We didn't really come up with a plan last night to have breakfast at the donut shop, so I just went into the dining hall at 6:00 to wait for everyone else. Al was already in there, having not been able to sleep on account of his sinuses, so we sat together to wait. He said he heard we have to make our own lunches today because Pastor Sandy got too many complaints about her sandwiches. Oh well, no problem, so I put together a lunch. Everyone was all lined up for breakfast by 5 after 6, when one of the women who was helping cook announced that the Egg Bake would be about 15 more minutes, so they might as well go back and get their gear ready. I was afraid there would be a riot, lol!

Tatonut ad

Eventually, all of our group made it into the dining hall, and it ended up that only Nikki, Denise, and I felt like walking over for coffees. We told Dave we were going, but that we should be back in plenty of time to catch the van to work, especially with the regular breakfast being so late. The shop we went to is called the Tatonut Shop, which is because they use potato flour in their donuts (I asked). As it turns out, I see that it's a pretty well-known little place - it certainly was hoppin' at that time of morning on a Wednesday. It's a cool little building, and you can watch the donuts being made in the back. I had a cappuccino and an apple turnover, Nikki had a mocha latte and a "persian" (?), and I'm not sure what Denise had, but she had to buy some juice to make up the difference to allow her to use her debit card. It occurred to me that donuts for break-time would be nice, so I bought 2 dozen mixed to bring along to the jobsite. Unfortunately, they needed my ID to charge my credit card (?), and I didn't have it on me, so actually Denise bought the donuts - I'll buy another day. [The donuts really were VERY good, nice and light, even the cake donuts.] 

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At breakfast this morning, I'd gotten an idea that I'd like a coffee-shop breakfast the next day, so I asked Nikki if she'd like to walk with me after dinner to the Mocha Moose (where we went last year) to check out when they open in the morning. So after dinner, we headed out for a little walk in the nice warm weather, only it turned out to be all of us but Alex, who was busy reading his book. Unfortunately, Al & I couldn't quite remember which little side street we'd turned up to get to it, so we spent a while wandering around up and down the back by-ways of Ocean Springs - we only had to bypass one police-blotter incident, so despite what the others might say, it wasn't all that scary (LOL).

We did eventually find it, not so easy in the pitch dark when the shop is closed - but they only opened at 7:00, so that wasn't early enough. Boo. So then we walked over to the main street and looked at the Mardi Gras windows in all the shops - much like Christmas windows, only more purple! All the shops were closed of course, but it was still fun to look.

Heading back up Government St to the camp, we passed a donut shop we'd heard people talk about, and the sign said they were re-opening tomorrow at 5:30 after being closed for vacation, and they had an espresso machine, so that sounds like a plan for breakfast.

Govt St Grocery

Then we decided a beer would be nice, so we stopped at the Government Street Grocery, a restaurant/bar which we had seen before but hadn't yet visited. They have outdoor seating, so we grabbed a table and ordered some local beers from the Lazy Magnolia Brewing Co .

Grocery1

Al tried the Southern Pecan nut brown ale (twice), Nikki had the Lighthouse Pale Ale, but found it too hoppy for her taste. I tried the Indian Summer spiced wheat beer, which was quite yummy (two of those, too!). Bruce & Denise had hard ciders (not sure of the brand).

Grocery2

Had lots of fun discussing our trip so far - vibrating cell phones, delicious camp food, etc.

Another group from camp was also there - they told us there was a SWPA meeting at 9:00, but since that was in 3 minutes, we decided we might as well finish our beers instead, heh.

We didn't stay out too much longer though, since some of us hadn't gotten cleaned up yet after work. When we got back, the dining hall was in use, so I took the laptop into the TV lounge, where Pirates 3 was playing, and checked my email. Alex popped in at one point to say the SWPA meeting was now, but by the time I could break away, it was over - I guess we just missed some details about Friday, and also some crews were wrapping up on their houses, so there were some re-assignments which didn't apply to us. Then we watched the end of the Pens game on the computer, on Alex's CenterIce account, so that was nice! At 10:00 I turned the movie off with lights-out, but I stayed up working on the computer for a while longer. I apologize to the guys that I left the light on - I hadn't realized it shone into the men's dorm till I heard people mention it later.

