Winter Decoration

  After we take down the bright red, green, gold, and silver of Christmas decorations and pack them away everything seems so plain. In Georgia we have nothing................ until late January when most shops begin to decorate their windows and displays for Valentine's Day.

We are so happy to see the color, but by then our own homes seem just fine with their normal colors and without the extra clutter.





Maybe a few more cut flowers to tide us over until Spring.  BUT, when I went back to Mississippi for my last trip, I quickly realized I was not in South Georgia anymore.



Gold, purple, and green everywhere!

Houses ............



.................. large ............


and small.....................  apartments.......

 shops.................

 restaurants ..............



coffee/candy stores ..............

. churches ..........

 and schools are all decked out for Mardi Gras. (Which I read  means Fat Tuesday!)

But Mardi Gras is a season of celebrating ending on Fat Tuesday.



In Mobile they will have parades and balls from February 5 until March 8. And New Orleans of course celebrates big time over that same period.


Multiple parades daily in these two towns. Every "secret" organization putting on their own parade. Then after Fat Tuesday begins the forty days of lent .................

 leading up to Easter. Easter is really late this year, April 24, therefore, the Mardi Gras "season" is starting late .

This area was settled by the Spanish and Mardi Gras was celebrated in this region in those Spanish days. Any information beyond that varies according to the region. Mobile claims the longest running celebration and so do areas in Louisiana.
 


But, I do know that most towns in this area have at least one parade near Mardi Gras. Most have more than one. And Louisiana actually proclaimed Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, a holiday.

 
And Hobby Lobby had all of the necessary supplies....





for home decor. I also saw a float for sell in Ocean Springs.




I really wondered about these bags. I thought everyone wanted to wear their beads. Do they collect candy? Or just too many beads to wear?

.
Hobby Lobby has the beads too!

Pascagoula, Mississippi

I had heard the name Pascagoula before last year but I really did not even know where it was located in Mississippi. But now I know that Pascagoula is on the Gulf coast just inside Mississippi over the Alabama line.

While I have been staying in Ocean Springs this fall and winter on my visits,

Jimmy has actually been working in Pascagoula about 30 miles away.


Like many towns Pascagoula has grown away from it's original downtown but it has a neat little restored downtown.

The old downtown has a one lane one way street lined with mostly governmental buildings and little shops.

At the far end of these three or four blocks the street dead ends in a ship yard. You can see a little of a crane in the very top of the photograph above.




This is City Hall and the Court house is along here also.

Courthouse Coffee was right next door to Jimmy's office. They have coffee, of course, .....

pastries, sandwiches, and, (notice this glass front) ...... fudge!


The man who owns Courthouse Coffee is retired military and he was a dietitian in the service. And he told me he was just tired of all that. So, he opened a pastry/ fudge shop! They actually do a huge business in candied nuts!

The people of Pascaqoula are very optimistic.



Their area was surely affected by the oil spill but not devastated as first feared. The houses and businesses along this coast were destroyed by Katrina but many have been rebuilt. These people are also a resilient bunch.


Well, Thanks BP for including us in the recovery efforts. Jimmy has made many new friends and we have "discovered" another great area of our country.

Tradtional Winter Vacation Weekend

As is our tradition, we celebrated our anniversary and Jimmy's birthday at the coast. We decided to celebrate on the Mississippi coast this year...... since Jimmy was already there it seemed best!


The weather this year was delightful unlike the last two years.

Jimmy wanted to show me the ship yard down from his office in Pascagula. He's been watching them build this ship.



Then we headed over to Mobile Bay..... Drove across the 5 ( I think) mile bridge..........



..... to check out Dauphin Island. We have seen the signs to Dauphin Island all these months and heard people talk about vacationing there.


We found A LOT of Beach houses! Rows and rows of houses! Beautiful beach houses. Dauphin Island reminded us of St. George Island. But,we only saw one small grocery store. No open restaurants. No food joints at all. And we were hungry.

We were finally directed to the Country Club ...............

............ and the Gulfview Grill.


And it did have a wonderful Gulf view. And it was a grill. A small round block building with at most ten tables. It was a throwback to the 40's.



This picture shows the grill in the front part and pro shop in the back where the golfers are hanging out.


But it was neat and the food was the best on the island! So, visit Dauphin Island for a week long vacation but not for a day trip.



We don't know what these are, but aren't they cute? They are obviously not very deep, maybe 8 feet. There is a boat dock behind each unit. How do you think you would get to the top floor?


Here's a nice restaurant we ate at one night. I ordered a delicious Chicken Marsala dish which Jimmy enjoyed tremendously!



This is not it! But...............Good food. Good times!

Happy Birthday Lela..............

Surprise!


Lela's birthday was earlier this month ..............


and we decided to surprise this expectant mother with a little relief ..................... from cooking, that is. Meals for a week.
Hope you enjoyed, Lela. I think Jay was very happy about this gift.

Oh, I don't think I ever said that in late March we'll have another grandson! We are crazy about grandsons!

1.11.11

1.11.11........ What a gray day you were!


But on a very sunny day last week ................

a little project.







I think Bennett enjoyed it.