Home to one of my favorite pop culture and comic conventions, CoastCon, Biloxi, MS holds a special place in my heart. I’ve now made four journeys to this wonderful little beach town and will definitely go back. Back in July my wife and I decided to take a quick weekend getaway to Biloxi to chill out after a brutal year in 2020 and early 2021. It was definitely a much needed vacation.
We journeyed to Biloxi with absolutely zero plans. The only thing that we knew for sure was that we would be staying at the White House Hotel. Established in 1895, this hotel is reasonably priced, features a restaurant and two bars, and is nestled right across the highway from the Gulf of Mexico. Our room was wonderful. It featured a glass walk-in shower, a big TV, and a view of the neighborhood behind the hotel. The neighborhood is full of old homes that reminded me a lot of New Orleans, LA residential areas. On our next trip, we’re going to reserve a room with a beach view just because we want to see what that looks like from our hotel window.
After settling into our room we decided to hit one of my favorite souvenir shops, Sharkheads. We grabbed some shirts for our kids (who were having fun with their cousins in Galveston, TX) and a few other things. Then we had a nice supper at The Reef. Despite having visited Biloxi a few times I never was able to try The Reef. It’s Guy Harvey-esque facade that faces the highway always attracted me, but our paths never crossed until this trip. The restaurant is located right on the beach in Biloxi and features amazing seafood and other delicious items. My wife had a salad (I can’t recall the name) and I had Firecracker Shrimp Tacos. We also had fried pickles for an appetizer. It was all very tasty.
On Saturday morning my wife decided that she wanted to lay out on the beach and catch some rays. While she was doing that, I headed over to the USS Biloxi Memorial and also visited the Old Biloxi Cemetery. With graves dating back to the early 1800’s and some beautiful oak trees, this cemetery was simply lovely.
If you can’t tell already, the sun made almost no appearance at all the entire weekend. My wife did catch a few rays on Saturday morning while she was on the beach, but she went back to the hotel earlier than she wanted to due to a few rain showers. When lunchtime hit, I caught up with my good friends and Southern Geek founders, Rafe and Shannon White. We met them at The Blind Tiger on the beach near the casino area. I had fried shrimp and my wife had nachos. We spent hours catching up and Rafe attempted to catch some fish as well. The day remained cloudy with a little light rain here and there. As our second day drew to a close, my wife and I headed back to the hotel to rest.
Sunday morning found me headed out to early morning Mass at the beautiful Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The stained glass windows inside the cathedral were breathtaking. The service was beautiful as well. After Mass ended, I took another drive through the area and snapped a few photos of places. Unfortunately my wife was still in bed battling a migraine. I eventually headed back to the hotel to pick her up and check out. Before we left Biloxi, though, we stopped at a couple of gift shops and grabbed a few more goodies. We also saw a shark at Walmart!
We made plans on our trip back home to return to Biloxi in the very near future. There’s so much to see and do that we want to take the kids with us on our next visit. If you’ve never been to Biloxi, I definitely recommend checking it out. There’s plenty of new things to do in the area but there’s also a ton of things for history buffs to check out. I definitely recommend staying at the White House Hotel if you do visit Biloxi. The staff was amazing and the hotel is gorgeous. The views from the hotel, from the grounds to the top floor, are beautiful.
Well, that’s all for this post. Let me know if you’ve been to Biloxi or any other beach town that stole your heart. Thanks for checking out my blog. I’ve got some exciting news for my next post which I hope to crank out over the weekend.
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