[Biloxi, MS, Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2023]

This 2 week trip was born when my friend Jeff decided to get married at his family’s cabin near Estes Park, Colorado. I had 2 more national parks in Colorado to see, so I added in almost a week to travel to Mesa Verde and Great Sand Dunes. My boyfriend’s brother’s birthday was right before the wedding, so we added in Biloxi, Mississippi on the front end. Finally, a work trip popped up in Indiana just 3 days after this trip was supposed to end. Rather than fly back and forth, I added in the Gateway Arch in St Louis, a Chicago stop-over to see a friend and a trip to Indiana Sand dunes on my to my work trip. Talk about scope creep!

Between the flight and the time difference, it took us a whole day to make our way to Biloxi. We flew to Houston, then to New Orleans, and then we still had a 2-hour drive. We were starving for dinner when we finally made it to Biloxi. A buffet dinner at a Chinese restaurant was just what was needed.

The drive to our hotel took us along the coast. I couldn’t resist the call of the sandy white beaches, so we stopped for a short beach walk. It was still really warm, and the sunset was gorgeous!

As we were checking into our hotel, my friend Toni texted me that she was also in the area, gambling at Harah’s. Casinos are aplenty here, and this was easy destination from her home in South Carolina. She was leaving the next day so we couldn’t meet up, but that was going to be 1 of 2 trips this year where she and I would end up in the same place at the same time.

Aug 30 was the day of the second full moon for that month. This one was a Blue Supermoon and I managed to catch a glimpse of it from our hotel room. But this crappy pic is all I could manage to get through the window.

The next day, we celebrated the birthday, then had some free time to explore. I was looking for something outdoorsy to do. With no national parks in the vicinity, I had to “make do” with national park service units, and I found the Gulf Islands National Seashore. It protects the Gulf of Mexico barrier islands of Florida and Mississippi. In 2022, it was the eighth-most visited unit of the National Park Service. We didn’t have time to make it out to the islands themselves, but we did visit the Davis Bayou. It had a very informative visitor center with excellent exhibits on the different barrier islands. I learned that they are migrating west and are constantly shaped by hurricanes.

We also walked to the fishing dock and I saw my first ever national park service boats.

We finished the day at the outdoor pool/hot tub of our hotel. And for the second night in a row, I saw the Blue Supermoon.