When planning our Civil Rights Trail road trip, we knew we wanted to spend a day in NOLA, but not the entire time. I wanted to avoid paying thousands of dollars just to stay in the city. After much searching between Airbnb stays and hotels, I chose a canal house in Bay St. Louis, MS. This would be our home away from home for our four days of adventures along the Gulf. It was an easy hour drive into NOLA, forty five minutes from Gulfport, and two hours from Gulf Shores. Staying close to the city and along the Gulf gave us many opportunities for exploring and learning.
We wound up leaving for our road trip an entire twenty four hours after our planned time, had to skip our day in Memphis (but we did manage an hour there; read about that here), and then decided on a relaxing Saturday. We spent our day exploring the town, heading into Louisiana for a bayou hike, and spent a few hours playing at Waveland Beach.
We adored our safe, quiet, and relaxing Airbnb (check it out here if you're in the area). We all needed a cup of coffee to start our day after spending the previous day in the car.
I shouldn't have been shocked, but there were many 'Trump 2024' trucks selling flags, posters, tees, stickers....basically anything you can think of.
Not all beaches, actually very few, along the Gulf are dog friendly. I had to do my research and found a few that were near us. Waveland Beach was absolutely perfect each time we went. There were zero crowds and the beach was clean. The water was warmer than I thought it would be, which meant all of us (some more than others) wound up in the water.
My sidekick, also known as my shadow. We're slightly obsessed with one another.
We headed into Louisiana for a bayou hike in the afternoon. We had the entire bayou to ourselves and got to see alligators, turtles, and many different birds.
One of my favorite things about having an Airbnb is the ability to cook and make meals ourselves. This saves us A TON of money and allows us to travel more. We chose to eat dinner on our patio one night. The kids climbed trees and searched for gators in the canal while I made dinner. I was not anticipating mosquitos to be an issue in February while we sat on the patio, but the itchy bites on my feet and arms proved me wrong.
Dessert was indoors thanks to the mosquitos. Zeus was disappointed we chose a chocolate dessert, so he couldn't have any.
When we take Mom and Minis trips, we make sure to call dad each night. I love watching the littlest mini chat with her dad; she gets very animated and giggly. Meanwhile, the dog put himself to bed. He was exhausted after a day of exploring and nonstop moving. We haven't been as active the last couple of months (I'm looking at you winter in Iowa), so the days in the fresh air was wonderful, but definitely had us snoring by the end of our days!
