We had an amazing beach vacation to the beautiful Florida gulf! It was great to get away for an entire week and relax (sort of). It's impossible to truly relax with an active toddler, but we played, strolled, vegged out and beached as much as possible before crashing each night. We were on central time, so the sun was high in the sky and days began early at 6:00 a.m. but ended earlier, too, as we were usually in bed before 10:00 every night!
The area we stayed in - Rosemary Beach - is absolutely perfect for families with children and we never ran out of things to do. Besides the beach and pool, there were wonderful walking trails, interesting play spaces, yummy kid-friendly restaurants that weren't Stevie B's Pizza, pretty water fountains, and toy and ice cream stores galore. The perfect place to spoil a kid rotten! Fortunately, Shelby is still a little too young to beg for ice cream and candy, but she did get spoiled by being allowed to watch Sesame Street every morning, drink lots of juice and nibble on a bite of donut!
We started off most mornings with an active stroll to nearby Alys Beach. There was a cute little donut truck there, where we could fuel up with a sweet treat before strolling around the incredibly beautiful walking trails and park areas.
After that, we'd suit up for a trip to the beach and then the pool. It was so convenient to have our chairs and umbrella set up for us each morning, and our gulf-front pool was a welcome and refreshing way to cool off after we had enough sun and sand. Shelby was a little more cautious here than she was in Wrightsville Beach (my family is safe - no damage or flooding from Irene). Although the waves were smaller, the shore break was a little steeper and the tiny waves snuck up a little faster. I also think her eyes were more sensitive to the bright reflection off the white sand. She also didnt' seem to like much sand to get on her. She seemed to enjoy herself much better in the shade of the pool. The ocean water was so clear, you could see everything - we saw schools of small fish, crabs, stingrays and even a couple of tiny sharks!
After our busy mornings, we retreated to the cool AC in our house and had lunch and then Shelby (and sometimes mommy) crashed for a nap. I was able to get back out to the beach sans baby for a few of the days and enjoy some sun and solitude - it was heavenly! I feel completely peaceful and recharged when I get to sit on the beach and read, swim in the ocean and walk along the edge of the water. Sun, sand and salt is good for my soul! The crystal blue waters and white sand made me feel like I was in the Caribbean... it reminded me so much of Grand Cayman were we spent our honeymoon. And the slow season had already started so we practically had the beach to ourselves.
We never ran out of choices for delicious and kid-friendly restaurants and our afternoons/early evenings were spent eating out, shopping and strolling around the incredibly adorable downtown Rosemary. It was so perfectly planned, it almost felt like we were in the Disney World of beaches - so quaint and cute! We hardly got in our car all week, except to venture to nearby Seaside one night and Grayton Beach on another night.
We have some friends that live down there and they graciously offered to babysit, so on our final night there we put Shelby to bed early and got to have a special date night in Grayton Beach! Heaven! The waitress and manager kept apologizing for the wait, but we hardly noticed and told them the could take their time - it was wonderful to not have to rush through a dinner. They even gave us a free dessert for our "wait." A dinner out was a nice way to end the week - thanks Chris and Mauri! We got together a few other times and it was fun to dine with friends, discover some colorful local "dives" when we were tired of the spiffed up tourist restaurants and get the inside scoop on the day's forecast straight from the weatherman himself!
As fun as vacations are, it's nice to be back in our own home and we're rested, refueled and ready to head into fall and football season! We even said it "felt like fall" today - and it was still over 90 degrees! It's amazing what you think feels like fall after you spend a balmy week at the beach and return to the relative low humidity of Atlanta.There were even a few leaves in our yard. Yep, fall is definitely in the air!
A bunch of pictures (but just a fraction of the many, many pictures we took) from our trip are in the new gallery. Look on the right side of the page or click here.
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