Our Impressions of Biloxi

Biloxi is a city in southeastern Mississippi, directly on the Gulf of Mexico. We have been to Waveland, MS many times, but have somehow never made it to Biloxi before now. What a gem!

One of the things we thought was wonderful was the 26-mile beach from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi. Little did we know that this beach is totally man-made! It is the longest and widest man-made beach in the world! The beach is beautiful! And if that wasn’t amazing enough, there is 100% free access to the beach with plenty of free parking along most of the 26 miles! Mississippi has done this right!

There are many things to do in this area. We will definitely be back to explore even more!

Attractions

Visitors Center and Lighthouse (Biloxi): The Visitors Center is a 23,000 square foot very stately building right on Beach Boulevard. It looks as if it could have been built in the 1800s, but no. This site was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. It was rebuilt to look like the original building. It was beautiful! We had no idea it was less than 20 years old! There are many rooms of local artifacts and local attractions.

Biloxi Lighthouse: The Biloxi Lighthouse (opening blog image) was erected in 1848 and was civilian operated until 1939 when the U.S. Coast Guard assumed responsibility for the lighthouse. An interesting fun fact is that Maria Younghans tended the light for 53 of those years! In 1968 the lighthouse was declared “surplus property” and was deeded to the City of Biloxi. It has been battered by many coastal storms, including in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina’s water surge reached up one third of the 64-foot-tall lighthouse. After significant work, it reopened in 2010.

Beauvoir, the Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library (Biloxi): Beauvoir means “beautiful view”. Beauvoir was where Jefferson Davis lived out the last 20 years of his life. It was where he wrote the massive two volume, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. We took a tour of Davis’ home and were absolutely fascinated by the history of the area, of Beauvoir and of Davis himself. Definitely a tour to take!

Mississippi Aviator Heritage Museum (Gulfport): A very interesting museum dedicated to all things Mississippi aviation related. Originally built to honor John C. Robinson, the “Brown Condor”, the first African American pilot to fight in combat, 1935 and 1936. The museum has expanded to include planes you can sit in, simulators, and videos. We had never heard of “Moon Trees” before (see fun facts).

Traintastic Model Railroad Museum (Gulfport): Traintastic started in 1990 by a model railroad club. When the model railroad club lost its physical location, two brothers, Richard Mueller, Jr. and Glenn Mueller, Sr., stepped in and started financially supporting the group. At 50,000 ft., Traintastic in Gulfport is the world’s largest model train museum in the world!

Hurricane Katrina Memorial and Hurricane Camille Memorial (Image) in Biloxi: Be sure to stop by the memorials on Beach Boulevard. They are not huge memorials, but still a place to go and show your respect for the resilience of the people who live in the area.

Walking Tour of Bay St. Louis: Gulf Coast Eco Tours offers a guided walking tour of downtown Bay St. Louis. It starts at the Train Depot where the Mardi Gras Museum is located. It was an interesting tour with lots of historical information about the area. It was fun to hear the stories of local “characters” who made up the history of the area.

Gulf Island National Seashore (Ocean Springs): There are no beaches at the Gulf Island Seashore, but there are walking trails and a fishing pier. There is also a campground. It is a nice are for bird watching.

Charnley-Norwood House, Frank Lloyd Wright House (Ocean Springs): Free admission, by appointment. Louis Sullivan, the Chicago based “Father of the Skyscraper”, loved the Mississippi Gulf Coast region. With the involvement of one of his draftsmen, Frank Lloyd Wright, Sullivan built two almost identical vacation homes: one for him and one for his friends, Fred and Elizabeth Norwood. Sullivan’s home burned almost to the ground, but was quickly rebuilt, almost identically to the original. Sullivan’s famed 1896 quote, “form follows function,” was based on the rebuilding of this Gulf Coast home.

Food and Drink

Pop Sugar Bakery (Waveland) is amazing! It is in the old Waveland Elementary School, one of the only buildings to survive Katrina. Darren and Renee are the owners. You may remember Renee from Season 6 and Season 7 of the Food Channel’s Halloween bake-off. Spoiler alert, Renee won Season 7! This is one of our top two bakeries in the country. EVERYTHING is exceptional. We haven’t had anything that wasn’t at least twice as good as any other bakery.

