Rosemary Beach First Timers

I had to find out why everyone seems to think Rosemary Beach and 30A is THE vacation spot. After I saw Jeni go year after year and saw some of her spring break pics, I got online and booked a house. Normally that would be a bit late to book a great house only a few months in advance, but I got lucky and there was a cancellation.

This is the house I found, it has perfect reviews, a private pool and sleeps 12. Let’s do it!

As you can see here, the private pool was tiny. It was somehow still very cold and refreshing and it was really nice to have it! We used it everyday.

The bedrooms were all good sizes and the girls loved the bunk room.

It was about a 10 minute walk to the beach, which seemed long the first couple of times, but quickly became very normal. But let me back it way the heck up…

Our trip was from June 26 to July 3, which is peak season and probably more crowded than other times due to the 4th of July holiday.

Me, Miggle and my 4 kids (Blake 14, Kylie 12, Aven 9 and Griffin 5) met my mom, brother and sister in law there. Their flight got in earlier that day and ours was a little more difficult.

I woke up the day of the flight in what can only be described as the picture of spinal comfort and alignment.

That wouldn’t be the only portion of the rough start.

Upon arrival to the airport, we were informed our flight was delayed and that would make us miss the connecting flight in Atlanta. We made the call to get on the flight as planned and if by some bizarre chance we make the connecting flight, then yay. If not, we would stay in a hotel in Atlanta and make it to Florida the next day. All I know was that I wasn’t going back home, we were packed and there and we were going somewhere.

Luck was on our side because our DFW to ATL flight arrived early and with low to no expectations of making it all the way to Florida that night, we boarded and would figure it out later. Freakin’ great plan to be winging it with no plan and 4 kids. Whatevs.

All was well because we introduced Griffin to PeeWee.

And the girls were busy with their devices.

When we landed in Atlanta, the flight attendant came on the speaker and said if you have a connecting flight, run! If you do not, stay in your seat and let them run! Would we make it?

Let’s poll the audience!

74% were filling the universe with positive flight catching thoughts and 26% of you Debbie Downer onion heads didn’t think we would pull it off.

The good news is that we got to experience Atlanta. In the absolute lamest way possible. But still. The bad news…

We were all prepped and ready to trackstar it across the airport and show up to the connecting flight gate sweaty, nauseous and irritated.

Turns out there wasn’t bad news!

Luck would have our back again, because our gate was directly across from the one we departed from. So we walked 17 paces and sat there because boarding hadn’t even started. Oh happy day! There would be no last minute Atlanta hotel searching and no whiney kids. JK there are always whiney kids.

The girls and I held hands and asked God for a safe flight.

Griffin asked Miggle (who he refers to as his “brother”) to hold him for take off.

To our shock and disbelief, we were going to make it! We made it past the hurdles right?

Yeah, no.

So yes we made it, but there were no Ubers, no taxis, no Lyft, no rental cars. Griffin said, “There is nothing to zoom. We are chillin’ here being really mad and not knowing where to go.”

Well said, my man.

The airport rental car people had nothing but a list of taxi drivers and shuttle services to call. Miggle, started from the top and called Beach Boys Shuttle.

Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true.

Baby, then there wouldn’t be a single thing we couldn’t do.

Oh, wouldn’t it be nice?

if we had a ride?

Jackpot! Beach Boys Shuttle, comin’ in hot!

My Captain Obvious suggestion: have your ride from the airport lined up in advance. One can not just simply hail a cab or call an uber from ECP airport in the peak season. If you have been successful with this, good for you, but I would definitely have this squared away before leaving if I had it to do again.

We arrived at around 1am to a house of soundly sleeping loved ones. We like to make our arrival known, and we like to make it known with the loudest beep possible. Those pool alarms are a doozy when you aren’t used to them. Sorry for the wake up heart attack y’all and I hope those alarms have saved many a life, because they are a huge pain in the ear canal.

Rosemary is every bit as charming and family friendly as I had heard. The homes are gorgeous, the beach is lovely and everyone is in a pleasant mood everywhere you turn.

We got up, got ready and headed straight for the beach.

Until a thunderstorm rolled in right when we stepped foot in the sand. Pivot. Leave the beach. Sigh. We will just try again later.

The pictures say it all. It was worth all the irritations and road blocks to see the kids loving the beach! The water is warm, the waves are just the right size to play in and not get washing machined and the tiny creature and fish catching did not disappoint my teenage scientist.

It was also insanely difficult to get into any restaurants and most do not take reservations. We kept having to go to the same pizza place and eat at weird hours. Thank goodness we knew to have Shipt deliver groceries to the house so we had some food when everything was slammed. Looks like we might be living on Pringles and grapes this week. Aye!

We spent a lot of time chatting and hanging around the house when we were taking a break from the sun.

My brother and I have a special bond that consists of inappropriate jokes, hyperactivity and roasting.

Pillow forts were made, Griffin kept avoiding stitches by mere millimeters in his uni-foot shoe set up, a selfie stick was busted out, a really long and somewhat deep and disturbing play was put on by Kylie and Aven about a death and happenings in the afterlife. The usual family vacay.

The next day, we got brave and decided to start biking everywhere. I wasn’t sure Griffin would be able to keep up and observe the biking traffic rules so we had to come up with a work around.

