Bertha Came Through. The Weekend's Wide Open.

Good Thursday morning from The Seawall — back after a week off, and that one's on me. Eight of us made the trip this year: a group of dads who've kept it going four or five summers now, a couple with our boys along, mine — Drake — among them. We went and got deliberately lost in Olympic National Park and the North Cascades — packs, tents, hard hikes, no phones, no civilization for the better part of a week. The climbs were the kind where you stop talking and just move, and the view at the top doesn't care what kind of week you had. I came home wrung out and grateful — for running water, hot water, a soft bed, air conditioning in a Mississippi July, a toilet with a plan attached. If you've never shouldered a pack and walked in until the signal dies, do it once in your life; you come back knowing yourself a little better. That's why there was no issue last Thursday — and it's good to be home on the water.

And I came home to the Coast doing its most Gulf-Coast thing: watching a storm. That disturbance became Tropical Storm Bertha, and on Wednesday she made landfall down in southeast Louisiana — a wet, blustery day or two here, some tidal flooding, limited damage. The Coast watched the models, moved the lawn furniture, and got on with it. By Thursday she's headed for Texas and falling apart.

Here's the good news: the weekend she leaves behind is the best-looking one in a while — sunny and dry Friday through Sunday, highs from 90 to 94, not a raindrop in the forecast. No casino headliner and no festival, but Old Town Bay St. Louis has the show of the weekend: Louis Michot of the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Leyla McCalla — two Grammy-caliber roots artists — at the Little Theatre Saturday night. Add Cary Hudson at The Shed, the farmers markets back open Saturday morning, blues rooms up and down the beach, and a Gulf that's done throwing its weight around. Full guide below — plus a fully-furnished beachfront house in Waveland, and a good old Mississippi cur dog named Leo who's still waiting.

🌊 Harrison — The Pass Market (Pass Christian Harbor, Sat 8 AM–1 PM) · Ship Island ferries 9 AM + noon daily · Mississippi Aquarium (daily) · 22nd Annual Martini Shakedown, Beau Rivage Magnolia Ballroom, Sat 7 PM (ticketed) · Ohr-O'Keefe Museum (Frank Gehry pods, Tue–Sat) · Shuckers AWAY (home Tue 7/28 vs Montgomery) · Casino Row (see Music).

⚓ Hancock — ⭐ Tones & Traditions Live "Cajun & Creole" w/ Louis Michot + Leyla McCalla, BSL Little Theatre (398 Blaize Ave), Sat 7–10 PM, $20 adv/$25 door — two Grammy-caliber roots artists in a 1946 Old Town theater · Hancock County Farmers Market (3068 Longfellow Rd, Sat 8 AM–noon) · Old Town BSL open all weekend, no Second Saturday this month (next Aug 8) · Silver Slipper live music · HOTW in Waveland.

🦀 Jackson — Ocean Springs Fresh Market (L&N Depot, Sat 9 AM–1 PM) · Walter Anderson Museum of Art — "Soft Architecture" by Iryna Gusiuk (through Sept 18) + the Little Room, Mon–Sat 11–5 / Sun 1–5, $10 · '99 Days of Summer' on Washington Ave · The Shed (Cary Hudson Fri / Stud Ford Sat) · Government Street Grocery (Shelby Kemp/Royal Horses Sat 9 PM) + Will Coppage at Depot District Deli Fri · Pet of the Week in Gautier.

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If last week was about introducing ourselves, this week is more about getting into rhythm.

And the rhythm right now looks pretty Coast-like: a little activity, a little local color, and a few reasons to leave the house before the weekend gets away from you.

🎟 Marquee: ⭐ Michot & McCalla (BSL Little Theatre, Sat 7 PM, ticketed) — two Grammy-caliber roots artists · Cary Hudson (The Shed, Fri) — Blue Mountain founder · Lil Ray Neal (Ground Zero, Sat eve, ticketed).

Ground Zero (Biloxi): Fri — American Blonde 7 PM · Sat — Ray Cashman 11 AM + Lil Ray Neal eve · Sun — Talbot Pearson brunch 11 AM.

Silver Slipper (BSL): Stacy Weaver Band (Fri, Stage Bar 7–11) · Tease Me Band (Sat, Stage Bar 7–11) · David Broadbridge (Sun, Beach Bar 1–3). Free.

