And here we are, in Gulfport, MS! Looking pretty relaxed, as if we are on vacation .. wait .. we are!

I'm very happy to say that everything went as planned, we got out  early and without any problems and had an uneventful drive to the Southern Oaks Mobile Home & RV Community in Gulfport.

It's a nice, clean and roomy park in a quiet part of town but only 10 minutes from the beach!

So, to the beach we went, we even got our toes in the Gulf .. not even that cold .. (that's a lie ..)

We tried to get something of a sun-tan, although most of the sun reflected off me I think, being this white ...

But I'm getting a little ahead of me here, because before the beach there was ... yup, golf!

 

We played a round at the Great Southern Golf Club, the oldest course in Mississippi, and right on the Gulf! Very nice!

No, this was not a hole in one, he merely scored a sort of field goal, hitting between those 2 palm trees!
Something interesting happened halfway the round, we had to cross a railway track to play the back 9 and it so happened that a train got 'stuck' right at the crossing ..

After we called the office and also a number from the sign at the crossing, and had waited for about 10-15 minutes, they finally managed to move the thing a couple of yards so we could continue our round. 
There's a first for everything!

 

After our tanning session and some lunch at the beach, we took a little drive along the coast towards long Beach, and on our way back we decided to have happy hour followed by an early dinner at the colorful Shark Shack in Gulfport:

           

That, by the way was a humongous oyster that I'm holding there! Actually, they were all very big!

OK, moving ahead to the next day, when we drove towards the Visitor Center of the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Ocean Springs. 
The Seashore is a National Park and is a region that includes mainland areas and parts of seven barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico along the coasts of Florida and Mississippi.

 

This is another well done visitor center with a wealth of information and an excellent movie about the gulf Islands and all of the things that affect it— from weather to people and hurricanes.

The boardwalk outside the center gives you an nice view of Bayou Davis and a glimpse of one of the islands in the Gulf .. and of some of it's inhabitants ..

We drove into Ocean Springs proper, or we tried to, I should say, since we never really found what would count as a 'town center'.



Here's the bridge that connects you to Biloxi on the other side:

We took a break in the sun on one of the many, mostly private, docks along the bay ..

And since all this sightseeing makes you hungry we went for (another early) dinner at 'The Shed', one of Guy Fiery's 'Triple D' restaurants.

Described as a 'BBQ and Blues joint',  it's a local favorite to bring your family, hang out at the river, listen to some music and enjoy some of the best BBQ you've ever had ..

Unfortunately there was no music when we were there but the food was indeed excellent!
(I think we had the brisket and pulled pork)

Right, time to move over to another state, 'Sweet Home Alabama'!

Only 67 miles to go to Mobile, AL (actually closer to Theodore), which turned out to be very fortunate .. guess why?

Here's the RV, sitting pretty at the Magnolia Court RV Park, but .. something's missing ...
Dang! We forgot to pack the dish! Yup, it was still sitting pretty in Gulfport so James had to drive all the way back to get it .. Like I said, there's a first for everything! Haven't done that before!
OK, moving on .. (@##$%&!)

The next day we set out to visit the Bellingrath Gardens and Home

in Theodore, about half an hour away from us.

Bellingrath Gardens and Home is the 65-acre public garden and historic home of Walter and Bessie Bellingrath, located on the Fowl River.

We took a tour of the beautifully kept up house full of artifacts from the Bellingraths that are original to the home.

    

  

The grounds are just as beautiful and typical for a southern estate with huge life oaks, a formal rose garden and, as was 'in vogue' in those days, an oriental one ..

A surprise was this large lagoon next to the river, where an extensive boardwalk led you in a complete circle around and over the water, and past nice views and informative signs of whatever grows and lives in these southern bayous and marshes.

  

Pickerelweed and Broad Leaved Arrowhead

We even spotted an Osprey nest:

While we were close we drove a little further south, over the three-mile-long high-rise bridge (yikes), to Dauphine island, a barrier island located three miles south of the mouth of Mobile bay in the Gulf of Mexico.

It's known for it's unspoiled, white (and wide) beaches, quiet and not very touristy, without the high-rise hotels and chain-restaurants. And it is.

We had a little bit to eat at a quaint little cafe at the marina ..

Where you were not supposed to feed the birds .. no matter what they tell ye ..