I’m sorry is there a kid and a bike in that picture? I was blinded by abs.

We packed our cooler, loaded up the bikes and had a great beach day! I’m so glad Jeni told me to rent chairs way in advance or I’m not sure what we would have done. I only rented 2, but it would have been nice to have one per adult.

The green chairs are the ones that were available to rent. The sooner you rent, the closer to the beach you get to be.

Between the beach and The Sugar Shak, an ice cream shop and candy store, I had a nice little day. Everyone else with the exception of tired, sleeping me, went to dinner at Shades. They had a slightly longer nice little day. Shades is a bar and grill that was easy to get into and we ate there twice.

I emerged from my snooze just in time to watch the sunset! Nice little day was back on!

Go to sleep. Wake up. Do it all again!

But only after Calvin tries on Miggle’s Disney Gucci shirt and channels his inner disgruntled and beat down nearsighted man of the 50s.

I packed floats in my suitcase and those were so fun to use in the ocean!

When we got tired of the beach, we went to Seaside to have lunch at LaCo in Seacrest Beach which was one town over from Rosemary. A very quick and easy bike ride.

Nothing to see here folks…

Absolutely nothing to see here.

Miggle was set on someone getting a fish pedicure.

Blake jumped on this fishy opportunity.

Going to the beach in the evenings was one of our favorite things. The kids (and Tiffany) would look for crabs and shells, it wasn’t crowded and all the chairs were put away for the night.

We looked into doing a beach bonfire, but they were all booked up. That would have been an awesome way to spend an evening! There are plenty of bonfire companies to choose from, but the one that looked the best to me was CC. Boone. If we ever go out to 30A again, I’ll be so much more prepared.

We ate ice cream most days. Partially because we love ice cream and partially because we couldn’t get in anywhere to eat.

And made tons of sandy memories.

I had also heard about Alys Beach for years. We took our little bicycling booties over there and it was really nice! But first I would have to un-JoeDirt myself or I was going to get hit on too much to be able to enjoy a meal or even safely walk down the street.

Each little beach town along 30A has it’s own look and style of architecture.

Rosemary Beach is based on European Colonial architecture.

Travel on down the road and you come to Seacrest Beach where the architecture is cottage-style with bright colors.

A little further along 30A is Alys Beach. Alys is Bermudan architecture and it’s all white. Mykonos vibes. The idea is for the white structures with white roofs to reflect the sun’s heat and stay cooler.

Miggle and I went to Alys on the last full day and we loved it! We went to the cutest restaurant called Raw and Juicy. It was crowded, but manageable and it was a step above all of the other stuff we had eaten in Rosemary and Seacrest.

Drinks flowed and a lady behind us had just received an earth shattering piece of raw and juicy gossip. GASP!

Then she was all, “mmmm hmmmm girl, I knew it.”

That night we ventured out to Alys again, this time with the whole crew to eat at George’s.

We arrived at 5:00 on the dot in our drop top cruising the streets.

It was a 2 hour wait. Miggle took the kids to a nearby park so they wouldn’t terrorize all of the patrons.

When we finally got to sit down we were hungry and ready to grub! It was a nice way to wrap up our trip, but dang I wish the restaurants didn’t have such long wait times.

The 2 hour wait wouldn’t be the end of our vacation hiccups.

Captain obvious back again: When booking flights, it’s important to see what time checkout is so that you don’t have to deal with kids and luggage all day and entertain yourself somehow with no car.

Our flights were cancelled by American, so we had to get new ones. Those flights were delayed two hours. It was damn near impossible to find a ride back to the airport. It was becoming quite the fiasco.

My mom had given this driver dude a huge tip when they got to Rosemary and he gave her his number. Without that little interaction, I’m not sure how the heck we would have made it back.

During all the last minute pack up stress and trying to get out of there by the 9am checkout, guess what Miggle was up to?

Casually grilling burgers at 8:20am that no one wanted. Peculiar priorities.

I don’t know why, but burgers on regular bread make me gag at the thought.

Here’s how the story ends:

We made it to the airport, waited in long lines, waited for hours at our terminal since we had nowhere to go and no way to get anywhere anyway.

Finally it was time to get on the plane and zip along on our direct flight back to DFW…

It wouldn’t be a Paige story without one last ridiculous event.

So there ya go. Par for the course, I suppose.

To wrap it up here is a list of things I wish I knew or am I glad I was told about Rosemary Beach.

Avoid the grocery store and have your groceries Shipt. Put your order in 24 hours ahead of time.

Plan on cooking at home some nights and having plenty of food to eat during the day.

Rent your house as soon as possible. People do this up to a year in advance.

Rent chairs for the adults. The earlier, the better. You are assigned an exact spot and they seem to sell out quickly.

Book bikes for everyone. Some houses include bikes, so check first. Bike rental companies deliver so the bikes are there when you arrive.

Bring a speaker for the beach.

Pack floats.

Eat at off times or plan on long waits.

Cruise around on your bike and explore the nearby towns.

Bring a net and some sand toys.

Book your transportation to and from the airport way in advance.

Verify your check out time before booking flights to avoid sitting in the airport all day.

Try to find a house with a private pool or at least very close to a community pool.

I’m more of the type that likes to try different travel destinations, but I know so many people return to this adorable town year after year. We had a great time and I’m so glad I was able to experience this place with my family.