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We Brought the Boys….to Santa Rosa Beach

      I’m an Orange Beach, Alabama kind of girl. I’ve been there at least once every summer for as long as I can remember. We ventured out to Destin once on the way home from Disney and that was nice. We’ve been to Biloxi and Ocean Springs and other places on the Mississippi gulf coast. But if we were looking to go to the beach, it was Orange Beach. That was, until we got a taste of 30A. 

     For our last week of the summer we rented a house with my parents and brother/sister in law in Santa Rosa. I’m going to do this blog a little differently than the others and just hit the highlights, because we mostly just sat around. 

Sat around at the pool. Sat around at the beach.

     So I’ll start with the house. It was a gorgeous house next to the most amazing pool in a subdivision about a 3 minute ride from the beach. We rented a 6 seater golf cart to help with getting around to the beach and shops. The house had all the amenities and the host was so helpful and responsive. They had beach chairs, a wagon, sand toys, pool floats, even kites for my kids. Here is the AirBnB link if you are interested: https://abnb.me/K34cdExKTBb. The pool was the biggest one I’ve ever seen, complete with 4 waterfalls! The kids loved it but I’m pretty sure it was my dad who liked it most of all. 








Next, the beach. The most beautiful beach and the clearest water I have ever seen! We were able to drive the golf cart down to the regional beach access. The only downfall was that it was hard to find parking if we weren’t early and the beach got crowded. They have private property surrounding the beach access points so there is only limited space for people to set up. We have already decided that when we go back we’d like to find a place on the beach.  










     We paid a visit to Publix when we arrived to stock up on food and essentials but we did venture off some days to try a few restaurants. The first place we tried was Stinky’s Fish Camp for lunch. We mostly went because of the name. Our Mawmaw has coined the nickname Stinky for Baylor. Lunch was really good but we could have gone without the “stink drink”. Another lunch spot we visited was the food trucks in Seaside. The boys got grilled cheese from The Meltdown and Branden got a gyro from Gyro Hero. The food was good but I think the atmosphere is what made it so good. Seaside is the cutest town! For dinner we tried Shelby’s Beach Bar. Brooks had his first virgin daiquiri and we all split a shrimp platter. We got to sit on the patio and listen to some live music as the sun set, totally my kind of vibe! Old Florida Fish House was probably the most recommended place to us so we decided to end our vacation with a night there! It was everything people cracked it up to be. The food was delicious and the outdoor seating was beautiful. It’s definitely one of those places you have to visit every time you go. You should also go to Pecan Jacks and get the Baileys Salted Caramel liquored up ice cream and Shunk Oyster House’s store to buy some Two Chicks cocktails-trust me on this! And you know a vacation with my husband wouldn’t be complete with a visit to a brewery, so we checked out Beer Camp Brewing in Grayton Beach on the way back from Seaside. Branden had a beer, I had a seltzer, the boys had giant bowls of ice cream. Everyone was happy.














 


    So long Orange Beach. I think we have found our new go to beach spot. We want to try to stay in Watercolor or Seaside next time we go. The vibe on 30a is so chill, which is probably why we like it so much. We love that we could walk, ride bikes, or take a golf cart to almost any place we wanted to go. Next time we will venture out and try a few different activities like taking a boat to crab island or snorkeling with sea turtles. Maybe I can convince my husband to take us back for fall break 🤞🏻

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