Island View (Gulfport): New Direction (Stage Bar, Fri+Sat 8–11) · Mishee (Sunset Bar, Fri+Sat 7–10). Free.

Hard Rock (Biloxi): DJ Doc Roc (Center Bar Fri 9) · Contraflow (Center Bar Sat 9) · DJ Doc Roc (Live #Remix Sat 10) · Karaoke w/ MC Angie (Roadhouse 777 Sat 9–1). No Hard Rock Live headliner.

Boomtown (Biloxi): 1 ACCORD (casino floor, Fri+Sat 7–11). Margaritaville: Café residency, Sat 7–10.

The Shed (Ocean Springs): Cary Hudson (Fri) · Stud Ford (Sat). Government Street Grocery: Shelby Kemp/Royal Horses (Sat 9 PM). Depot District Deli: Will Coppage (Fri 6 PM). REDBAR: Hypno Nun (Sat). Hot Spot: Blanket Of M (Sat). Bayou Bluff: Singlewide Band (Sun 5 PM). The Bayou (Terrapins, Fri) · Smokey Jo's (Fri+Sat) · Juke Joint Sunday jam · Salute Italian Sunday brunch.

Dark: 100 Men Hall (next Aug 1) · Hard Rock Live · Coliseum (next Aug 14, Lil Wayne) · Hollywood BSL.

Editorial pick: Saturday, Old Town BSL for Michot & McCalla at the Little Theatre — dinner in the Depot District first. Casual alt: Cary Hudson at The Shed Friday, or Shelby Kemp at Government Street Grocery Saturday. Weather's perfect for either.

Know a show we missed? Reply and tell us — we'll add it next week.

Venue owners: Email your weekly lineup to [email protected] by Wednesday noon for Thursday's issue. No charge.

After a soggy midweek with Bertha, a clear, hot, rain-free weekend.

Freddie Mac PMMS — most recent available: 30-year fixed 6.55% (week ending July 16 — up 6 bps on the week); 15-year fixed 5.93%.

Rates ticked back up after their early-July seven-week low — six basis points on the 30-year. That's the whole shape of this market right now: a few bps up, a few down, no clean trend. Zoom out and it's a touch friendlier — a year ago the 30-year averaged 6.75%, so we're modestly better than last summer — but not enough that anyone should be timing a purchase around a single Thursday's number. If the house and the payment work, they work; the rate headline is mostly noise around that.

What actually moved the needle on the Coast this week was the weather. Bertha didn't do much damage, but she did the thing every Gulf storm does — reminded every buyer and seller down here that wind and flood coverage, not the quarter-point on a rate sheet, is the real variable in a coastal deal. If you're buying, this is the season to bind your insurance quotes early and know your flood zone before you're under contract. If you're selling, it's the season to have that file built and ready to hand over. And underneath it all, the quiet structural story holds: inventory keeps climbing and price cuts are showing up in every county — the best backdrop a patient buyer's had in a couple of years.

There's a version of the Coast dream that doesn't come with a renovation, a contractor, or a single trip to a tile showroom. You show up with a suitcase, and the house does the rest. 218 S Beach Blvd in Waveland is that version — a 2020-built beachfront home sold fully furnished, right down to the beds, the sofas, and presumably the chairs you'll drag out onto the sand. Panoramic Gulf views off the front porch, white beach a few steps past it, and nothing on the first-day to-do list but figure out where the coffee tastes best.

Waveland doesn't get the attention Bay St. Louis does two miles up the road — and that's exactly the argument for it. It's the quieter end of Hancock County, the town that took Katrina's most direct hit and rebuilt low and unhurried, where beachfront still trades for less than it would anywhere with a glossier name on the sign. For a buyer who wants the water without the crowds or price tags of the better-marketed coasts an hour east, this is the stretch to be circling.

The house runs 2,539 square feet — four bedrooms, two and a half baths — primary suite and a guest room on the main level, two more bedrooms up, a gourmet kitchen, a gas fireplace, a wired sound system, and the detail that quietly makes a raised beachfront home livable: an interior cargo lift, for hauling groceries and coolers and beach gear up from the ground floor without the stairwell fight every trip. Built in 2020, which on this coast is its own line item — modern construction standards, a cleaner insurance starting point than a mid-century cottage, and, in a week that just watched Bertha come ashore, one less thing to lie awake over.

