Going to Gulfport

 On April 2, we changed destinations again.  As you can see - another stressful moving day...

 The reason for this stop - a reunion with my good friend, Sheila.  She and her hubby Jim were planning to work kamp in the area.

 Oh boy.  A Three Dog Night.  (well...Tractor thinks himself a dog - and he acts like one too!)

 Hayes cruzin on the couch...  The boy knows how to do it right!

 We were staying at the Magic River Resort, in Long Beach, MS.  Turns out it was owned by the guy who started Passport America (a campground discount org)!  The sites weren't fancy, but the park itself was nice with a couple of ponds.  And it was a cheap stay!

Bill and The Boys

 2 x 2

 Gulfport beach.

Sheila and I struck up a friendship while spending the summer in CO a few years ago.  Our paths don't cross that often, but we are friends of the heart so it doesn't matter how much we're apart!

 An exciting find!  There were several dead little jellyfish on the shore, so at first I thought this one floating in the water was past its expiration date too.  But wait!!  See that little bit of fluorescent green in it near the top of the photo??  Those tiny color bands were part of a mini laser light show, continuously running up those striped bands - this guy was very much alive!!!

 Some early morning scenes back at our campground...

Just cute

Just another father and son photo I had to post!

Our extended stay...

 

And what's this?!  My poor little girl's tooth!  :(    One night, I discovered that Zou's upper left canine was broken.  She was drinking funny, I could hear it.  This is what I found when I looked...  It was bad.  You can see the pulp is exposed.  I've had enough experience with bad teeth and root canals to know how painful this probably was for her!!!  You can also see that the tooth behind it was also damaged.  Don't know if she got it from playing with Hayes (they were going at it pretty hard and non-stop in those early days, and VERY mouthy!!) or chewing on their dog bones.  But that meant trying to find proper vets to deal with the situation.  We found a great general vet right in Mandeville to help direct us.  He not only verified our concerns and recommended a veterinary dental specialist in Baton Rouge (there aren't that many, so we were glad to get a referral to someone good not that far away!), but he also ended up convincing us to do more research on the fast vs. slow kill methods for heartworm treatment for Hayes.  He was a strong proponent for the slow kill, and after a lot of internet reading, so were we!  That vet spared Hayes and us A LOT of pain and suffering!!!!!!!!!  (not to mention the 5% mortality rate we discovered with the Immiticide shots!!!)

On our way back from Baton Rouge, after picking up our girl.  She's still pretty dozey...  Good to have Daddy's shoulder for times like these!!!  We ended up having a partial root canal done, in the hopes of saving the tooth.  At this point (about 3 months later), I'm not 100% sure we shouldn't have done the full root canal.  Sure wish we spoke DOG better!!  She's definitely better, but I can't tell if she's cured.  She still drinks sort of funny...but that could just be me being a worried mom over-interpreting the situation...!

Walking in the wilderness, or feeding the mosquitoes...!?!

I took the dogs to the Big Branch Marsh NWR

and fed the mosquitoes...

We took the dogs to the Northlake Nature Center

and fed the mosquitoes.

Lakeshore Drive

Time to take you for a drive along a pretty street skirting Lake Ponchartrain, and see how some of the sad folks - living in such horrible conditions - are gettin' on...

 Public space.  Nice park!

 Hmm, I thought I got this shot straightened, but somehow it looks a little cockeyed yet.  Too bad!  I'm too lazy to go back and fix it and reload it!  Just turn your head a little!

This home isn't lakeshore, but they had such a pretty yard, and the light was hitting things just right...

Fairview-Riverside State Park

The other state park in the area.  Also beautiful!

And more incredible trees!

Some more azaleas going off.

Historic house on the property, but it was closed, and we had the dogs with us anyways, so...

Bill graciously does dog duty, while I run around with my camera...

The waterway in the background is the Tchefuncte River (cool name, eh?!).

Spiderwort.  I've seen these in San Diego nurseries, but here they are just normal parts of the wildscape.  Their Latin name is Tradescantia (I read this translates to "cow slobber!!"  Nice, hugh?!), and they are apparently found all over the US, and from southern Canada to northern Argentina!

Just another gorgeous park...