Our 2025 30A Summer Beach Trip - Days 1, 2, & 3

Happy Monday, y’all!  Today I’m starting to recap our beach trip from a couple of weeks ago.  The trip was extra good this year as we had gorgeous weather and STUNNING water the entire time, and it was such a great mix of fun and relaxation, as always! 

If you’ve been around for a while, you probably know by now that we go to the same area of The Gulf of Mexico every year for our beach trips, so some of the things we do and see are a bit repetitive year after year, but we just love it so much that we can’t imagine going anywhere else.

This year, we did try a couple of new restaurants, we went to a new beach town, and we did a few new things, so at least we changed it up a bit, right?  Haha.  Anyway, let’s get on with the recap!  Per usual, I’m going to try to type fewer words and just let the (hundreds) of pictures do most of the talking over this series of three posts…

Saturday, May 31

Half of Saturday was spent at home packing and getting ready.  We don’t ever leave until after lunch because we can’t check into the condo at the beach until 5 PM EST, and the drive is just a few hours, so there’s no reason for us to rush.

We ended up leaving sometime after one, and we made it to the beach between 4-5 CST.  We usually don’t make any stops along the way, but this time we stopped for a bathroom break for me since I chug so much water.  Haha.

When we arrived, we headed straight to Publix to get our groceries for the week.  We typically eat breakfast and lunch in the condo every day and go out for dinner every night, so we didn’t need a lot – just some eggs, lunch meat, cheese, fruit, and bottled water (which we never use at home since we have filtered water).  Florida faucet water is so gross, so I can’t bring myself to drink it.  I won’t even use it in my tea.  Blech.  We had already packed tons of snacks and chips and cereal and bread and other non-perishables that we already had at home, so most of the groceries were already in the car.

We headed straight to the condo to get everything unloaded after that, and when we were leaving the Publix parking lot, we saw a Jeep with one of those massive Halloween yard skeletons in the back seat.  Only in Florida.  Lol.

When we arrived at the condo, we were excited to see that the exterior had gotten an upgrade – the whole thing had been painted, there was a new sign, and there were new numbers on each of the doors, plus the whole parking lot had been redone with beautiful pavers… chef’s kiss! 

When we got inside, I got on my phone to order pizza from Angelina’s, our favorite takeout pizza place, and Brian unloaded the car.  I got everything unpacked and placed where it needed to go, and then Brain headed out to pick up the pizza while I finished getting settled in.  I also snapped a few pictures of the condo for this post even though we’ve stayed here plenty of times before (I think this was our third stay in this exact unit??) so many of you have probably already seen this place before.

Also, while Brian was unloading the car, Olivia’s beach friend, Evelyn, and her family pulled up and Olivia got to be reunited with her for the third year in a row!  I missed the reunion, but Brian said that Evelyn was a bit shy (her mom said it takes her a bit to warm up), but both of them were so excited to have the whole week to spend together on the beach!

Just a little back story for that – in 2023, Evelyn’s family was staying in the same condo as us, and she and Olivia met on the beach and became fast friends, hanging out together all week.  They traded addresses before we left that summer, and they were pen pals all year until they were reunited in 2024 at the beach.  They spent the whole week together on the beach in 2024, and then again, they were pen pals all this past year, sending each other letters and bracelets.  This year was their third year to spend the week together and I think it’s just the sweetest thing!

When B got home with the pizza, we all sat around the table for dinner, and then afterward, we went down to the beach for a nice long walk.  It was actually a bit chilly outside (to me – but I’m always cold), and it was just gorgeous.  The flags were yellow and purple signifying a pretty calm ocean (yellow), but the potential for dangerous wildlife (purple), and there was a beautiful sunset.

 

After our walk (and Olivia’s dancing – she’s always dancing everywhere she goes!), the kids played in the sand for a bit, and Jacob got some creative shots of Olivia with the sand.  Now that he has his own phone, he’s constantly taking all of these cool photos that I don’t even know how to take.  Haha.  That black and white one of Olivia’s hand holding sand was taken by Jacob.

We headed up at dark to watch another episode of Geek Girl while we enjoyed M&M Cookie ice cream sandwiches.  And then once the show was over, we all headed to bed, and I read for a while before it was lights out.  I always love our beach vacations because we always get SO MUCH SLEEP.  Like, 8-9 hours every single night!

Sunday, June 1

Sunday morning, we were up at 8 AM EST, which is only 7 AM at the beach, and Brian headed straight down to the beach to set up our spot for the day.  After that, he made a donut run, and I did my Bible study on the balcony while he was gone.  It was only 70 degrees, and the humidity was pretty low, so it was actually chilly out there in the shade of the balcony.

