Fisherman’s Castle out at Irish Bayou by Kevin O’Mara from Flickr Creative Commons

Nobody can deny that there are countless incredible tourist attractions in Louisiana, but not all of them are known by the general public. In fact, some of the most beautiful places are completely ignored by most top lists you see online. The following hidden gems are some of the secrets Louisiana has that you should know. Check them out for some incredible memories and photo ops.

For example, there’s the “Little White Castle” aka “Fisherman’s Castle” on Irish Bayou and Liberty Lagoon in Baton Rouge for two.

So, go ahead and click through to see the full list of unexpected finds – the majority of which are in the southern part of the state in the Gulf Coast region – and make your plans to visit.

The post Six Off-the-Beaten Louisiana Detours for Some Last-Minute Summer Fun appeared first on Go Gulf States.

It happens twice a year, but when you take the time to notice it, the annual migrations of birds can be so magical. Texas Audubon posts details of ways human allies can help our fine, feathered friends with simple practices of dimming turning out lights. Check our Events listings for “Lights Out for Birds,” which allows folks to sign up for alerts and provides information, while specific to Texas, can also apply to the entire Gulf Coast.   – Editor

Each spring, billions of birds cross the Gulf of Mexico. New research is giving scientists a detailed look at the members of this massive migration.

More than one billion birds will attempt the perilous journey north over the Gulf of Mexico to reach their spring breeding grounds in North America. As few as one in five will make it back south to their winter habitat. This arduous journey – by gnatcatchers, flycatchers, warblers, buntings, and others – takes place along one of the most significant migration routes in the world.

The marshes, beaches, and forests around the Gulf are crucial refueling points, especially on the Texas and Louisiana coasts where spring migrants arrive starving. More than 100 species of shorebirds, waterfowl, and songbirds have migrated along the 2,700-kilometer Gulf coastline during the spring. During peak times, there can be as many as 26,000 birds per kilometer of airspace.

The post How to Count a Billion Birds and the Number Surviving Gulf Migration Each Year appeared first on Go Gulf States.

At some point or another in his 71 years, Tennessee Williams left significant cultural footprints in all five Gulf states. AL, MS, FL, LA, and even TX bear proof of his preeminence as the Southern king of 20th-century American drama. Across the month of March, Key West hosts over a dozen events to celebrate the playwright behind Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Rose Tattoo, The Glass Menagerie, and A Streetcar Named Desire. It all culminates in the birthday celebration on March 26. Happy 112th, Tennessee Williams!  – Editor

In celebration of Tennessee Williams, the Pulitzer-prize winning literary icon that moved to Key West in 1949 and remained a resident for 34 years, Key West Art & Historical Society hosts an annual ‘Tennessee Williams Birthday Celebration,’ a month-long series of arts and cultural events that takes place each March at multiple Key West venues.

This yearly festival of events includes a museum fundraiser, plein air painting, poetry and short story writing contests, lectures, museum tours, film showings, live theater events and a birthday party complete with cake and bubbly to honor his life and accomplishments.

The post The Tennessee Who Shaped the Gulf: Happy Birthday, Thomas Lanier Williams III appeared first on Go Gulf States.

The film is now streaming again on Hulu, Lifetime, and other platforms for the 2022 holiday season.

The story centers on Olivia, a young pastor trying to find “her voice as a woman, a pastor, a leader, and ultimately as a singer.” Living in the shadow of her megachurch pastor mom, Olivia leaves to pastor a small church in Texas, following her journey to recover from “church hurt” and reclaim her family’s generational gift as a singing pastor.

Olivia’s journey to self-awareness is one many people can relate to. While there is a romantic aspect, along with Franklin’s high-energy gospel songs and the Jesus Christmas element, Sutherlin noted that it’s not the familiar Lifetime Television narrative. “That’s what I think is so sweet about it,” she said.

The post 🎅🏿 Lifetime’s Sweet ’A Gospel Christmas‘ by St. Pete Director Is Now Streaming for the Holidays appeared first on Go Gulf States.

Hakai magazine regularly features these fabulous book roundups, and we are here for it! Here’s their list from last year’s holiday season, featuring ”guessing games, solutions to plastic pollution, and some gnarly narwhals,” and all with coastal themes. When you gift a book, you are gifting more than just pages. You are offering ideas, quiet times, forays into imagination, and the gift of legacy. Don’t know about you, but we‘re making our list, checking it twice, and adding some of these to our Christmas, Chanukah, and New Year‘s gift tally!  – Editor

It seemed like a tableau representing everything that’s wrong in our world. The ship was carrying containers full of cheaply made stuff that likely won’t last long (not to mention those pesky mining chemicals) to our shores in the midst of a global supply chain breakdown. Then the ship got pummeled by a so-called bomb-cyclone, the likes of which are becoming more common due to climate change.

