Visiting the Gulf Coast Part 1 | Bay Saint Louis | Waveland, Mississippi

What the Gulf Coast means to me

I spent the past few days visiting the gulf coast of Mississippi, right next to Bay Saint Louis. This place is significant for my family in that my grandmother and all five of her siblings live within three square blocks of each other. My grandfather grew up down the road from my grandmother in the same town as well. We walked by his high school next to the town of Bay Saint Louis.

I began taking these pictures of my visit to the gulf coast of Mississippi just hoping to remember my stay with my grandma. Once I realized how many I had, and more importantly, how many I wanted to keep, I knew I would have to split this blog post into two. So, this part one is about Bay Saint Louis and the significance of this town to me. The second part will be about seeing my grandma for the first time since my wedding three years ago.

The Stairs Leading to Nowhere

If you ever visit the Mississippi gulf coast, you will see this. You will see certain lots that appear vacant, but then have a slab of cement, or stairs that lead to nowhere. This was everywhere after Hurricane Katrina. I remember walking along one slab and I could still see the tile they had on their floors. It’s chilling, really. The area has been rebuilt many times, but Katrina was particularly devastating. The new construction is truly magnificent, but there are still stairs leading to nowhere. After Hurricane Zeta passed through a few months ago, there are some missing screens on porches, roof shingles, and a few windows. Generally, it has fared well, and the new homes and buildings are truly stunning.

A day visiting Bay Saint Louis

My first day, I began with a run down the beach. It was flat, not too windy, and beautiful. I knew I would have to slow down to really capture it. So, then next day, we started off with a long walk along the beach. The sand is bright, soft, and there is no shortage of it. On one side of us was this beautiful, vast beach. On the other side, there was beautiful new southern style homes looking right out to it. Below, I’ll share with you some of my favorite homes we saw and what was special about them.

These three trees are right off of Nicholson Street, which is the street that all of my family lives off of. It’s a beautiful way for the beach to greet you!
My mom and my brother enjoying the walk. It was a bit chilly as you can tell, but my brother is warm blooded.
I love the wrap around porch of this one
The screened porch on this one blows my mind! I like the brick stilts and how this home has more of a traditional vibe.
I’m happy to see such great big trees still there on the beach.
Can you see it now? The Mickey Mouse is in the top right of the porch.
Pirate’s Cove has the best Po Boys in Bay Saint Louis!
This is the new hotel downtown. I wasn’t able to capture a wide angle since I only had one lens. I think this snapshot is a better view, anyway.
Don’t quite have steps, but definitely have a disco ball to get ready for Mardi Gras.

See Part 2

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January 11, 2021

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  1. Caroline says:

    Love this little peek into one of my favorite places 🙂

  2. Suzanne says:

    Beautifully written! I love this. 💗

    • Brigitte Kleiber says:

      Thank you, Suzanne! It’s very difficult to articulate how much this place means to me. I’ll go more into why in Part 2 🙂

  3. Lynn Spencer says:

    I so enjoyed reading this and seeing a glimpse of the Coast thru your eyes.

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