Our Seaside Florida Vacation

 

I am settling back in after a few of the best weeks of our Summer. A few weeks ago I set off, first to see Christy’s new house in North Carolina {it’s awesome y’all!} and then together we went on to the Haven Conference in Atlanta which is always just the best time–not only because I get to see Christy but meeting up with blog friends is becoming such a fun summer tradition.

If all that wasn’t enough I headed straight on from Atlanta to Florida to meet up with my family for our vacation. My head was spinning a bit when I finally arrived in Florida (really late Saturday night after a long day at the conference) but a week of sun and fun and great family time was the perfect way to recover 🙂

 

 

We stayed at a beach house in the WaterSound area and I will be back tomorrow with more about that–it was a great house, newly-built but made to look old. I took a bunch of pictures of the architectural details so be sure to check in to see more.

 

 

We spent the week with my parents and my brother’s family, so we looked for a house very close to the beach to avoid the back and forth hassles since some of our kids are still on the young side.  At first I was a little sad that we weren’t staying in Seaside proper, but being about 10 minutes away was great–it was much quieter and less crowded in our little nook.

 

 

While there we managed many shopping and restaurant excursions to both Seaside and Rosemary Beach–it would be hard to pick a favorite beach town as both are charming and filled with cute shops and restaurants. In Water Sound we were perfectly located right between the two, though you drive through the breathtaking Alys Beach to get to Rosemary–a respite there is on my bucket list for sure.

 

 

My girls {my daughter and niece} loved the little Seaside shops. They were happy to trek around and explore all that is there. It was pretty hot so we didn’t last too long before either going out to dinner or returning to the beach house for dinner, cocktails and maybe an evening swim.

 

 

We made sure to break out our Lillies, this night we were heading out to dinner at the Seaside classic Bud & Alley’s, my top is here and my daughter’s dress here.

 

Another day we headed the other direction to explore Rosemary Beach. It would be so much fun to stay right in the center of things there–we may have to add that to the list too.  I loved the Tracery Interiors shop, I have long wanted to see it and its fabulous coastal decor so I made sure to snap a few pictures to share.

 

 

I already showed this coffee table on Instagram–it caught our eye with its fun turquoise top and this darling table and chair set {below} inspired me to paint these traditional style chairs a fun color like this blue!

 

 

We spent most mornings or late afternoons exploring the beach towns and the day time enjoying the beach or pool, except for one day when we headed to Panama City and spent the day on a pontoon boat.

 

 

We rented from HERE and this was a great way to spend the day. Initially I was skeptical about this idea, not wanting to make the drive into PC, but it turned out to be one of our favorite parts of the week.  The boat rental company was great and my kids were in complete heaven. We added on a wave runner rental too and definitely put it good use all day long.

 

 

The boat company provides clear maps to different islands so you can anchor and swim. The water was gorgeous–we swam and floated all day long. They even have an ice cream boat that comes around boat to boat just to completely blow the kids’ minds. I am not sure how we’ll top that one next year 🙂

 

 

We wrapped up our trip at an eating area called the Hub which was so much fun. It’s like a fancy food court that has live music–it was perfect for a big group and an easy way to spend our last night there.

 

 

 

 

Coming back to reality this week (and dealing with loads of laundry) has been a bit of a challenge to say the least. Stay tuned– I have all the details of the pretty beach house we stayed in to share tomorrow!

XO,