 

The next morning we packed up, reconnected and soon were on our way to our next destination, Gulf Shores.

We drove by Mobile on the south-side ..

.. and passed the USS Alabama, a WW II Battleship ..

We arrived at the Gulf Shores State Campground, which, to our dismay, turned out NOT to be run by the state anymore and cost a lot more than we thought, around noon.
We DID have a beautiful site though, right at the lake that lies directly behind the Gulf, the dunes and the beach boulevard.

 

Not a bad view, even from the inside ..

As if you would want to aggravate alligators .. ?

We didn't do much else that day, other than setting up and checking out the campground ..

The next morning we walked part of the giga-long boardwalk around the lake. 

They certainly know how to make those swampy southern areas accessible here in the south .. boardwalks!

It's a very pleasant way of getting a feel of such areas, you're above it all, have a good view looking in and the walking is very pleasant and effortless.

The weather, by the way, is absolutely perfect, sunny and warm, which is very nice for being on the coast.

After our walk we got in the car and drove along the coast, the Gulf Island National Seashore, towards Pensecola (FL), passing the beautiful white sandy beaches of Orange Beach and Perdido Key ..

 

We had coffee at the Gulf State Park's private beach, for which we had gotten a free pass since we were staying at the campground.

 

The beaches are gorgeous and not crowded, but the rest of the coast is made up of hotel, after hotel, after hotel ...

And lots of marinas:

 
Time to move again, this time to Holt in Florida!

Woohoo, we're in the Sunshine State, and, boy, the sun did shine here!

We only stayed at this campground, the River's Edge, for a night, more or less by necessity since the park in Gulf Shores was booked up so we had to leave, and the one we're going next didn't have room until the next day.

 

But it really was no big deal though since this park turned out to be very pretty. 
Not  a resort by any means, rather basic, but quiet, with nice and roomy sites, and beautifully situated on the Yellow River.

 

People come here to fish and to get away from busy Pensecola and I can see why ..

 

So pretty!

Anywho, the next day we made it to our final destination here on the Gulf coast, before we will leave to (slowly) start making our way north.

We're in Niceville, FL, at the Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park. How's that for a mouth full?
This is a small park,and very tight to maneuver. It took us a while to get in the first site and even longer to get in the second. When we left we had to pull out against the traffic flow and had a ranger guiding us out, since we couldn't make the turn.

The campgrounds around here are filling up already for the summer, and even in this park we had to move over to another site during our 3 night stay to make it all work.
The sites are very nice, huge and everybody has his own little 'corral' but we can not get the dish to work .. too many trees.

 

James had looked forward to see the finale of the US Open, so he ended up watching it on his phone .. thank goodness for modern techniques!

But of course we were here for the Florida coast with it's beautiful beaches and quaint beach towns, so we spend the next day exploring ..

We drove the 28.5 miles of Scenic Highway 30A, roughly from Santa Rosa Beach to Rosemary Beach and stopped for lunch at Seaside.
This colorful village with it's pastel houses, white picket fences and cleverly integrated green spaces, is well known for its late-20th-century New Urbanist design, a 'planned paradise'.  
James actually remembered studying it during his UCLA landscaping classes.

It has a very laid back, relaxed, bohemian style atmosphere ..

It's beaches are truly paradise .. 'sugar white sands' and 'turquoise water' ..

The house prices are astronomical though ..

Alys Beach, a little further down the coast, is built in the same New-Urbanism design as Oceanside but is completely white.

Reminiscent of villages you might see along the Mediterranean, and the first in the nation to be officially certified as a “Fortified Community”. Reinforced thick solid concrete walls, masonry grouted roof tiles, special doors and windows that are able to withstand nature’s strongest storms.

OK, almost there. Of course we did some golfing while we were here. Not cheap, as you might suspect, but Golf-Now came to the rescue once again and got us some great deals.
Here's us at the Walton Beach Golf club:

And here are some pictures of the swampy area of Rocky Bayou behind our camp site:

We hiked one of the short trails through the Long Pines restoration area which has an overview of the bayou ..

 

I'll be happy NOT to see these signs for a while when going north!

 

Well, that was it, the first blog of 4, which basically covered 'all' of the coast we're going to see for now. Like I mentioned, it's 'up', as in North, from here!

To be continued ..