My sincere apologies for such a long span since my last blog post. I’ve had other priorities lately that hopefully I can tell you about someday. This evening, I thought I would give you another vacation review while it is still fresh on my mind. I am a bit sad that it isn’t officially summer yet, but my summer vacation is over; however, we didn’t have to deal with extreme heat like we did last July, so that was a positive.
My sister and vacation partner, Paula, and I, got an earlier jump on vacation this year, knowing that prices were skyrocketing and if we wanted a condo on the beach, we had better get to looking in winter. Last year was a cruise with just the two of us, so this year we were taking our mom and her good friend to the beach for a relaxing respite. Normally we go to either Alabama or Florida, but we looked at all the normal places and couldn’t find anything we liked that was within a price range we could stomach. We have a few mandatories when booking a condo: must be beachfront, have a balcony with direct beach view, have a pool, have a town with shopping and good eating nearby, wi-fi, washer/dryer, king-sized beds for double occupancy or at least singles for each individual, higher than second floor (to see over any dunes), elevators, and a boardwalk if it is a long walk to the beach in sugar sand.
Paula usually starts looking for places and sends me links and I either say ‘no’, or ‘that one looks nice’. I usually let her do the condo shopping and she usually lets me make the final decision because she says I am a hotel/condo snob. I don’t really think that is true, I just think if I am going to pay good money for a place to spend my vacation, I want to enjoy staying there and be comfortable.
Paula often complains that Gulf Shores and Destin are too far away and she wishes that there was a closer place. I told her that we could go to Mississippi, it was closer, but may not have all the hoopla that the other touristy places we usually stay have. We started looking at places around Biloxi and found a very nice-looking condo through Airbnb that was decently priced. It was in a place called Pass Christian. I had never heard of it, but it was close to Biloxi and it met all of our mandatories. After a little discussion, we booked it, and waited for a few months.
Sunday, June 2, was the big day. We got up early, packed up the RAV4 and headed to Mississippi. After getting a little later start than planned, stopping to pick up our friend in Tennessee, stopping for lunch and gas, and stopping every couple hours to let our friend who had had recent back surgery get out of the car and move for a few moments, we finally arrived in Pass Christian after 5 pm. Our first impression was all pretty much the same I believe, uneasiness. After we crossed the bay bridge from Bay St. Louis to Pass Christian, we immediately turned down a road with nothing but trees and empty lots. At the end of the road and the peninsula was a large gated property, the Inn by the Sea. On two sides of the building was ocean and the other side were foundations of buildings past. We found our parking spot and took all of our things up to our condo on two carts. We saw no one else. There were a few cars in the garage, but no one on the beach or in the pool. I was wondering what we had gotten ourselves into, but I wasn’t going to say anything. When we entered the condo, it was very nice. It was clean and nicely decorated, and looked like a comfortable place to stay for a few days. My mind was set at ease a bit.
Paula had made a grocery list on the drive down, and we were going to go to Walmart and pick up what we would need for the next few days. We thought we would pick up dinner that night, cook a couple evenings and have some meals out. At Walmart we discovered the shelves to be nearly empty of some important things, but we were able to get some bagels, sweet rolls and juice for breakfasts, makings for tacos and sloppy joes, and some healthy and not so healthy snacks. Before checking out we ordered a dinner box from Pizza Hut to pick up on the way back to the condo. Between the four of us we ate less than half of the pizza and we all started to get comfortable. I took advantage of the very large bathtub in the master bathroom. I think I very slowly ran two tanks of hot water into it to finally get it halfway full. The water pressure was almost non existent in the condo, unfortunately.
Monday we all tried to sleep in except for Paula, who was up at the butt crack of dawn. We milled around for a while and watched the waves and a couple groups that had ventured out to the beach. This was a private beach, no wooden beach chairs, no warning flags or life guards, just whatever washed up with the tide (mostly shells and driftwood). I had started thinking that maybe all of the empty foundations were victims of Katrina. I wondered if Inn by the Sea was just built better and withstood the storm or was rebuilt. The condo was full of books about the gulf and one on Katrina. As we started investigating, it turned out that Pass Christian was devastated by Katrina and that whole area where we were had been destroyed. The Inn by the Sea had been rebuilt. There was a frame in the kitchen with a piece of broken China. A label on the frame said that of the owner’s condos at Inn by the Sea, that one piece of China was all that was found of their belongings after Katrina. After learning of this, we all started seeing the area differently.
For lunch we went down the coast to a seafood joint called Shaggy’s. It was upstairs and looked out over the docks with an ocean view. We sat outside to eat our seafood and it was wonderful. I don’t remember what everyone got, but I got the shrimp trio, which was five shrimp in garlic butter, five shrimp wrapped in bacon and skewered with a bourbon glaze, and five coconut shrimp with hushpuppies and fries. It was yummy. There was also a live musician who was a very good guitarist and singer. The drive back was very beautiful, with the gorgeous houses across the street from the beach. Many had live oaks that had to be a hundred years old in their yards. It amazes me how those old trees survived Katrina and many other storms that have come through over the years.
Back at the condo, we all donned our swimsuits and tried out the pool. We spent at least an hour in the water getting in some much-needed exercise until the wind became too cold and we decided to lie in the sun instead. At some point, Paula and I walked down to the beach to check it out. The tide was coming in and the water was rough, so we just walked along the beach and looked for treasures. I found a penny that I was quite proud of. It looked fine, but it felt very bumpy like covered in sand, I’m sure corrosion from the salt. I took it back and showed everyone else the penny along with the shells I found.
