August 7, 2019 John, Natasha in Pascagoula, Mississippi

We were anxious to visit with our oldest son, John Jr and meet his wife Natasha.  John Jr. was recovering from his second knee replacement which had some complications when the tendon tore away from his muscle.  It was great to see them both.

Along the way from Jacksonville Florida to Pascagoula, Mississippi, we sadly saw evidence of Hurricane Michael that made landfall in the Florida Panhandle early Wednesday afternoon, Oct 10, 2018, with a direct hit on Mexico Beach, a small sport-fishing coastal town with fewer than 1200 permanent residents.  It had mostly concrete block homes and small vacation cottages that are now nearly wiped off the map.

Hurricane Michael was the first category 5 hurricane to strike the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992.  In addition, it was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States in terms of pressure, behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Camille of 1969. 

It is sobering to see trees snapped off 4 feet from the ground and highway signs twisted.  We live in the Pacific Northwest away from the hurricanes that strike the south and again it was a sobering drive.

We were glad to arrive in Pascagoula Mississippi.  We found a very nice RV campground.  Daleen decided to try her backing skills and after 30 minutes, we finally had the RV set up.  LOL LOL.  Long story.  

John proceeded to hook up the electrical connections and found a Black Widow spider hanging from the inside of the box.  I was reading the pamphlet that all RV campgrounds hand out and #11 said to Beware of alligators.  Lordy Lordy... Our nephew John M. ask us if we should consider moving.  LOL

John took care of the spider and luckily didn't see any alligators while we were there.  Of course, we didn't go swimming either.  LOL

John Jr. had coordinated for us to have dinner at Brady's steaks and seafood restaurant where our grandson Pat was working.  It had been too many years since we had seen Patrick.  He looked great and is now 25 years old.  We also met his girlfriend Joey and later met his new puppy.

After dinner,  we drove over to meet Natasha's parents.  It was nice to finally meet.  We had fun back at the house watching their 3 cats playing.  John Jr. is doing much better and he is ready to be back at work and we are hoping he will be ready by Sept 1 to get clearance from the doctors.

Before dinner, we toured the waterfront and took a walk around.  It is a beautiful area that has had a lot of tender loving care after hurricane Michael and Katrina.  A lot of the old beautiful houses along the waterfront were never rebuilt.

John Jr. recommended the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi, Mississippi for us to tour.  It was very interesting!!  The Museum was established in 1986 to preserve and interpret the maritime history and heritage of Biloxi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  It accomplishes this mission through an array of exhibits on shrimping, oystering, recreational fishing, wetlands, managing marine resources, charter boats, marine blacksmithing, wooden boat building, net making, catboats/Biloxi skiff and shrimp peeling machine and numbers historic photographs and objects.


There was a plaque outside which was dedicated to bring awareness to the surge and high water levels of both Hurricane Katrina (made landfall Aug 29, 2005 am)and Hurricane Camille (made landfall Aug 17, 1969 at 11:30pm.

We enjoyed our visit with John, Natasha, Patrick and Joey.
We hope to not make it so long between visits..