Waffle House (Biloxi): This Waffle House is the most expensive Waffle House to have ever been built. It was one of the first buildings on Beach Boulevard to be rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina. The reasoning for this quick rebuild was “the workers need to eat!” It is the most expensive because it was built to withstand sustained Cat 5 hurricane winds and to stay standing with a 30’ storm surge. The food isn’t bad either!

Dat Kitchen (Waveland): This is a very local food hangout. There is nothing fancy here, just lots of good food for a reasonable price. You give your order to “Ma” at the back counter and she tells you where to sit. Within just a couple of minutes your hot, plentiful food arrives by a “runner”. It is a very efficient process!

Shaggy’s (Gulfport): A local and tourist attraction. Locals tend to hang out on the deck, tourists in the air-conditioned restaurant part. It is an interesting dynamic to watch! Food is good, drinks are strong. A bit on the expensive side.

The Crawfish House and Grill (Ocean Springs): Amazing local, casual restaurant. Inside and outside seating. Large portions. Not as spicy as crawfish boils in Louisiana, but still very flavorful.

Home Base: The Campground

For us, a campground is not our destination. Our RV is self-contained. Except for water, electric and sewer rarely do we use campground services or amenities. We are explorers, not campground reviewers!

We stayed on site 210 at Buccaneer State Park. There are 275 FU sites. The park is clean and well-maintained. The staff was very accommodating. Simple check in. Our back in site was a FHU (water-electric-sewer) on concrete. The sites are wide apart with a wide grass separation. In the “new area” at the waterfront we had a wonderful view of the gulf, just across the street. 30-and-50 amp service was available. Good Verizon cellphone coverage. We had an open sky for our satellite.

Great location, great experience. This is our third time here. Please note there are two sections to the park:

• The older area with shade trees, gravel pads and picnic tables. The sites can be rather close together, but not horrible.
• The new area between the water park and the gulf is on cement pads. There are no trees and no picnic tables, but the view can’t be beat!

We would definitely stay here again.

Fun Facts

Biloxi means “first people”.

Biloxi has had eight flags, Franch, English, Spanish, West Florida Republic, Magnolia State, Confederate, Mississippi State and The United States.

What is “Biloxi Bacon”? Mullett, the mass fish catches that saved Biloxians from starving during the Civil War. Now mullet is considered bait fish.

Maria Younghans was the Biloxi lighthouse keeper for 53 years! Her husband had originally been hired for the job. When he died suddenly, soon after being hired, Maria took over. It is reported she is the longest serving female lighthouse keeper in U.S. history.

“Moon trees” are trees grown from seeds taken into orbit by astronaut Stuart Roosa (from Mississippi) aboard Apollo 14 in 1971. Prior to joining the space program, Roosa had worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a smokejumper. As an homage to his days as a smokejumper, he decided to take tree seeds into space. After returning to earth, the seeds were decontaminated for 2 years and then planted in strategic locations, for example, the White House in Washington D.C.

Richard and Glenn Mueller (Traintastic) bought a Domino’s franchise in Biloxi and then grew it to over 100 stores. Richard and Glenn have both passed away, but their philanthropy continues with Domino’s donating $10 million per year to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

	Biloxi	Bay St. Louis	Waveland
Population	49,118	10,596	6,943
Founded	1699	1876	1888
Elevation	20 ft.	23 ft.	16 ft.
Average Income	$39,931	$33,657	$28,040
Average Housing	$222,454	$424,975	$258,800
Average Age	37	52	44

Websites:
https://biloxi.ms.us/
https://www.baystlouis-ms.gov/
https://www.waveland.ms.gov/

Summary

This area of the Mississippi Gulf Coast region is beautiful. The locals are friendly, the food is good, plentiful and reasonably inexpensive, there are lots of things to do from hiking to museums, history is respected, and if that is not enough, don’t forget 26 miles of gorgeous white sandy beaches with free access and free parking.

If you have not been here, we would highly recommend it. We will be back.

Since beginning our full-time journey to discover the country, we have found something to appreciate in every city and town we have passed through. We hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we have enjoyed discovering them!

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn and Dave
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

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