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After lunch, we took a walk to the beach after getting directions. It was very nice, about a 20-minute walk, but the water was very cold!

Here are some photos taken during our walk to the beach, and the circuitous route back.

The downtown area of Ocean Springs had been spared heavy damage by Katrina, due to its relative high elevation, but beachfront homes were mostly destroyed, and many other homes were damaged.

Pelican

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Since we had a little time to kill before the dinner bell, Al and I took a little walk around downtown Ocean Springs (for the first time all week).

We enjoyed talking to Tracy, the owner of Blue Crab Pottery. She had lots of beautiful pieces made by herself and other local artisans. All of her pieces had a crab integrated in there somewhere. She told us that downtown Ocean Springs hadn't been flooded at all during Katrina, but there had been some wind and rain damage. As we had found, it was really all the surrounding towns (and Biloxi, across the bay) that had been hardest hit. She said they all really appreciate us and all the volunteers who keep showing up to help.

We Northerners didn't realize Mardi Gras is a season, we thought it was only the day before Ash Wednesday. Here there are parades in different towns every weekend, and all the shops sell Mardi Gras decorations in the same way they sell Christmas decorations.

VERY open

I liked the way this building said it was OPEN, and it truly was!

Just to prove that Ocean Springs is an artist community, here's another random mural:

Ocean Springs mural

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Thursday night we got back to Camp around 5:00, and our little team arranged to meet at the front door at 6:00 after making ourselves presentable. Janis declined the dinner invitation because she said once she showered, she'd want to get into her jammies and stay put, which is certainly understandable.

We had asked around the day before to find out where might be a good place to have dinner that wasn't too dressy, and was within walking distance. Danica and the others from Bethesda had gone the night before to a seafood place that they recommended, so we got directions (down the alley, run quickly across 4 railroad tracks! and it's just there).

Taranto's

So the seven of us headed to Taranto's, a little storefront seafood bar. Yummy, as you can see! A one-page menu listing specials and combos of Po-Boys (hot seafood sandwiches!), and broiled or batter-fried catfish, crawfish, grouper, shrimp, and many more! And oh so Gulf Coast fresh! There were even some burgers for Martin (not a fan of seafood). And beer, too :-)  Our waitress was Lorraine, very cute and fun, taking all the Duanes in her stride...

After a bit, the Bethesda folks (Danica, Gene & Rob) joined us too, even though they had just been there the night before. More putting of tables together and general raucousness. I had a Po-Boy special, which was half a catfish Po-Boy and a cup of gumbo (and a couple Heinekens). Al had a boiled shrimp platter, which came with potatoes and a half an ear of spicy corn (and a few Michelobs). All for $30. I definitely recommend this place!

There wasn't any type of dessert on the menu, so we asked Lurleen (I mean Lorraine) for a recommendation, and she suggested Quakes, an ice cream place "just across the road". Not such a big deal if we'd had a car, but without one, we had to walk several blocks' distance (no problem) and scamper aross 4 lanes of Rt 90 traffic.

Quakes

It did look like a nice little ice cream stand, and it was still pretty warm out (light jacket weather, warm to us northerners), so we went in to order. Duane and Martin had headed back to Camp after dinner, so there were 8 of us at this point. The sales clerk took each of our orders and rang it up, before starting to make anything. I ordered a cappucino, and Al ordered some sort of frozen coffee thing (similar to a DQ Moo-latte).

What to order

Everyone else ordered something, and then she got to work, one at a time. There was another young man in the back too, but we couldn't tell what he was doing. It just seemed to take forever, and we were served in no particular order, so that by the time the last person got their ice cream (which was one of the first orders and one of the simplest we thought), almost everyone else was done eating.

Finally ice cream

Ah well, it gave us more time to spend with each other...

Gene's Blackberry and text messages from Alex kept us up to date on the Pens game throughout the evening (won in a shootout!).

And, yeah, that was pretty much it for our big night out. We were all pretty beat, so we got back to Camp by 9:00, found out there wasn't to be a meeting that night due to Pastor Larry being zonked out, and went and zonked out ourselves after a full day of work and fun.

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