#Gates50States

Spring Break 2022 took us to Louisiana and Mississippi, and it was nice to travel as a family on our #Gates50States tour again.  We’d visited Indiana last year in an overlap with Junior Team Tennis, but it had been awhile since we’d traveled as a group without other items on our agenda.

Mississippi’s Gulf coast is very pleasant. The drive through Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, and then finally Ocean Springs was as nice of a drive from here to there as I’ve had since the Going To The Sun Road across Glacier National Park.  (I’m not making a comparison, I’m just saying it’s been a long time since I’ve really enjoyed a #Gates50States drive that much from a scenery standpoint.)

Once again, Jenn hit an absolute home run finding a house with a fabulous view, great access to what we want to do, and enough bedrooms to split up the kids (perhaps the most important item).  Though the weather wasn’t ideal for us, the kids got to play on the beach, in the pool, and we could sit on the deck and just enjoy the waves and the wind.  We even made an event out of filling four big grocery bags of trash on one of our beach walks.  The kids were really good about this activity.  

Henry recalls the neatest piece of trash he found on the beach was the intact boogie board. Lincoln’s was certainly the half-full Costco-sized container of Cheesy Poofs.

After our beach clean-up, we followed Jackie’s recommendation and visited the Walter Anderson Museum of Art.  Mr. Anderson is known as the South’s most elusive artist, and his story certainly gives rise to this title.  His art, along with the other artists with their work on display at his museum, is really unique and uplifting.  If you know Jenn and me, you know we’re not super artsy, but as time has passed, and as we’ve matured, we’ve come to appreciate art and artists.  I’m hopeful this is rubbing off on the kids as we make some of these stops on our travel adventures.

Henry recalls, “It was very colorful, and the Little Room was very pretty.”  Jenn appreciated his “lots of different styles.”  She added, “But my favorite by far were his murals in the Community Center.”

The town of Ocean Springs has a cute little shopping district adjacent to the WAMA, so Jenn and Lydia got to have a fun mother/daughter experience…. and Lincoln and Henry got to experience what it was like shopping with the ladies.  🙂

A storm moved in overnight.  The locals knew it was coming, and we were anticipating a whole lot of rain. While massive rain didn’t hit us, the wind was a relentless 40+mph and the lightning was impressive. While nothing approaching even a tropical storm, it was the biggest storm we’ve seen over the water and it was an experience for us all.

The next morning, it was as if the wind and rain and lightning had never existed.  Waves were nonexistent, the sun emerged from the clouds.

It didn’t take us very long to learn there isn’t that much to do in Mississippi, and the kids were enjoying the beach so much, we skipped going out on Wednesday and left the kids to a whole day of digging in the sand and swimming in the pool.  Of course there was some sunburn, too, and the lessons that come with sunburns.

We dined at Half Shell Oyster House in Biloxi, and while our server wasn’t the best, the food was fantastic. We highly recommend this place if you’re ever on the southern shore of Mississippi. (They have a number of other locations, as well.) Lincoln and Lydia pounded the oysters with Jenn, yet another food item we just don’t get good versions of up in our neck of the woods.

Ocean Adventures is the public facing park of the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies located in Gulfport, MS.  Think of it as a mini Sea World with a research focus.  On our way out of Ocean Springs on the way up to the Jackson area, we made a visit.

Lydia spent a bunch of time in the sting ray exhibit petting them and watching them swim, in particular the baby sting Ray tank. It was actually very peaceful to watch them move.

Henry really liked the dolphin show, as they demonstrated just how powerful of swimmers they are.

Lincoln enjoyed the bird show, as a type of cockatoo performed all sorts of tricks, as well as the dolphin show.

The fish tanks in the Discovery Center, with the wide variety of fish and eels and turtles and other marine life on display were most impressive to Jenn.

The time spent with the marine mammals and friends gave us enough of a cushion to drive up to Brandon, MS in time to check in for the evening, but not before a good lunch of Po Boys and oysters at Felix’s.

As it turned out, our place in Brandon was the worst VRBO/Airbnb we’ve experienced, but that’s not Mississippi’s fault.  It did kind of put a damper on a feeling that we were running out of things to do. The kids were museumed out, we knew Vicksburg was left on the agenda, and that was going to have to hold their attention.

Vicksburg was a priority for me after reading Grant’s biography, as well as knowing the only real opportunities we’d get to do meaningful Civil War exposure from here on out during this #gates50states project was Vicksburg and (if we ever went to) Gettysburg, PA.  We hired a guide, Jim of Licensed Battlefield Guides, who gave us a ton of information along with very good stories of the battles and of the men involved in the battles.  It’s mostly a field of rolling hills and forest now.  The monuments are beautiful, and if we had hours to spend we could have read many of them.  I can’t say it was overly meaningful for the kids, particularly the younger ones.

Food is entertainment in Mississippi, and the variety of non-chain restaurants is seemingly endless.  After eating our way through New Orleans, we figured, “Why stop now?  We’ll just go on a massive diet when we return home.”  So, yeah, it was grits and bread pudding and seafood pasta and more bread pudding and po boys… wash, rinse, repeat.  The food, as I’ve said above, is amazing.

While I try to be overly optimistic and encouraging about every state, I’m quite sure Mississippi will rank on the bottom for us when it’s all said and done.  We loved the beach and the food, but the rest was just kind of meh.