One HUMONGOUS road trip...Gulfport, MIssissippi

On our second day in Mississippi, we left early to drive an hour to Gulfport where my brother and Paul have another home about a block from the beach. We went to a big casino/hotel (there are several big casino/hotels right on the water--literally!) and had a huge breakfast. Then they drove us around Gulfport and showed us where all the homes used to be before Hurricane Katrina. It was really interesting! Next time we visit them we plan to stay longer and really want to go to New Orleans which is only about an hour and 15 min. from them. It was very beautiful down there though. I love the southern quaintness!

here are some pics of the big southern homes we saw. Most of them were brand new though built after the hurricane destroyed the first home. There were tons of cement foundations where homes used to be.

This was an old plantation (it may have been a hotel or apartments or something) but was destroyed by Katrina and now is just this empty place. It's crazy though because you can tell that it was so beautiful before. Across the street that we were on when I took these pics (the ones of the big homes) is the gulf of Mexico so they look right out onto the water.

Tom and I under the "friendship" tree. They said this tree was over 500 hundred years old! It was really cool. It's also on the campus of a small university there...again right across the street from the water...I thought that was a very cool university and can only imagine getting out of class, walking across campus and looking out on the water.

my brothers Jon and Dan, me, Tom and Paul

Dan and I and a bigger shot of the tree...isn't it amazing?!

So, this is all that remains of my brother's home!

thankfully, they have a little apartment above the garage which wasn't destroyed by Katrina so they stay there...you can see the garage behind the garden in the pic above...

Uncle Dan and Aunt Hannah getting Max into his swim gear...it was pretty humorous to watch!

my cute boys!

this house is on the next street from the home above (both are about a block from the beach). They bought it and are completely renovating it.

this was us walking to the beach from their home.

Aunt Hannah and Maxthis was my mom getting on one of the wave runners. This was my first time to ever ride one...it was SO fun!

one HUMONGOUS road trip....Ship Island

We ended up staying an extra day at the beach. I am so glad! It was so fun and beautiful! On Wednesday morning we got up early and caught a ferry out to Ship Island, a small little island that used to have a little settlement on it during the civil war period. There is still this amazing fort on it that we got to tour and it had an even better beach than the day before with better waves and everything. We had a blast and thankfully had perfect weather for it too! watching the sun go up....

with my mom...

we got to see dolphins!

in the above picture you can see the island and fort as we were coming close...

a stairwell in the fort...I love the old architecture!

lots of arches! seriously, this would be a great place to take professional pics!

standing on an outer bank of the fort looking down on the middle...it was very cool!

beachtime! Here is Tom, Jon, my mom and Paul all waiting to catch a wave.

my brother Dan and I, and a little napping Max

me and my handsome little beach date! ;-)

I think this is Jon and Tom...

Taylor had a ball!

Jon and Paul...

Okay, the picture above and below crack me up...above is Jon and my little sis Hannah and if you click on the pic and see the bigger version you can see this look of fear on her face (sorry Hannah! it's just too funny!) and then the picture below was taken....WIPE-OUT!!! ;-) poor Hannah!

Dan got a bad sinus infection so he and I (and Maxwell) spent a lot of time under the umbrella.

back on the ferry leaving Ship Island.

two tired kiddos! make that four tired kiddos! ;-)