It's been listed since March, with a short pending stretch in April that fell through — which on beachfront happens more than people assume, and usually says more about one buyer's financing than about the house. It's back, it's active, and at $999,000, $393 a foot, it's priced honestly for what it is: a turnkey beach house for someone who'd rather spend the summer on the porch than in a punch list.

The numbers: $999,000 · $393/sqft · 4 bed / 2.5 bath · 2,539 sqft · 0.22-acre lot · built 2020 · beachfront · sold fully furnished · MLS #4141969

Want to walk through this one? It's not our listing — but I'm a licensed agent with REAL Broker, and I can represent you, set up the showing, and handle the offer if it's the one. Same goes for any home on the Coast that's caught your eye. Reply to this email or call me at 228-325-1502. — Rob

Timely question — and the honest answer is: less than you'd think, if your paperwork's in order. A week like this makes every coastal seller flinch, but a serious Coast buyer already knows what they're buying into — the flood zone, elevation, wind-pool status don't change because a storm passed through. What moves a deal is the file: current flood insurance in hand, a recent wind-mitigation inspection, your elevation certificate ready to hand over. Sellers who show up with that folder built close faster and field fewer nervous questions — especially the week after a Bertha. As for waiting until spring: you'd trade four-plus months of carrying costs for a market that isn't historically better here — inventory's risen all year, and spring brings more competing listings, not fewer. If your house and paperwork are ready, a quiet tropical storm isn't a reason to sit on your hands. It's a reason to have your file in order before you list.

Got a Coast real-estate question? Reply to this email — we'll answer one a week.

Some of you will remember Leo. We put him in this spot on June 18 — a senior Black Mouth Cur waiting at the Jackson County Animal Shelter in Gautier — and here we are five weeks later, and Leo is still there. That's not a knock on Leo. That's the whole senior-dog problem in one sentence, and it's exactly why he's back today.

If you grew up anywhere rural in this state, you already know a dog like Leo, even if you've never met this one. The Black Mouth Cur is about as close to a native Mississippi breed as there is — a Southern working dog, bred to herd, hunt, track, and sit on a porch all night keeping one eye on the place. If you need the shorthand: Old Yeller was a Black Mouth Cur. The breed's been doing honest work across the Gulf South longer than any of us have been here, and it shows in the temperament — loyal past all reason, steady, not much drama.

Leo's a senior now, and that lands him in the hardest demographic at any shelter. Senior dogs wait the longest, and it has nothing to do with them and everything to do with us: people come in carrying a picture of a puppy, and the gray-muzzled dog in the third kennel isn't in it. That's the mistake. A senior dog is already exactly who he's going to be — he's done the work of becoming himself. He won't chew your baseboards or need five walks a day to burn off the crazy. He knows what a couch is for, what his name sounds like, how to be good company on a slow afternoon. What Leo needs now isn't training. It's somebody to belong to.

He has been here long enough. If you've got a back porch and room in your day for a dog who'd rather be wherever you are, go meet him — $50 covers his vet exam, vaccinations, worming, and neuter. And if Leo's found his people by the time you read this, that's the best line we could print all week, and there'll be another good one who needs you just the same.

Jackson County Animal Shelter · 4400 Audubon Lane, Gautier · (228) 497-6350 · Mon–Fri 10–4, Sat 10–2 · Ask for Leo.

LOW TIDE LAUGHS

A Coast newsletter should probably make room for at least one thing that doesn’t ask anything from you except a smirk.

So we are.

Bertha came through. Damage assessment complete: one (1) lawn chair, one (1) gnome. The Coast will rebuild.

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A FEW LOCAL LINKS WORTH KEEPING HANDY

If you want to go deeper by county, keep these local sites handy:

Jackson County MS
https://www.jacksoncountyms.com

Harrison County MS
https://www.harrisoncountyms.com

Hancock County MS
https://www.hancockcountyms.com

That’s part of the larger idea here too. The Seawall shouldn’t just point at itself. It should help connect people to the broader local web that already exists across the Coast.

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Bertha came, Bertha went, and left the Coast one of the prettier weekends of the summer on her way out. No festival, no casino headliner — just a Grammy-caliber show in an Old Town theater, sunshine, farmers markets, a blues joint or two, and a Gulf that's back to behaving. Good to be back after the week off. Take the quiet weekend. Take someone with you.

Rob
The Seawall