We went inside in shifts so a couple could shower without the others freezing while waiting. I went first since I am not a big fan of the sun. I left my shells and penny with the others. (I never saw my penny again and I kinda really wanted it, as I have no souvenirs from this trip) By the time everyone got inside, it was after 6pm. After everyone was showered and in dry, comfy clothes, Paula started the tacos. She made a nice spread and we had a good dinner that night. I went to the room after dinner and laid on the bed to play a game on my phone. After a while I was cold and pulled the cover over me. When I awoke, the condo was dark. The door to the ladies’ room was closed. I found Paula lying on a lawn chair on the balcony looking at Facebook. It was around 8:30. We were obviously a worn-out bunch.
Tuesday, I tried hard to sleep in but the bed was very uncomfortable. Again, Paula beat everyone up by hours, I believe. We decided to go to Gulfport for the day, which was about 15 miles down the coast, to do some shopping. We invited Mom and Donetta, knowing that they would probably not be able to go as neither were very mobile. When they decided to stay behind, we said we would bring them a surprise. We stopped at Sam’s last and still didn’t have a surprise, so we picked up a big salad to go with the leftover pizza and Paula found an ice cream parlor close to our condo we could go to after dinner. The salad was great, sometimes getting healthy food into a body that has only been eating junk for three days is a wonderful thing. An hour or so after dinner, we loaded into the car and took a trip across the bay bridge to Bay St. Louis to the Creole Creamery. This was a cute little ice cream parlor with all kinds of ice cream treats. I got a single scoop of bittersweet tort (dark chocolate) in a homemade waffle cone. It was soooooooooo good. I think everyone was pleased with their choice. We sat at a small table and watched a storm roll through as we enjoyed our treats. Then we drove around the downtown area, which reminded me a lot of Key West. It was a neat little coastal town with brightly colored houses, live oaks, and palm trees. As we drove along the bay, you could see our condo complex at the end of the peninsula on the other side.
That night we discussed what we would do the next day and the only consensus was that we would be going to the beach since we had not been, well not really. Paula can’t stand not having a plan, so that was the plan we agreed on. My plan was to relax. That is not a plan to Paula. So, the beach it was.
Wednesday was our last day and we got up and around very slowly. I think we did some laundry and some dishes. Paula was itching to get out in the sun, but I just wasn’t, but I had told her I would so I did. Mom and I sprayed our pasty white bodies down good with SPF 70-85 sunscreen and put on our sun hats and the three of us took a beach chair and headed down to the beach. Donetta sadly watched from the balcony, not wanting to mess her back up on the loose sand. On the beach, I believe there was only one other family. We had our choice of where we wanted to set up. After sitting for a few minutes in the sun, I decided to take a walk. I walked to the end of the peninsula and looked for shells and sea glass, finding none outstanding of the former and none of the latter. I did find a nice thick skull of some sea creature that had washed up. Soon after I returned to our chairs, we decided to go to the pool area to sunbathe. I can hardly stand having the sunscreen and sand on me, so I was going to go in and shower and send Donetta to the pool. Well, we got to talking and telling stories for a while and when she finally donned her swimsuit to go down to the pool, the other two walked in the door, so we all just went down and got into the pool for a while.
I probably doggy paddled and treaded water for at least an hour before we started going in to shower and get ready to get some lunch. I think it was around 2pm before we actually decided on a place to eat and left. We went to a nice place called Bacchus on the Beach and ate outside under a pavilion. There was a nice breeze and the weather was perfect. We had a nice lunch and visit. Again, I don’t remember what everyone else had, but I had the Cajun Cordon Bleu. It was very good but messy. I know Donetta had a hamburger because that is what she was wanting before we decided where we were going. She said it was delicious. Before going back, we went back to downtown Bay St. Louis to a little antique shop across from the ice cream parlor. They obviously didn’t really want to sell anything in their store. They had a small plastic watering can that I remember my mom having one just like it in a different color, in the 1980s, that probably came from the dollar store. They wanted $35.00 for it. Around here you would probably pay a quarter for it at a yard sale. Needless to say, we didn’t stay in there for too long. We cruised through the quaint little town again and looked at the buildings before heading home for a much-needed nap.
We had a late dinner that evening. Paula cooked the sloppy joes and we basically had a free for all with the rest of the food before deciding what to pack up and what to throw away. After dinner we played cat bingo. No, you have probably never heard of it. Paula picked it up at a yard sale for a buck and brought it with her. We played an hour or so and had some fun naming all the cats and laughing. Finally, we had to get serious and start packing up. Another vacation over.
Paula and I were the first ones up Thursday morning and we were dressed and ready to go when the other two came out of their room. By 7:30 we had the car packed up and were leaving the Inn by the Sea in our rearview mirror.
When I tell people where we went, the question they always ask is would I go back again. Yes, I would. But I am in my 50s and I like a relaxing vacation without dealing with a lot of touristy people. For that kind of vacation, this was the perfect place. If you want to go parasailing or on other commercial excursions, this probably isn’t your place. There aren’t souvenir shops on every corner, and there are few nice restaurants. If you are a partier, there aren’t a lot of party bars on the beach like in tourist towns. We had all the space we wanted on a nice beach. We had a large pool mostly to ourselves. Our condo was very nice. At the beginning of June, there were very few people there, and the price was much less than Gulf Shores or Destin. If you want to shop, Gulfport is about 15 miles away and Biloxi is about 25-30 miles away. I would go to any of the places we ate again. All in all, I am pleased with my vacation except for the fact that it isn’t summer yet and my summer vacation is over.
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