My husband, Randy, had to attend classes on the Mississippi Gulf coast for his work so I took the opportunity to spend 4 days exploring and taking photographs. One of the first places I wanted to go was St Stanislaus. We visited there many years ago and I remembered what a nice small town it was. It sits right on the St. Louis Bay. Years ago, St. Stanislaus was a nice tourist spot. There were lots of little shops and restaurants and of course the water, sand and sun. Right along the beachfront were large beautiful homes facing the water for what must have been a spectacular place for sunsets. In 2005 it was all destroyed by Hurricane Katrina but many of the people who lived there returned to rebuild. Three years later and they are still rebuilding. Some shops are open and there is construction everywhere. There is a sense that everything will be OK in time.
I got onto Old Highway 90 and headed out into the bayous and on into Louisiana and Slidell. There was much damage remaining from hurricanes. I'm not sure if the destruction was from Katrina or more recently, Gustav.
The airplane is located in South Slidell. Some type of sculptural thing. Pretty neat.
Just outside of Slidell I spotted the castle. Very cute indeed! I crossed over the old Lake Pontchatrain bridge. I thought they had closed it years ago when the new bridge was built but I was wrong. It remains a major artery between Slidell and points south. When I was a child the bridge was the only way to get across the lake unless you wanted to go around. I can still remember riding on the bridge in our old car with the windows down, my sister and brother in the backseat with me and Mama and Daddy sitting up front. Sometimes there was a train on the track that runs near the bridge and I would wonder how deep the water was and how easy it would have been for the train to come off the track. Kids have some wild imaginations.
I went through Slidell and got onto I-10 and headed back to Gulfport. Later, when Randy was finished for the day, we went down to the beach and watched the sun go down. It was a beautiful sunset.
1 comment:
The old Lake Ponchartrain bridge survived Katrina much better than the I10 Twin Spans! I've been using the bridge to commute to work for over 25 years now and wouldn't use any other route!
The area where the castle is is called Irish Bayou. The people that live there are a hardy bunch, having rebuilt since Katrina and just recently dealing with the mess that both Gustav and Ike left.
Glad you enjoyed the area!
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