After a very (for me any way) lazy morning, we headed back to downtown Gulfport on our bikes. The park between the marina and downtown has many paths for walking, jogging and cycling as well as a number of pavilions. Everything, including the marina would appear to be post-Katrina. The structures are elevated and very sturdy looking. My guess is that this entire several block area was destroyed during Katrina and has been turned into parks, etc. to help shield the town from waves in future hurricanes. At any rate, it is now a tremendous resource for both locals and tourists.
The picture at the left is from the edge of downtown looking back toward the marina and beach areas. The view also shows another pavilion as well as a small "forest" of 2 story white finger like structures in the marina. The marina is indeed full of these small towers that are used to elevated transformers and other equipment in the marina. The intent is to preserve these items during future large storm surges, especially during hurricanes.
For lunch we chose an Italian restaurant about a block away from the Half Shell Oyster House where we ate last night. I had a rather strange Margarita pizza. I say strange since it had some sort of orange cheese that had been sprinkled over the crust before the (thick) crust had been pre-cooked. That cheese added a rather sour taste to what was otherwise a standard Margarita pizza... Oh well, it did not effect my nap later...
It was a beautiful day after a cool start, and the plan for the late afternoon was to catch the heat of the day on the beach. I took the picture at the right while standing in 6 inches of very clear water about 150 feet off the shore. Obviously (?), the tide was out and the various sand bars were covered with gulls. The very shallow water was a very comfortable 85+ degrees since it had been easily heated by the sun. I walked much further out, but it never did get very deep. However, it did start to cool off dramatically as I approached more open water. So, I never did get to swim, but I did enjoy the sights.
Those sights included a variety of sea gulls and black skimmers that allowed me to approach as close as 20 feet or so. Sea gulls are not high on my list of favorite birds, but this was fun enough.
The Admiral captured this great picture of skimmers in flight.
The Admiral also took this picture of some handsome guy (me) sunning on the beach...
It has been probably 2 months since I have spent quality time on a real beach and that was probably back in Michigan (both state and lake).
After dinner on the boat, the Admiral got this picture of one of the pavilions, which are lighted at night. All together, the waterfront at Gulfport is quite pretty, but it is also sad that the city had to suffer a lot during hurricane Katrina to get to this point...
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