Then I heard about the children’s books.

Neatly stacked in one of the containers aboard the cargo ship were 15,000 nonfiction books from Orca Book Publishers, which publishes many coastal titles featured in these biannual roundups. Orca said it wasn’t sure of the fate of the books, and it had recently decided to move most of its printing to Canada.

Buying books rather than plastic toys as gifts for kids this holiday season may hit the mark. They’re entertaining, educational, and can be passed along for generations.

The post 🎁 Gift Alert: 14 New Coastal Books for Kids of All Ages to Entertain and Inspire appeared first on Go Gulf States.

For the better part of 2022, the Key West Art & Historical Society has been running Key West 200 as the lead display in the Bryan and Bumpus Galleries at the Custom House Museum. The exhibit commemorates the 200th anniversary of the first permanent settlement of Key West in 1822.

Organized by decade, the exhibit highlights so much of what is celebrated today in Key West: the people, culture, and community – beginning with the settlers and government officials who arrived on this remote island in early 1822. It features rarely displayed artifacts that tell the story of the people, industries, migration, culture, and architecture that has shaped Key West over the course of two centuries.

Key West 200 will close on December 11.

The post The Last Week of Island Bicentennial Exhibit Key West 200 appeared first on Go Gulf States.

Natalie Burkle is but one of hundreds of volunteers across the Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida panhandle coast who lent time and talent to Feeding the Gulf Coast, a Feeding America affiliated food bank serving 24-counties throughout the region. As the aftermath of Hurricane Ian is still being understood, it’s important to remember the nonprofit infrastructure that “holds the line” and is at the ready during a crisis, in addition to the necessary, ongoing work to fill societal economic gaps.

Feeding the Gulf Coast is one of a number of  Feeding America food banks that is part of that urgent infrastructure. Now’s a great time to consider a donation. – Editor

“Kids who are hungry are unable to focus on learning… The biggest challenge caused by food insecurity is a child’s inability to focus in the classroom, and the biggest challenge causing food insecurity is lack of education. It’s a vicious cycle.” – Natalie Burkle, volunteer at Feeding the Gulf Coast.

Natalie Burkle joined the team at Feeding the Gulf Coast in the fall of 2018 as the Alabama Child Nutrition Specialist. She played a key role in the organization by supporting the Child Nutrition Team with all programming throughout the food bank service  area in Alabama.

The Child Nutrition Team partners with parks and recreation sites, schools, and local community resource centers to provide meals to children along with enrichment activities, such as nutritional education classes, in a safe location.

Before Natalie departed to return to school to become a teacher, Feeding the Gulf Coast had the opportunity to talk with her about her experiences while at the food bank and how those experiences will impact her future as an educator. Click the link to read the interview.

The post Education: One Proven Key to Breaking the Cycles of Hunger and Poverty appeared first on Go Gulf States.

Craig McClain, a tall, bald, and bearded marine biologist leads a coastal research institute called the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, or LUMCON, that explores life at the interface of land and sea. McClain studies how living things get food at the bottom of the ocean. LUMCON’s main building hovers over the wetlands on big concrete pilings, driven deep into the muck.

McClain can look out the window at work and sometimes see alligators swim by. He wondered: what happens when they die? If they died at sea, or were washed out, might they provide food to the strange things that dwell in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico? Are they an important part of deep-sea energy cycles? He conjured up a plan to find out, but to carry it out, he would need dead alligators.

The post The Incredible Things That Happen When an Alligator Is Dumped into the Sea appeared first on Go Gulf States.

With amazing granular, up-to-date maps from the National Data Buoy Center, Coastal Inundation Dashboard, and so much more, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration compiles the most up-to-date info available to the public during catastrophic weather events.    – Editor

NOAA’s National Weather Service offers this portal to the latest, most accurate information on Hurricane Ian. Here is a compilation of information to use before, during, and after the storm, including the most current weather forecast conditions for your area, evacuation and shelter information, and available resources to help keep you and your loved ones safe.

The post Keeping Up With Hurricane Ian: National Weather Service Live Updates appeared first on Go Gulf States.

Not so fast! Coastal Mississippi isn’t finished with its summer season just yet. As temperatures cool off, the region’s events and activities heat up.

As the August heat subsides, and we get that inkling of fall weather attempting to arrive, it’s the perfect time to fit in a last-minute beach vacation. Summer never ends on the South’s secret coast of Mississippi. With charming towns like Ocean Springs, Pass Christian, and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi’s coast is a quirky hidden gem.

The post It’s an Endless Summer on the Secret Coast appeared first on Go Gulf States.