Erin is at the Bay

This is one of the houses built by the Lagniappe Church.

This is Erin's bed till 8/18.

It is inside this building.

This is what most of the beach looks like from Biloxi to Waveland which is all we saw.

This guy made some improvments to his fema trailer. Note what is parked in the driveway.

Pat and Lisa went to Bay St. Louis to check on Erin. She drove there by herself on 5/22. We left Tuscaloosa early Saturday morning, the 26th and got to Bay St. Louis around lunch. Erin is doing a summer internship at http://www.lagniappechurch.com/ . Erin had been picking blackberries with some of the other folks there when we arrived. We looked around a little and then went to eat lunch at the Mockingbird Cafe, a coffee/sandwich shop in the downtown area of BSL. We had sandwiches and a piece of cake. Then Erin took us on a tour down the beach, west from Bay St. Louis down to Waveland. There was pretty much nothing but slabs left. Some steel frames and pilings remained. It seemed that most of the debris from the houses had been cleaned up. Most of the live oaks were still standing and full of green leaves and some of the flowers and other shrubs around the old home sites were blooming. We then drove to the outlet mall in Gulfport and bought Erin some suitable clothes for her summer work, mostly long pants & skirts. The stores were packed with people. Pat and Lisa were surprised at the high level of commerce along I-10. We took Erin back to the Church so she could do some of her intern duties and we went driving around & took pictures and went in a few shops. Then we went back and picked her up and took her to dinner at http://www.trapaniseatery.com/home.htm . They had delicious food and were quite busy. Erin had shrimp scampi, Lisa had stuffed soft shell crabs and Pat had seafood platter. It was all good. Then we took Erin back to her place. We were tired from the long day, so we drove on back to the Hotel in Gulfport and hit the sack. We got up Sunday morning and ate at the hotel then drove back to the church. We had some coffee and visited with Erin and some of the interns and staff. Church was at 9:30. The service was very casual and the sermon was about love. It was very good. You can listen to it here http://lagniappedata.com/MP3files/Sundayam/LOVE/Love01_02.25.07lovedefinedpart1.mp3

After the service the church served a delicious lunch of baked chicken, au gratin potatoes, wild rice, green beans, fruit cocktail, soft ice cream, m&ms and tea.

We left Bay St. Louis around 1PM and headed to Gulf Breeze to see Joanna. We left feeling very good about what Erin is doing this summer and the people she is spending her summer with. We don't think we would have spent our 21st summers doing what Erin is doing. So we are very proud of her. We drove down Highway 90 through Gulfport and Biloxi. There were quite a few people on the beach. All the old houses are gone. Lots of new construction, a few houses and high-rise condos. Beau Rivage, Hard Rock and other casinos are open. 90 was closed east of Biloxi because the bridge is not finished so we could drive no further east.

We got to Gulf Breeze around 4:00. Joanna is doing fine and seeing things better than ever thanks to her lense implant after cataract surgery. We went to eat at http://www.dharmablue.com/ in Seville Square. Pat and Joanna has sushi. Lisa had seared crab cakes. Pat thinks they were almost as good as some he had in DC. We drove out to the beach and looked around some. It seemed pretty much back to normal. LOTS of high-rise condos going up. Then we went back to Joanna's place, talked and hit the sack. We got up Monday morning and went to IHOP for breakfast and hit the road back to Tuscaloosa around 10AM. When we got home around 3:15 we had driven 935 miles since we left home on Saturday.