Having a lot of hotel points, a Federal Holiday on a Monday, and a love for the beach convinced us to book this weekend trip. It had been a couple years since we had visited our favorite Mississippi beach which also comes with our favorite restaurant, Shaggy's so we knew it was time.
It's only about a 5 hour drive but with plenty of hotel points and a desire to get started early Saturday morning, we drove half-way to Meridian, MS Friday night and stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Meridian.
Before we even could park, our eyes were drawn to the wetlands that lined both sides of the parking lot driveway. I think I saw a Kingfisher as we drove up but it was long gone by the time we walked back with the camera. We did get a chance to see a Green Heron, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, female Wood Duck, a flock of Northern Rough-winged Swallows, and I think a female Orchard Oriole. There was also an Indigo Bunting singing a beautiful song although I couldn't locate it with my eyes.
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| Female Wood Duck |
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Northern Rough-winged Swallows
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The Fairfield Inn was nice and although it didn't have the largest variety at breakfast, the food was good and they had oat milk for my coffee!
We checked out of that hotel and were in Gulfport by about 10:00 a.m. We parked at our hotel (our room wasn't ready that early) and walked over to the Mississippi Aquarium.
The
Mississippi Aquarium is a fairly new aquarium. I believe it opened three years ago. It's not overly large but they really have designed some neat exhibits. Outdoors beavers, otters, dolphins, and an aviary of birds have some neat spaces to swim and play. Indoors is a three story aquarium featuring a three-story high cylinder housing schools of fish that swim in circles all day and a larger aquarium of all sorts of aquatic species with a clear tunnel to walk through.
After enjoying the aquarium, we headed back towards the hotel and stopped at
Shaggy's, one of the reasons we love Gulfport. We thought we were early enough to be able to snag an inside table (because it was really hot) but we were not. We reluctantly took the shadiest table with a great view and a breeze on their patio. It turned out to be quite comfortable and was the perfect atmosphere for good food and a good drink.
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| Rum Runner |
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| Shaggy's Famous Cheeseburger (with WI cheddar!) |
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| Yellowfin Tuna Bowl |
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| Sweet Peach Sangria |
We then checked into our hotel the
Courtyard Gulfport Beachfront. We stayed here on the previous two trips as well. It is so incredibly convenient as the beach is across the street and Shaggy's is next door. The marina is also a short walk away. I remember it feeling a bit tired the past few times and this time was no exception. We were told upon checkin that we had been upgraded to a gulf view which I was excited to see.
We took the elevator to the room we were assigned on the fourth floor and although the key cards appeared to unlock the door (the light turned green), the door would not budge. Someone in housekeeping was walking by and tried to help us without any success. She mentioned they were fixin' to change the locks and that they sometimes have trouble.
We went back down to the front desk assuming they would give us a new room but they didn't. They checked one of our keys (which showed to be working) and then told us maintenance would meet us up there. Eventually, the front desk staff who had helped us showed up herself saying maintenance was not responding. She was able to get the door open by trying to pull forward first. From that point on, we would struggle with our door each morning after breakfast after it hadn't been used all night but otherwise it would work okay.
The second issue we ran into was that although the air conditioner kept the room cold, it did not take any humidity out and almost seemed to put more in. Surfaces felt damp the whole weekend including the toilet paper.
After getting settled in, we went for a little walk on the beach.
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| Ring-billed Gull (Immature) |
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| Laughing Gull (breeding colors) |
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| Least Tern |
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| Royal Terns (and a Laughing Gull) |
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| Ring-billed Gull |
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| Laughing Gull |
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| Brown Pelicans |
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| Killdeer |
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| Ruddy Turnstone |
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| Laughing Gull |
For dinner, we walked over to
Salute Seafood and Italian Restaurant less than a block away. They had good bread and I really enjoyed some flounder and grab cakes while Paul had Gumbo and ravioli.
