Is there a rewards card for frequent travels to Mississippi?

Memorial Day has already passed, which means that summer is basically upon us. My favorite season! Compared to the summers I spent growing up in the desert, however, New Orleans summers are absolutely barfy. Even though it's the beginning of June, we're already stuck in a pattern of humid, slow, stifling days, as well as muggy nights that don't provide relief from the heat. Soon it'll be too hot to run, too hot to move, too hot to do anything but sleep in the evenings and spend my life indoors.

Naturally, we took these facts into consideration and decided last weekend that it was time for another beach vacation. Yes, another. We had traveled to Orange Beach, Alabama over Memorial Day weekend, and while we truly enjoyed the gleaming white shores, the bathtub-warm water, and the teenagers drinking wine coolers with their moms, we decided our second weekend at the beach would be a markedly different experience.

After researching the current state of Gulf Coast beaches, we realized that our options were pretty slim, and had basically been narrowed to going to the Atlantic coast of Florida instead due to the oil washing up on the Alabama and Florida shores. That was, however, until we stumbled upon Ship Island, Mississippi.

So Saturday morning, we slept in a bit, and made a last-minute decision to head to Gulfport around 10:45 to catch the noon ferry to the island. The drive was pretty much the opposite of what we'd encountered Memorial Day weekend. Traffic and construction congested the roads the entire 80-some miles to Gulfport, but we were glad to have made it. The white sands of Ship Island were only an hour away!

But we didn't make it. We missed the ferry. By... a lot.

Instead of heading directly back to New Orleans via I-10, we decided to drive along U.S. 90, which runs along the Mississippi beaches and through the cities/small towns of Long Beach, Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, and Waveland, and see what there was to see.

Despite being surrounded by the obvious remnants of the storm that ripped through this part of the coast nearly five years ago, we saw a great deal of interesting and beautiful things in Mississippi. The drive down the beachfront takes you under a canopy of weathered, north-leaning oak trees that extend to the gorgeous plantation-style homes only a few hundred yards from the water. The beaches are incredibly quiet and shallow, and the sand is pristine. The water is another story, though. It's pretty much the leftovers from the Mississippi River plus the ocean plus billions of tiny fish, and it might be warm enough to boil pasta. Regardless, it was serene and beautiful out there.

We spent the rest of Saturday making plans for catching the Ship Island ferry early Sunday morning, and prepared our bags and set our alarms so that we'd be sure to make it. And this time, we did. The ferry wasn't too crowded, and the hour-long ride to Ship Island, a narrow four-mile stretch of sand dunes eleven miles into the Gulf, seemed short. We kept our eyes open for wildlife as we passed through a shipping channel, and were delighted to see numerous brown pelicans both perched on markers and flying overhead.

Ship Island itself was a literal breath of fresh air.

The beaches and air were oil-free, and we saw incredible amounts of wildlife: an alligator (in the marsh heading towards the beach), Piping Plovers, hermit crabs, ghost crabs, horseshoe crabs, blue crabs, and even bottlenose dolphins. We did not see any moms feeding their daughters wine coolers. But we did see a helicopter land about 100 yards from our umbrella.

Sometime around noon, we decided to take a walk down to the far east end of the island, hoping to see East Ship Island, which was created when Hurricane Camille passed through in 1969 and cut Ship Island in half. It was so nice to take a long walk and enjoy the quiet, isolated beaches. We ended up just near the eastern edge of the island, and could see Horn Island's pine trees far away in the distance. We could also see the boom floating around the island.

All in all, we walked approximately 3.75 miles (exact figure thanks to iPhone geotagging data, and yes, I totally mapped the distance using the USATF tool) on the beach, and I ended up with blistered feet due to the friction of the sand. We escaped the "legendary" Ship Island sunburns, though, except for a few spots on our calves. For future reference: it's difficult to keep me out of the water, even if sunscreen hasn't yet begun to work its magic.

While there probably isn't another trip to Ship Island on my agenda this weekend or even the next, I'm really hoping there is another one soon after that. Who knew that the Mississippi Gulf Coast was so beautiful? And who knew that I'd ever go to Mississippi two days in a row and enjoy it so much? Never thought I'd hear those words coming out of my mouth, but Ship Island was an incredible trip, and I highly recommend it to anyone else in NOLA looking for a quiet beach getaway.