After breakfast, we all got beach ready, and then we headed down there around 9 AM CST, which is 10 AM our time.  Going forward, I’ll probably just mention times on beach time so I don’t have to keep mentioning both.

The flags were yellow and purple yet again, and the water was just STUNNING on Sunday.  It was seriously perfect.  Jacob and Olivia immediately got to digging in the sand and playing, and I immediately lay down in my beach chair and read my book.  Aaaahhhh. 

Beach week is literally the ONLY week of the year where I have zero responsibilities other than keeping the kids alive and making lunch in the condo.  No meal planning, no cooking, no laundry, no planning for anything else, no meetings, no blog work, no to-do lists, and very minimal cleaning and tidying… it’s always SUCH a treat.

Late in the morning, Evelyn’s family came down, so Olivia went off to play with her.  Last year, the two of them were going a little further out in the water than normal (although, still not as far as a lot of people), but then there were two shark attacks just up the beach from us, and the shark attacks took place in about the same depth of water where Olivia and Evelyn played. 

So, this year, we told Olivia that she wasn’t allowed to go out nearly as far, and we all kept very watchful eyes on the water for anything that could be lurking.  Thankfully, the water was IMMACULATE this year – crystal clear and hardly even a ripple (no waves) the first few days, so that made it very easy to see anything and everything in the water.

Jacob and I went on a late morning beach walk together, and I found a sand dollar for the first time ever!!  We have found a couple in the past that were still alive (and we put them back in the water), but I’ve never found a whole sand dollar myself.  It’s small, but it’s so beautiful! 

When we got back from our walk, we headed back to the condo for lunch.  I brought along the blender this year so I could make my daily green protein smoothies at lunch, and we also ate a lot of eggs. 

We headed back down to the beach about 45 minutes later, and the beach was beaching!  The water was beautiful, the sun was shining, and the best part was that the temp maxed out at just 82 degrees!  It was perfect.  The people next to us had turned on some 90s music, and it was the best afternoon.

We had decided to go into Seaside for the evening per the kids’ request, so we knew we would have to wrap up a little early on the beach.  Seaside has very limited parking and it gets packed at night, plus the restaurants get insanely busy, so we left the beach at 3 PM CST, got showered and ready, and then hit the road a little after 4 PM CST to get there early enough to avoid the crowds.

As long as you get into Seaside before 5 PM CST, you’re usually golden for parking, dinner, and all of that, and since 5 PM CST is 6 PM our time, that always works out perfectly because that’s about the time we eat dinner every night anyway.

Once we got parked, we walked to Great Southern Café (our usual) and we were able to get seated outside on the covered deck as we always do.  They do happy hour half priced cocktails until 5 PM CST, so Brian and I both tried a Huckleberry Bourbon Smash for our first cocktails, and then for our second round, I got a Manhattan, and he had an Old Fashioned.

I usually go for a veggie plate there because they have some AMAZING choices, but I was wanting some protein.  I decided to get the grilled chicken sandwich, and then I just ate the chicken, plus I had a side of their gouda cheese grits because they are a MUST if you go there.  They are delicious.  And yes, in the south, grits can be a dinner food... they’re not just for breakfast!  Haha.

Brian got a veggie plate with gouda cheese grits, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, and their garlic green beans (seriously the best green beans ever), and Olivia was excited to be able to get some fried okra, too!  Shockingly, even though she is a picky eater, fried okra is one of her favorite things!

After dinner, we walked to Duckies because you can’t go to Seaside without going to Duckies!  Each kid picked out a souvenir, and then we walked to a couple of other shops (Moda and The Seaside Style – they had a new soft cropped sweatshirt that I want soooo bad, but I refrained), and then we went to It’s Heavenly so the kids could get some gelato.  Brian and I were way too full to even think about getting ice cream, though.

After the kids were done, we went in a few more shops (Onward Reserve just to check it out since their anchor store is in Athens, another random shop that didn’t have a name, Quincy Avenue Art & Things, and Central Square Records).  I could have stayed in the record store forever… it was so cool!  They had such an eclectic assortment of stuff in there, and the vibe was great.  We’d never been to those last few shops, and Central Square Records was my favorite.

We got back to the condo at 7:45 CST, and we all got in our pajamas.  The kids watched a show, and then we all went to bed since it was an hour later our time.  When we travel only an hour outside of our time zone, we pretty much just stay on “our time” while we’re gone.

