Beach Vacation

 Our vacation to Long Beach, Mississippi was wonderful.  We left on Mother's Day after attending Sarah's church together.

We spent the first night in Grenada, Mississippi in what is definitely the worst hotel I have ever been in.  We didn't let our bare feet touch the floor the whole time.  Showers had to be quick because the water didn't drain, and the only way I could get the TV off was to unplug it from the wall - and these were just a few of the issues.  It also thunderstormed that night.

The next day we rolled into Gulf Port and had lunch at a Whataburger since it's Patrick Mahomes' favorite burger and we'd never been to one before.

We arrived at our hotel well before check in, but they let is in early and we promptly unloaded and headed to the beach just across the road.

Sarah really enjoyed playing in the sand.

This is the view of the homes next to our hotel from the beach.

That evening we walked down the beach to Steve's Marina Restaurant and I had seafood!

The next morning we visited the Mississippi Aquarium.  We saw everything there was to see and enjoyed touching the rays, watching them feed the alligators, and the dolphin show.

We left the aquarium in the early afternoon and found a QUILT SHOP!  I didn't take any photos, but did pick up a couple of pieces of fabric for a quilt I am working on.

Then we drove through The University of Southern Mississippi campus (as Sarah said, can you imagine going to college practically right on the beach!) and stopped to see the Friendship Oak, a live oak that is over 500 years old.

It was difficult to capture the whole tree in one photo, but it was huge and the limbs went into the ground and then back out again.

Then we went back to the beach.

I read five books and this was definitely the best one!

Our hotel was amazing.  Breakfast every morning offered a wide variety of foods and I was loving the fresh fruit.  They did made to order flavored pancakes and Sarah had chocolate chip pancakes every day.  I also discovered the fresh squeezed orange juice machine and had a glass every morning.

We went to the beach in the morning on our last full day there.  Sarah wanted to be there at different times to check out the tidal changes.  That afternoon we drove over the 2 mile bridge to Bay St. Louis and had a late lunch and explored the down town renovated area that had antique stores, gift shops, and flea markets.  We met Handsome, the local cat in one of the stores.  The Flirty Girl shop was our favorite and it also wins Best Bathroom Award for the trip.  No photos, but it was delightful.  We also walked around the marina that evening and went on a dolphin watching cruise - yes, we saw lots of dolphins, including a baby!

We headed back on Thursday and made several stops as we traveled north.  It took 3 stops at fish stands before I could buy gulf shrimp WITHOUT the heads still on them.  We also stopped at the Pecan House and got some treats for David (I think he likes the shrimp best).  And we stopped at produce markets and brought back watermelon, peaches, and a mater.  Even with all the stops, we were making really good time and ended up getting all the way back to Sarah's house by 8 that evening and I headed back home the next day.

I'll do a quilting catch up in another post.  When I left for the beach there were 8 things hanging in my closet to be quilted.  I quilted five things last week, but now there are 9 things hanging in my closet to quilt!  This math is not adding up.

Christi