The next day, we watched the weather carefully as we were getting ready as severe storms were traveling through Texas and the gulf states. Fortunately, we had clear weather for our excursion to Ship Island. We had booked the 9:00 a.m. ferry (with a return ferry time of 2:30 p.m.) through
Ship Island Excursions.
Ship Island is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. It is an uninhabited island that is only accessible by this ferry or private boat. The ferry ride takes about an hour to travel about 11 miles.
The ferry was quite full of people anxious to spend a day on the beach. We saw a few dolphins on the ride over and then when we arrived, we watched all the crowds follow the boardwalk towards the south beach and instead stayed on the north side and headed east. We didn't have to walk far before all we saw were crabs, shorebirds, and sting rays in the water.
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| Ghost Crab peaking out of its hole |
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| Laughing Adult |
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| Osprey with a fish |
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| Osprey (I believe the mate of the one in the photo above with the fish) |
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| The Ghost Crabs were so fun to watch! |
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| Red-winged Blackbird |
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| Brown Pelican |
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| Caspian Terns |
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| Willet |
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| Black Skimmer (skimming the water) |
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| Willet |
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| Caspian Tern |
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| Sandwich Terns (with a Caspian Tern in the back) |
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| Black Skimmer |
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| Osprey, sitting on a nest I believe (the area was roped off and both parents could be seen in the area) |
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| Fort Massachusetts is right by the pier where the ship docks and is a really interesting fort to tour. |
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| Young Brown Pelicans vying for a prime spot |
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| Our ship was the left one - The right one brought the 12:00 p.m. passengers and would return at 5:00 p.m. |
We caught the 2:30 p.m. ferry back and managed to snag a seat in the air conditioned snack bar area. We discovered the cups we had gotten on the island when we each bought a soda could be refilled for only a $1 each on the boat so enjoyed a little snack and drink as we headed back to the main land.
On our walk back from the harbor to our hotel, we stopped at Shaggy's for a late lunch and were able to get a seat inside this time. And then we enjoyed some quiet time in the hotel.
As I downloaded and edited photos, I gazed out the window at the beach and surf across the street which really seemed to be calling to me. So leaving Paul behind, I headed out to enjoy the golden hour as I walked the beach in front of our hotel. My Fitbit recorded over 24,000 steps this day (and over 18,000 steps the day before), much of that on sand.
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| A rainbow! |
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| Black Skimmer |
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| Royal Tern |
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| The Royal Terns were flying with their head down looking for fish and then they would suddenly drop to the water. |
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| Osprey, looking for dinner |
As the sun started disappearing over the horizon, I started making my way back to the hotel.
The next morning, we found a good breakfast at the Bistro in the hotel (as we had the day before), checked out and headed towards the Bayou Davis area of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. One thing I love about the Mississippi Coast is that all the hotels and businesses are on the north side of the highway that follows the beach so you have a clear view of the beach and gulf as you drive. We saw a roped off area on the beach with black skimmers so stopped off hoping to see baby skimmers.
By this point, the humidity had really seeped into my camera (probably made worse with the humidity in our hotel room). Upon stepping out of the car and walking back towards the roped area, my camera fogged up with the huge temperature change and refused to defog (something it usually naturally does with time) as we sat and waited.
I finally gave up and went back to the car. Upon further inspection, it appeared condensation had even gotten inside my camera onto the mirror. Even as we drove in the air conditioned car, the condensation was not dissipating. We still made a stop at the Bayou Davis area and went in search of the spot where we have often seen alligators but didn't find much and storms appeared to be coming in so we decided to just head home.
Overall, it was a busy, really enjoyable, but very hot weekend. Can't wait to be back on the beach again!
Gas mileage was pretty stellar in our Audi A4, which is rated at 31 mpg on the highway by the EPA. For the trip down, the computer read 39 mpg and filling up registered a manual calculation of 37. The way down was mostly interstate with 70 mph speed limits which is about what we stuck to. The trip home we took a state highway through MS which was 65, so the computer showed over 41, which will probably be about 39; either way, pretty impressive!
