We arrived in the afternoon to the RV park in New Orleans, it was on the east side of town, it worked fine for us and didn't cost an arm and a leg, but oh my! Guess we should check google earth on some of these RV parks! Off to the Garden area of New Orleans and what beautiful homes we saw (but didn't take pictures of!). Love, love, love the French colonial style homes with the gas-flickering lantern lighting and elevated grand front entrances while tree branches extended to the other side of the streets. Jason did not like the continuous bumpy roads from the old tree roots, so that was short lived.😥. On a high note, we did find the drive-through Daquri very tasty! It's a good thing we sleep needed to sleep with the AC as it drowned out the train noise just over the fence.
Next day was exploring New Orleans French Quarter! The doggies went to Camp Bow-Wow which set us free and wore them out. Wouldn't you know, we were tuckered out around 5:30 after walking 9+ miles around and didn't get to enjoy any of the nightlife. But man, the day was packed with fun exploring!
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First stop at Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignet's--of course we wore black shorts!
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Lucky us, the French Quarter Jazz Festival was being held which gave us some good music to listen to for free throughout the French Quarter Riverwalk. They had a ton of food trucks out from some of the local restaurants. 2nd food stop of the day involved gumbo stuffed bell pepper, fried ribs, and shrimp/crawfish egg roll. After that, well we were thirsty, so headed to Bourbon St.!
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One of a few Hurricanes (see the smiles 😊)
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| Live music everywhere |
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| The street was coming alive when we left |
We ate some yummy crawfish dip and fried oyster Po'boy, so tasty!
Next day was into a new state that I didn't think we would ever stop in. We stayed at Hollywood Casino in Gulfport, MS. What a beautiful area, full of wonderful Southern Coastal homes, many are new due to Hurricane Katrina.
We had a little time at the Casino pool while the dogs rested up after our drive. It wasn't a long drive, but they were exhausted from their camp day! Next day we walked around Bay Saint Louis with the dogs, and spent the afternoon having a beach day with them. These 2 can't get enough of ball chasing in the water.
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Great grassy play area at the RV park.
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Love the spanish moss hanging from the trees
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We drove east on the gulf, passing through Biloxi, and ended up in Ocean Springs for lunch. The dogs, of course, were with us and were all the rage throughout lunch and walking through town. What a cute (and I can say that with a lot of girlish attitude) town! It is very quaint with locals driving around in their golf carts, and just about every boutique store is geared towards women! This would be a great girls weekend getaway place and not far from the beaches.
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| I wish you could smell the fragrant jasmine |
Next stop, Gulf Shores Alabama! We are excited to have our feet in the soft white sand! Well, it didn't quite go that way. Needless to say, Alabama (and wer'e finding out some in Florida too) does not have dog-friendly beaches. We stayed at an RV park about 1 mile from the water and there was a great biking path that went for miles. Not to sound like a downer, but you can't ride bikes with our dogs unless they're off leash, and there's a hefty fine if they aren't on one. We WERE able to walk the State Park which has a very impressive trail system of 28+ miles including many long wooden bridges. There is also a wonderful dog park there that allows them to swim too (fresh water=alligator warnings!). So, we walked after the dogs were run down a bit from the dog park.
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| We picnicked too! |
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| Otis was not liking that this "thing" moved! |
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| Otis on his perch, intently on the lookout for anything moving outside. It drove him "squirrel-y" with all those things running up and down the many trees at our RV park. |
We did find a dog-friendly beach, 20 miles from town, next to Fort Morgan. It was littered with tree and ocean debris, but the dogs were there for the water and had a fabulous time wearing themselves out again!
Into Florida we drove (with a nice airshow from the Blue Angels) to Fort Walton Beach. This was the closest reasonable RV park to Destin that we could find. What a great find! This RV park has only been open about a month and we are 1of 2 occupants.
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| As soon as I heard them, I tried to catch a photo...this is the only one that came out where you could see anything happening. |
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Nice pavers and lots of grassy areas for dogs to romp around, or in Otis' case, chase the tree squirrels.
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We tried a beach I had read about that says no dogs, but people have seen dogs there. No luck with that, it was so busy with people, there's no way we could've gotten away with it. Luckily, a nice lady told us that across the street between private residences is considered public. It was on the inlet side, but still had plenty of the "sugar" sand and the doggos could swim to their hearts content.
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The beaches of Destin! So many "private" beaches, until you walk onto it from the public side, hahaha!
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If you've seen our previous blogs, you read that Otis should not be left alone in the RV. We are finding that it becomes a lot harder to find things to do, and makes them very "juvenile" for our likes! I have come up with freezing stuffed Kongs and other stuffable dog toys to keep him occupied. I'm currently working on a snuffle mat that will take a while to sniff and find the small treat I intend to sprinkle onto it. Every time we think that "we will wear him out and give him a toy and let's see how he does", we are exhausted too! It MUST be from all the sun!
Tomorrow we are going to try another beach "spot" I've read about, or we will head back to the one we already went to with the dogs. More baths for the dogs! The next day, we head further east to Carabelle, where the beaches ARE dog-friendly.
