Day Trip to Ocean Springs

My longtime friend, Kathryn, came into town and stayed with us over the 4th of July weekend. She's on a cross-country walkabout and stopped in Jackson to visit! 

We had such a great time doing a little this and that. She went with us to the screening of the "foodie films" at The Auditorium that me and my colleagues worked on a few weeks ago with Barefoot Workshop instructors Alison Fast and Chandler Griffin.

If you are interested in watching the films we made, click here. The documentary my group did is on Peaches, a historic restaurant on Farish Street (here in Jackson).  I'm so excited to have these skills to build on and continue my work with Mississippi Tourism through more film projects.

Mainly, the holiday weekend was a time for us to rest.  Since I've been going 90-to-nothing the entire month of June...and July hasn't showed signs of slowing, it was time to replenish with rest during a precious little downtime.

Monday, Kathryn and I decided to take a trek to Ocean Springs.  We'd mentioned the Walter Anderson Museum to her and she was also around as Alison and Chandler were talking about their current film work on the Coast.  She'd also never been to that part of the state either, so we decided to get up early and spend the day exploring.

I showed her the largest rocking chair in the world, which Kat promptly decided she'd climb up and get her picture taken.  I did it too. (haha)

Our first stop when we rolled into town naturally had to do with food.  (That should be a no-brainer about me at this point.)

We drove around the Downtown area for a few minutes and then down Government Street...where the Tat-O-Nut shop was closed until July 8.   :(  

Across the street was Phoenicia, a place I've seen but never actually been to eat. Mornings they served breakfast and the rest of the day it's Mediterranean fare.  

I ordered the special - Crab and Shrimp omelet.  Don't get me wrong, it was good but just ok as far as omelets go.  The reason I give it a "so-so" is because it was all shrimp and no crab at all.  Good but coulda been better...

Kathryn got the Eggs Sardou, which is basically Eggs Benedict but with artichoke bottoms and spinach.  Hands down, this was the absolute best choice.  It was unbelievable - so much so, in fact, that I had a raging case of "order regret."

My omelet came with a side of dollar pancakes that were very good and hit the spot.

We both got a side of Asiago cheese grits that were pure heaven.  They had a strong flavor and were kind of creamy.  I would swear by those grits if push came to shove.

I also got some Lebanese coffee that was ok.  I was hoping for something similar to Turkish coffee but it wasn't quite that strong nor did it have the good flavor.  Overall, I would definitely go back and totally recommend it.  I'd just order differently next time.

After breakfast, we rambled over to the Walter Anderson Museum.  It's a gorgeous facility and one that I would definitely visit over and over again. 

I definitely looked at the exhibit differently since my trip to Horn Island.  Looking up at Bob's boat, I thought, he was a tough old bird.

Love what he wrote on this Pelican sketch:

"There are some things that you can only do with love.  You will know that you have love when you do one of them."

It was obvious this was a very kid-friendly room.  There were lots of watercolors and signs like this explaining W.A.'s work, his life and the animals he loved. 

I'm convinced that the next cat I get will be named Robinson. 

We explored the community room and what I love about it is that you always discover a new aspect to the mural to appreciate and admire.  My thoughts kept coming back to the Horn Island experience.   Obviously you can't go there without coming back to the mainland with a different perspective.

You could get lost for hours enjoying the intricacies of his work. 

We drove to the beach and spent some time by the water.  It was a fairly cool and windy day with rain on the way.

Above looks like tar balls - I couldn't tell at the time because some of it was pretty grassy, too, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was.  

Despite what I've heard about parts of the Mississippi Sound waters being closed, there were boaters out, people on jet skis and swimmers, too.

I asked the lady at the museum if she could give us directions to Friendship Oak.  She only knew about Ruskin Oak.  So we drove through a neighborhood and saw a lovely old oak tree on a vacant lot - it's one of the oldest on the Coast and legend says it is associated with author John Ruskin, an Englishman in the 1880s - apparently people still have tea parties there at times to honor him.  I found an interesting website that says the story is a farce but shares interesting history about the land and about Ruskin just the same.  Don't know for sure.  Wasn't the one we were after anyway, so we drove on.

We continued our ramble along 90 over to University of Southern Mississippi's Long Beach campus (now a ghost town with its washed out buildings) and to the oldest of old Live Oak trees.

It was a tremendously huge tree - it won't even do to describe it.  The campus was quiet and peaceful after a hard rain that rolled through.  We enjoyed exploring her branches that were dripping with rainwater, completely awestruck by the massiveness of her size...and girth...and wing span!!  (Kat & I decided she was a big mama of a tree)

If this gives you any idea of the size...

Kat wanted to get a few pictures of the tree carvings along 90 and I wanted to snap a picture of the owlie that I missed last time we were there.  He's missing an eye now...and well, a bird pooped on him, too (that's to be expected...). 

There were tour buses on a particular stretch of 90 with workers cleaning up the beaches.  :(

Our last stop of the day was totally worth the wait.  My friend, Katie, tweeted about this place a couple of weeks ago...she was in Ocean Springs kicking her feet up while I was sweating it out on the Island...

Yum, yum, YUMMO!! Caboose Snowballs!!

You walk in through the driveway where the old railroad tracks still peek out of the ground and on past the house.  

And there's the caboose.  

We decided to look a few minutes before ringing the bell by the order window.  They serve any and every flavor of snowball you could imagine - and creamy flavors, too - the lady who came up behind us got condensed milk on hers - along with Blue Bell ice cream and sundaes - you get the idea.

There are even more flavor combos taped to the window.  Katie was right:  these flavors were well thought out.  There is even a new flavor called "Mississippi Tarball" that is chocolate and coffee flavored.

Just as a side note:  It sort of cracks me up that some of the roadside stands along 49 and even the Caboose advertised "hand-dipped" Blue Bell ice cream.  I know it's folksy and all, but it comes out of a commercial tub, people.  We can hand-dip it ourselves after we get it from the store...Just sayin'.  Give us something homemade!

Ok.  I'm done.

We rang the bell and a lady came out from the house.  She opened the caboose window and asked us what we wanted to order.  Kat and I asked her a couple of questions and got a pretty funny reply.  

Us:  So, what's a "silver fox?"

Her:  All I can tell you is it sorta tastes like almond."

Us:  What's Cajun about the Cajun Cream Cheese?

Her:  All I can tell you is it tastes like cream cheese.

Ummm...ok.  

So, after the insightful explanations, I got half Praline and half Butter Cream.  Kat got half Praline and half Cajun Cream Cheese.  It was sublime.  The Butter Cream was a little too sweet for me but overall a great treat!  There's nothing I love more than good crushed ice.  Especially when it's got Praline flavoring.  Mmmm!

We had a full, fun day on the Coast and came back newly transformed BFF's of course (re: Friendship Tree)!

Had to get a photo of the old Beverly Drive-In right outside of Hattiesburg.  What a cool place.  The only working drive-in in the state is in Pontotoc, I believe (correct me if I'm wrong).