A Trip down Memory Lane

Well, I returned late last night from my trip to Biloxi, MS - and down memory lane! It was a short trip - just gone four days.. but a great time! My mom and I always have a wonderful time together when we travel. I did take some pics with my fairly new digital camera, and when I get a chance to sit down with Dennis and figure out how to get the pics off the camera onto the computer, I'll post them. But here's a quick rundown of my trip:

Day 1: We got up EARLY EARLY and left shortly after 7:00 a.m. to head for Biloxi. After a few quick rest stops and a stop for lunch in Auburn, AL, we arrived in Biloxi at the Beau Rivage in the afternoon... fortunately, we gained an hour going there, so we arrived at a good hour in the afternoon and still had quite a bit of time left in the day to enjoy ourselves.

After showering and changing, we headed down to the casino to play for awhile, then had dinner at a fabulous Mediterranean restaurant called Olives. We ate there last year when we visited the Beau Rivage and remembered how wonderful it was, so we had dinner there again. After dinner, we headed back into the casino and played some more, and eventually turned in around 11:00. We were still on Columbia time so to us, it was midnight and we were beat after a long day of travel.

Day 2: We got up early in the morning and headed to the casino buffet, where we enjoyed a fabulous breakfast, then went around 9:00 a.m. and picked up our rental car. We decided to rent a car since we were with a tour group and did not have our own vehicle. We wanted to be sure to drive over to New Orleans and Slidell, LA while we were close by. We lived in Slidell, LA when I was 9 and 10 years old, 31 years ago, and I had not been back to Slidell since then. I've been back to New Orleans, just three years ago, just before Katrina hit, for a long weekend for Dennis' birthday - and wanted to visit New Orleans again and wanted to see our old neighborhood, etc, in Slidell too... so it was indeed a day for traveling down Memory Lane!

We got in the rental car and headed toward Slidell - it takes somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour to get there from Biloxi. We enjoyed a very nice drive through Biloxi and Gulfport, along the coastal road the runs along the gulf. Still definitely some residual damage from Hurricane Katrina evident but it looks much better than it did a year and a half ago when we were last there. They are definitely making progress.

We arrived in Slidell and stopped at a convenience store/gas station for a pit stop AND to get a cold drink. I was surprised to see that in the GAS STATION - yes, the GAS STATION - they actually sell LIQUOR! Not just beer and wine but the HARD stuff. I am so NOT used to that here in SC! I can't imagine being able to walk in and pay for gas AND buy liquor! Now that's what I call civilization - haha!

After leaving the gas station, we headed through town and found the old neighborhood where we lived, thanks to a little help from our GPS, which we brought along on the trip with us. We drove down the street and drove through the neighborhood - it looked pretty much as I remembered it but it also looked like the neighborhood had taken a bit of a beating from Katrina. I had heard after the hurricane that the Slidell area was underwater for awhile - and you could see that a lot of the homes in our old neighborhood still had visible signs of damage and of being repaired.

We drove up to our old house and parked across the street and got out of the car with the camera. While we were standing there, getting ready to take pictures, a man drove up in a car and asked if we needed help or were looking for a particular house.. When we told him why we were there and that we used to live there many years ago, he started talking to us about some of the different neighbors. I have a great memory for things that I don't need to remember quite often, so I remembered a lot of old neighbors' names and names of my school classmates from the year I lived there, so I rattled off several names to this man, and he remembered some of them.

He took some pictures of us in front of our house and told us a little about the neighborhood over the years, including the aftermath of Katrina... our house and neighborhood were under SEVEN feet of water after the storm - people lost everything and many houses have been gutted and redone, including our old house.. he told us to go up and look in the windows, because nobody was home right then and the residents of our old house were good friends of his and wouldn't mind. We walked around and looked in and were absolutely shocked to find that everything was totally different inside.. they tore out walls and redid everything. The great room was still the same but the old dining room was now a combination kitchen/dining area.. and the garage was gone was now a den area! So strange to see our old house - so familiar and yet so different now.

We had a nice conversation with the man and enjoyed looking at the house and neighborhood and taking some pics. After reminiscing a few more minutes, we climbed into the car and took off. We drove over to my old elementary school and parked out in front... school was not in session yet but they were having registration and a few people were there getting things ready for the first day of school, so it was not desserted. I walked through a few of the hallways, looked down the hall where my old classrooms were, and then went to check out the old playgrounds which now had some buildings on them. The school looked somewhat the same but a few things had changed over the years... it looked like they had added on, which isn't surprising in all that time.

My mom took a couple pics of the school and me in front of the school, and then we climbed back in the car and drove around Slidell a little longer. We looked for the old restaurant down the street from our house that we used to like to go out to eat at but the spot where it once stood was empty. Don't know if that was from Katrina or if it was just gone anyway. Anyway.. a nice, sentimental trip down Memory Lane. I have been wanting to visit Slidell again for years, and finally got the chance... I wish I knew if some of my old childhood friends and classmates from that time still lived there, but did not really have a way of finding out. The man we talked to at the old house indicated that many people had moved away from the area in the 25 or so years he's lived there so I am guessing many are long gone..

Once we left the Slidell area, we drove across the bridge over Lake Ponchartrain into New Orleans. Just three years ago, as I said before, we spent a long weekend there for Dennis' birthday, at the W Hotel and Harrah's Casino, so we knew where that was. We drove through downtown New Orleans for a little while and took in some sights, then found a parking spot in a public garage near Harrah's and the Riverfront, and parked the car and walked a short distance down to Laffitte's, a creole restaurant, and had lunch. We got the shrimp creole and red beans and rice and split both - yum! Nothing like eating real creole style food right in the heart of New Orleans!

After lunch, we went into Harrah's Casino for about an hour and played the slots.. then went into the shops at Canal Place by the river for a short while, then decided we better get in the car and start heading back. We left New Orleans and drove back through Slidell and then got on our way back to Biloxi.

After arriving back in Biloxi, we checked out the factory outlet stores for a short while, then headed back to the Beau Rivage, where we showered and changed, and headed back to the casino to play for awhile and have dinner. Then we turned in around 11:00ish again and got a good night's sleep after a long but WONDERFUL day.

Day 3: On Wednesday morning, we slept in a little this time.. and then got up and enjoyed another delicious breakfast, followed by a leisurely day of playing the casino, exploring the hotel, checking out the outside pool area which overlooks the water, and browsing through the boutiques and shops at the Beau Rivage. After enjoying a delicious dinner buffet that evening and taking more pictures, we played in the casino again for a little while and then turned in, as we had an early morning again on Thursday.

Day 4: We got up early on Thursday morning, enjoyed breakfast in the coffee shop - croissants and lattes. Then had to meet our tour group to head for home. It was a rather uneventful day - a long trip back to Columbia... we arrived home Thursday night tired but having had a WONDERFUL trip - we are already looking forward to returning sometime in 2009 - with the tour group again perhaps - and perhaps on our own too - there are several other places we'd likek to visit that we didn't make it to this trip - so we will see the Beau again next year!

Like I said, we took a good many pics on this trip - and I will post them with descriptions SOON - hopefully it won't take me TOO long to get them off my camera!

Today, Friday, was a day for sleeping in a LITTLE bit (I had taken today off too!) - and then catching up on some e-mails and washing laundry from the trip and running a few errands too. Dennis and I enjoyed dinner at Carrabba's tonight, followed by reading and drinking coffee in Books a Million. Then home so I could post on the blog and turn in shortly - tomorrow is my mom's birthday and we are all heading to Abbeville for lunch @ Yoder's Dutch Kitchen and a matinee at the opera house to celebrate her birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom!