line was when Hurricane Katrina hit (in case you can't tell, that's about 12' high).

For dinner we drove over to Ocean Springs and had BBQ at The Shed. They have their own show on Food Network now apparently.

On Saturday, we drove out to Louisiana and visited the Abita Brewery and New Orleans (I'll talk about that day in a separate post).

This past weekend was the Peter Anderson Festival, a huge arts festival in Ocean Springs. We spent a few hours on Sunday walking around petting animals, buying arts and crafts, and eating delicious food (snowball = most delicious shaved ice ever). Adam was totally trying to figure out a way to bring that puppy home with us, I however did not want to find a way to bring the alligator home.

This was a little rescued flying squirrel - sooooo cute!

Some Walter Anderson murals inside the community center.

After the festival, Diana and I headed to the beach to try our hand at double exposure photography. I think our first attempts came out pretty rad. I loved the old oak trees that were all over Biloxi.

We also got a few photos in of the pelicans and sandpipers, saw an awesome bottle with barnacles all over it, and spotted a lone jellyfish on the shore.

Then, we went across the street and Diana humored me and took some glamour shots. I've never had any taken and I wanted some just for the heck of it. She did a pretty awesome job (you can see more of her pics here).

I also took a photo of her against the same wall, because it was so freaking cool.

After dinner, we walked over to the Hard Rock Casino. We found out that this place was supposed to have its grand opening 2 days after Hurricane Katrina hit, but the casino was basically demolished and almost all of the memorabilia was washed away. Fortunately, people started finding things washed up on the beaches and brought them back, things like John Lennon's velvet coat and Madonna's bustier. It took them 2 years to rebuild!

Next door is the Beau Rivage Casino, which had some very pretty fall decorations in the lobby and a fabulous fountain outside. It was also damaged during the hurricane and the casino, which used to be a barge was destroyed.

We had an awesome trip and we're so glad that we were able to visit them before they move to their new city (closer to us, yay)! Who knew Mississippi was so much fun and so pretty? :)

Stay tuned for my recap of our New Orleans leg of the trip!