An Unplanned Dinner on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast!

What to do next?  It was about 2 PM and we’d finished exploring Hattiesburg Mississippi as well as nearby Camp Shelby and its military museum… Well, I looked at the map and noted that we were only about an hour and a quarter from Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.  Since it wouldn’t get dark until well after 8 PM, we had lots of time to explore so off we went!

Destination Gulfport, with its wide sand beaches and the Gulf of Mexico as a backdrop…  First Laurie and I posed and then it was Bill and Bonnie's turn.  After all, we had to prove that we were actually on the beach!

Gulfport is Mississippi’s second-largest city after Jackson, the state capital.  Gulfport has a population of about 72,000 people and there was a lot of traffic as we came into town.  The good news is that Gulfport is located right on the Gulf of Mexico…but that’s also the ‘bad’ news.

On August 17, 1969, the city was hit by Hurricane Camille.  It was the 2^nd strongest hurricane to make landfall in US history.  The total area of destruction in Harrison County, where Gulfport is located, was 68 square miles.  The estimated damage was $1,420,000,000…the rough equivalent of about $10.5 billion in today’s dollars.

History has repeated itself… On August 29, 2005, Gulfport was slammed by Hurricane Katrina.  A great deal of the city was flooded or destroyed that day.  Strong, hurricane-force winds lasted more than 16 hours and the storm surge exceeded 28 feet in some areas.  The population has since rebounded and much of the area has been rebuilt.

Gulfport was first incorporated in 1898.  It was founded by William H. Hardy who was president of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad.  That railroad connected the many inland Mississippi lumber mills to the coast.  The railroad dredged the harbor and opened the shipping canal to the Gulf…completing the task in 1902.

The Port of Gulfport handles over 2 million tons of cargo every year.  It has berths for 9 ships and it has a 1,320 foot long turning basin.  Easy access to the Gulf is via an 18-mile ship channel that is 36 feet deep.  Over 400 people are employed at the port…

The Island View Casino was not the first casino in Gulfport.  There were actually 2 others, the Copa Casino and the Grand Casino Gulfport, both of which were located on a docked cruise ship or barge when they were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.  When Mississippi legislators changed the casino laws to permit new casinos to be built on dry land, that’s when this casino and attached hotel were built.  With 970 guest rooms and 80,000 square feet of gaming space, this is now the only casino in Gulfport.

No…despite Bill and I both being susceptible to the lure of slot machines, we did not partake but continued on westward along US Hwy 90 in search for a likely place for relaxation and dinner.  Learn more about the Casino at Island View Casino Resort & smoke-free Beach View Casino.  

As we cruised west along US 90 which runs along the Gulf coast, we spotted a likely restaurant for our evening meal.  It was a little early but we did have a 2 hour drive ahead of us to return to our hotel in Laurel Mississippi.

This is Shaggy’s Pass Harbor Restaurant in Pass Christian Mississippi.  The parking lot was full and there was a wait for a table.  As you can see, it was a beautiful day.  Both the temperature and humidity were moderate and plenty of folks were out and about…   

This is the view from the upper deck of Shaggy’s looking west toward the channel into Bay St. Louis.

This is a view inside Shaggy’s looking toward the bar.  As expected and, as highly appreciated, the inside of this restaurant is complete beach bar chic.  Nothing fancy that’s for sure…

We chose to dine inside in the shade but since the windows were all open, it was like being outdoors.  We did have to change tables as our original table was right under a high powered fan… Our waitress, Tyra, was not only accommodating, she was also very good at her job!

The commercial fishing boats in the Pass Christian Harbor all appear to be shrimp boats… From my review of the commercial fishing boats registered in this marina/harbor and elsewhere around Pass Christian, I counted as many as 86 commercial boats.  This municipal harbor is the where the Mississippi Coast’s primary shrimp fleet and commercial fishing boats are based.

That blue shrimper, the Kien Giang II, seems to be fairly typical for the fleet.  She is 53 feet long, has a steel hull, and was built in 1983.

This was obviously a tour boat at some point in its life.  Here’s your next exciting business opportunity!  There are 3 passenger craft listed for this harbor but only 1 has been deemed ready for business.  The other 2, one of them probably this white vessel, are shown as “uninspected”.  Perhaps they are the victims of the pandemic…

As usual we started out with a couple of adult beverages.  While Bill and I had beers, Laurie and Bonnie went for these large and colorful creations.  At the left we have a double Key Lime Daiquiri and at the right we have a double Strawberry Daiquiri. ($8.00 each)

For our starter, Laurie and I ordered the Smoked Fish Dip served with lemon and crackers. ($10.99) It was excellent and not a bit of it went to waste!

Bill loves his appetizers…seafood especially.  He started by ordering a half pound of Royal Red Shrimp. ($12.99) We'd done a bit of damage before I remembered to take this photo.  They were good but not as good as the Royal Reds that Big Dude at https://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/ has made for us...

Bill and Bonnie went on to order a dozen raw oysters. ($14.99) Laurie had one too but they just aren’t my thing.  Everyone was happy with the oysters though…

Laurie decided to order the Fried Grouper Tacos with French fries and Queso on the side. ($15.98) As you can see, they weren’t little pieces of fish.  There was no way Laurie could finish all of that so I ‘was forced’ to eat that second slab of grouper.  The fish was very, very nice…

Bonnie was pretty full so she just picked at Bill’s entrée, the Captain’s Seafood Platter. ($23.99) It included fried shrimp, oysters and catfish as well as a couple of hush puppies.  Goodness all around!

For my entrée, I opted for the Shrimp Po-Boy. ($13.99) There certainly were plenty of tasty fresh fried shrimp but it was impossible to eat it as a sandwich/po-boy with so many shrimp as well as the lettuce, tomato and pickles.  I only ate a couple of bites of the bun and then I ate the shrimp separately.  It was better that I did skip that bun as I did have to finish off Laurie’s fish…

Shaggy’s Pass Christian Harbor is open daily for lunch and dinner.  It is easily spotted from US Hwy 90.  There are 4 Shaggy’s locations in addition to this one.  They are in Jackson, Gulfport and Biloxi Mississippi and in Pensacola Beach Florida.  To learn more about the various Shaggy’s locations and to view their menus, you can go to https://shaggys.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave