Waiting for the Sun to Shine in Biloxi

Hi Blog! We were totally psyched to attend our third Mardi Gras Parade in our third city - Galveston, Baton Rouge and now Biloxi.  Just for us, Biloxi was planning not one, but two parades on Fat Tuesday.  However, Mother Nature was also planning a party of her own.  She sent down brutally cold weather from the North and invited drenching wet weather from the South. The two fronts decided that Biloxi was where they wanted to tango.  The 34 degree temperatures with constant drizzle didn't stop all the parade goers, but it did stop us. As you can see from this file photo, some souls were brave enough to don their slickers and face what Mother Nature has served up.

We, however, stayed as warm and dry as we could, snuggled in our rig with the heater going full blast.  Lucky for us AMC was hosting a Rocky marathon.  We made it through Rocky, Rocky II and Rocky III before throwing in the towel.  Luckily, we had NCIS and Person of Interest to console us.  Today dawned cold and cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining.  We got in a mile run before heading out to do some grocery shopping.  After finishing our chores (yes, there are still chores in retirement), we decided to walk about and do some exploring.

We walked out of the campground and headed west along the Gulf for about a mile or so.  We noticed Mr. Heron watching a gentleman casting his net into a man-made harbor.  Unfortunately for Mr. Heron, the local fisherman came up empty.

Just outside the harbor was a tall harbor light.  As you can see from these photos, there wasn't much left of the harbor after Katrinia. A barricade was put up to keep vandals away.  There is now a web cam on top of the tower and sign on the white barricade that states, "Look up.  I am watching you." Comforting thought, so we jumped up and down and waved to the mysterious watcher in the tower.

It was obvious that there was something big here before Katrina.

We took a panorama to give you a feel for the size of the harbor.

To put it in scale, here are a couple of fishing kids trying their luck.

We did a little Google searching and were able to find an aerial photo of the harbor prior to the hurricane. The harbor we had explored was once home to the President Casino.  You can see the large casino building and all the covered boat slips which are now no more.

Most of the ocean front parking lot is gone.  The casino itself was washed about 1/2 mile inland and later dismantled.

All this exploring is tiring work.  Kathy finds a palm tree to rest again.

Another side effect of Katrina - lost storm water drains.  Drains that once went out more than 200 yards into the ocean, now drain at the beach.  However, it does make for interesting tide pools.

With more cold and wet weather predicted for tomorrow, we are planning to try and see a couple of the local museums.  However, that's for another blog.