There and Back Again with Dave and Misi: Gautier, Mississippi-Sheppard State Park, Jan. 1st-2nd 2013

We’ve arrived at Sheppard State Park after just a short 50 mile trip from Alabama. It’s nice, but definitely the most rural park we’ve been to thus far. Just staying for one night, then moving on the Louisiana.

Camp is now set up and we are heading out to explore. Many things may be closed since its New Year’s Day, but should still be fun.

Downtown Ocean Springs, right around the corner from the park, is so cute but everything was closed…darn. Took some photos of cute shops and restaurants.

This is the lovely park and beach area:

We are only about 5 miles from Biloxi so we are going to head over and drive the coast from Biloxi to Gulfport to Pass Christian and on to Bay St. Louis. I’ve never been through here before. It is a beautiful drive although you can certainly tell it’s suffered a lot of damage. It is so sad to see empty lots or just the foundation of a home left. Still, we were amazed at some of the beautiful homes and lovely shoreline. At dusk we made it to Buccaneer State Park very near the Louisiana border and we checked it out in case we want to stay in the future. It was really nice, but we’ve heard a train goes through like 3 times a night and the tracks are practically running through the park. They had a whole section of waterfront sites, but it was completely closed because of damage from Hurricane Isaac.

Bay St. Louis was very cute. From appearances anyway, they seem to have not been hit as badly as other parts because most of their charming homes and buildings seemed older as opposed to being recently rebuilt.

After it became too dark to explore anymore, we headed back and stopped in Pass Christian to grab a bite to eat. We had a fantastic meal at Shaggy’s, a seafood restaurant at a big marina on the gulf. The fish was so fresh and the wood-burning fireplace was comforting on a drizzly, chilly night.

Ok, so we had to stop in at least one casino as I have never been to one before. We played two slot machines and lost two dollars, and then Dave played Black Jack and nearly tripled our money…put up $40 and walked out with $115!! We stopped while ahead and now I can say I’ve been to a casino….with no real desire to go back. ;o)