Rosemary Beach

I've finally had time to sort through our vacation pics from last week. We had such a great time! We got there just before dark Saturday, so we didn't really have time to do anything other than just walk down to the beach and look around that first day. After wiggling our toes in the sand (the sand there feels like baby powder!) we ate dinner at Cowgirl Kitchen, then headed back to unpack.

This is a view of our place (named The Savannah...Savannah thought that was pretty cool) from the back alley. We LOVED this place! It was such an easy walk to the beach.



This place was directly above the Sugar Shack. On the front of the building, the residential entrance was actually right next to the entrance for the Sugar Shack...we even went down in our pajamas one night.

Sorry the pics are so dark. I wanted to take pics of the place when we first got there - before we unpacked and made a mess.

Our master bedroom



Master bath



The girls bedroom. They shared this room with Brittany - there's a trundle bed underneath the big one.



Third bedroom



There was another full bath on the sleeping level. The living space upstairs had a half bath.

Full kitchen with Viking appliances - very nice



Kitchen balcony



Gorgeous view from the kitchen balcony



Living room





View from one of the balconies - there were 5 separate balconies in this place.



This photo was taken from the top floor. Our bedroom is directly underneath. See that bell? It was RIGHT outside our bedroom. We could actually watch the clapper striking the bell from our bed every morning. Luckily, it didn't start chiming until 9 am. It wasn't bad, though...we didn't have to worry about setting an alarm clock.



Here's the little park we had to walk across to get to the beach. There are outdoor showers on the other side of those little buildings. They showed a movie here one night....people lounged on the grass and watched "How to Train Your Dragon" on a big blow-up movie screen.



First day on the beach! Here's our little oasis.








Taking Brittany to help out with the girls was a great idea. The girls LOVED having her there, and she was a HUGE help to me!



Scarlett on her board, waiting for a wave.



After the beach, we made the first of many trips to Sugar Shack. Pappi gave Savy and Scarlett money for the "ice cream fund" before we left home, so they had all the ice cream and milkshakes they wanted.



Savy making her selections





Walking to the beach



Aunt Lesa and Granny Ruth joined us on Monday.




I love this pic of Savy and Aunt Lesa. I don't know what Savy saw on the beach, but she was definitely excited about something.



Look reeeaaally close and you can see Jon waaaaay out in the water. There's a group of people on the left and a group of people on the right. Now look right in the middle of them and out a little further - there's Jon. He was trying to get to a sandbar he remembered standing on during his last trip to Rosemary Beach. Once he got all the way out there, it wasn't shallow enough to stand on. Good thing he's a strong swimmer.



Savannah wanted me to bury her in the sand. The bucket's for shade.






Brittany and Scarlett keeping the umbrella from blowing away on a particularly windy day.




Savy and Scarlett inspecting the sea shells they found while Aunt Lesa cooked dinner. All the shells we found the first couple of days were either very small or broken.



Jon went to the beach very early the next morning to see if he could find any big shells for Savannah. He didn't find shells, but he did find these two guys.




Savy and Scarlett found them very interesting - Savy named them Wally and Snapper. We set them free the next day.



Savy was so hoping to find some big, unbroken shells...we even heard her praying to find some big ones. Jon bought a couple of big, pretty shells from a souvenir shop for Savy to "find" on the beach. He managed to sneak them onto the sand without her noticing, so her prayers were answered. We did find a lot of unbroken shells later on, but those planted shells were definitely the favorites.

We visited Seaside one day. This is where the movie "The Truman Show" was filmed. It's a pretty place, but VERY crowded.




Is there something different about Savannah?




Beach time again...Savannah LOVED her body board!








She also LOVED the scuba set Jon gave her. She could do this all day!



Once the scuba mask was on, every attempt at a family shot looked like this.



Lesa tried to get a photo of just me and Jon. She snapped it just as a we got pounded by a big wave.



Finally got her to the surface long enough for a photo.



Jon and Savy








I forget what day we discovered Suga Pies. It was right next to Sugar Shack and relatively new. Scarlett was mesmerized by the cupcakes and muffins.



Check out all these milkshake flavors!



Breakfast muffins - pancake muffin topped with maple frosting and pieces of bacon.



Jon and Savy getting Sno-balls for everyone.




Jon, Savy, and Brittany all tried different flavors. I got a plain strawberry, which I intended to share with Scarlett...I didn't think she could eat a whole one by herself.



This is the look she gave me when I asked for a bite.




Jon had to go buy me another one.


Savy liked hers too. She's really not as hot and sweaty as she looks in this pic. She stole my sun screen stick for faces while I wasn't looking and put about 10 coats of it on her face...that's why she's so shiny.



Savannah trying to show us her red lips



We decided to visit a butterfly garden we'd read about...which turned out to be the only disappointing thing about the trip.



It was actually just a few raised garden beds. The flowers were ok, we only saw one butterfly, and I got bitten 6 times by some sort of flying insect. Definitely NOT worth the walk down there!

The national park we visited next was more fun. We visited the "Hobbit Hole," an area where the dunes are so high that you can actually walk through the tree canopy.










There's public beach access there too.




Savannah finally caught a fish after trying for 5 days! Actually, Jon caught it, but that was good enough for Savy.




Jon dug a big hole for the girls.



Last day - we finally got around to building sandcastles.









And everyone wrote their name in the sand.







There are a few photos I haven't sorted through yet...like the ones Jon took with his phone. I may post a few random ones later.