We had planned to go to Memphis over the holiday weekend to visit Graceland and the Children's Museum (and stop through Tupelo, where Elvis was born, on our way up), but snow (and the potential for icy roads and below freezing air to walk around in) turned us south toward the beach instead. It was still cold, but we found plenty to do indoors at Margaritaville and the kids were certainly spoiled rotten with games and adventures and treats. Mom and I had a great time too! Yes, it was still cold (even below freezing in the morning!), but the kids still dipped their toes into the Gulf!
We arrived just in time for sunset!
We stayed at the Margaritaville Biloxi Resort, which boasts a very awesome-looking rooftop pool / waterslide area (that is obviously not open when the winter temperatures are in the 20s and 30s...) as well as a huge indoor arcade / rock wall / zipline-ropes course. The kids were excited about it all, but honestly, any hotel is fun to them (sharing a room with their parents and watching TV in bed = amazing). Mom and I thought it was a nice place and I'm sure we'll go back with Jay (he wasn't able to come on our last-minute adventure because he'd volunteered to watch Zy, though I think a couple quiet days at home all alone were pretty welcome).
The view from our room on the top floor, looking westward towards Biloxi and Gulfport:
Once we'd settled in the room and grabbed dinner, I loaded up an arcade card for the kids to share and we let them play for a couple hours before bed. Yes, I played some games too (though I saved my attempts at the rock wall and ropes course for the following morning). And yes, I treated mom and I to a fancy Margaritaville cocktail to enjoy in bed while the kids watched cartoons once we finally convinced them we were all too tired to keep going.
The next morning we ate breakfast in the room (thanks to a coffee shop on site with plenty of food options), then hit the arcade to polish off all our game points (and collect our expensive penny prizes: whoopie cushions and Smarties).
(Tiny bowling balls that were the perfect size for the kids AND for Grambot's shoulder!)
(Clearly they liked the ride-on games - the snowboarding race was their favorite though.)
Before lunch (at a local pizza place) we drove around Ocean Springs (right across the bridge, east of the resort) and stopped along some jetties to let the kids explore (though we didn't last long due to the cold!)
And then it was time to head back indoors to a local Children's Museum that turned out to be really cute (and which kept the kids entertained for hours - they'd have stayed through closing if I hadn't insisted we stop by the beach one more time before sunset, and before dinner - local seafood for the win!, so that we could get home before midnight).
Mom and I warned them that they'd freeze, but they went in anyway. Good thing we had plenty of clean, dry, and extra warm clothes in the car!