 

Monday, June 2

Monday, we were up at 7 AM CST again, and all of the spots by the water directly in front of the condo were already gone, so Brian walked down to the end of the line in front of our condo to set up.  We actually ended up liking that better because people were a little more spread out down there.  The beach we go to doesn’t ever get crowded, but there is always a nice little line of people right in front of the condo.  There’s always enough space to get “front row” by the water, and that’s really important since Olivia lives in the water and needs to be monitored 100% of the time.

We had leftover donuts for breakfast, and then I took my hot tea out on the balcony along with my Bible and my gratitude journal, devotional, etc.  It was 73 degrees, which was perfect, and it was a pleasant little morning.  I do love my morning Bible studies with a view of the ocean!  It doesn’t get any better than that!

We headed down to the beach at 9 AM CST again, and the water was crystal clear and as still as a pool.  There are typically some waves in the Gulf at all times (although, usually small), but the water was just completely placid that day.  It was stunning.  Such a treat.  The flags were yellow and purple again, too.  I settled in to read my book while the kids played, and I ended up finishing my first of three books on the trip.

We went up for lunch at 11:15 CST since that was after 12 our time, and we went back down a little over an hour later.  We were down there for about an hour when it started sprinkling.  We looked at the radar and saw that the rain was going to last for at least 30 minutes, so we left our stuff on the beach and went back up to the condo where I read on the balcony.

Sure enough, the rain completely cleared within about 45 minutes, so we headed back down to the beach.  It ended up being a little cloudy for the rest of the afternoon, but it was nice to have a reprieve from the sun.  The temp maxed out at 83 degrees that day, too, so it was just perfect outside.  Not hot at all!  As a matter of fact, it was cooler at the beach all week than it was back home in Georgia.  It wasn’t hot at all.

We headed up to the condo around 3:45 CST and got showered and ready, and then we drove to Seacrest to eat dinner at LaCo – my favorite Mexican restaurant in the entire world!!!!  I say this every single year, and I’m going to say it again – it is THE BEST Mexican food from start to finish.  They have, by far, the best margs I’ve ever had – they’re so good that Brian and I always share a pitcher (even though we don’t usually finish it, but it comes out cheaper to buy a pitcher than buying two margs each… and their margs are so small that you basically need two.  Haha.). 

They have the best chips, the best salsa, the best queso, and the best main dish of all of the Mexican places I’ve tried, too.  I always get the taco salad with grassfed ground beef, and it comes with iceberg lettuce and spring mix, a cheese blend, pico de gallo, black beans, charred corn (SO good), radish, crema, and arbol ranch (which makes the whole thing!).  It is seriously divine.  It’s one of my favorite meals that I eat all year, and I think about it constantly throughout the year when we’re not there.  Haha.

Brian and I always stuff ourselves silly, and I’m pretty sure I say every year, “I wish I had a bigger stomach,” because I don’t ever want to stop eating.  Haha.

After dinner, we walked to Rosemary Beach since it’s right next door, and that’s always a pleasant and easy walk.  Plus, it’s always nice to be able to walk around a bit while our giant meal digests. 

We started taking our family pictures in Rosemary Beach a few years ago (instead of by the sand dunes or on the beach by the water) and I love them so much.  I stopped bringing the big fancy camera and the tripod years ago and, instead, we always ask a random person to take them with my phone, and it always works out beautifully… and it’s always quick!  We took all of these in less than 10 minutes, and they all turned out so good! 

After pictures were done, we rewarded the kids with dessert from Sugar Shak… although who am I kidding?... we would have gone to Sugar Shak anyway.  Ha!

Sugar Shak has every candy you can possibly think of, including all of the ones that were popular when I was little (that you don’t see at regular stores anymore), and they also have some really unique (and really weird) ones, plus they have ice cream.  The kids both picked out some random candy items, and Brian got s’mores ice cream.  I was too full for ice cream, but I did sneak a couple of bites from Brian.  ;o)

We took all of the desserts back to a bench near the post office where we’d taken our pictures, and the kids ate their candy while B (and I) ate his ice cream.  When we were done, we walked down through the main area of Rosemary Beach to the green space.  The sidewalks were bustling with people eating on patios, and it’s just the quaintest little area.

For some reason they had the big green space roped off, which is odd, because usually there are oodles of kids running around on it, and they do family movie nights, face painting, and that kind of stuff.  But we were able to walk around it and use the restrooms by the beach gate that we discovered last year. 

Once we were done in Rosemary Beach, we walked back to Seacrest, and we went in and out of a bunch of shops to browse.  Olivia needed a new boogie board because she had cracked hers, and I wanted to look for some new (natural) sunscreen because, apparently, I have developed a sunscreen allergy.  Last year, when we went to the beach, I had a weird rash all over my arms and my face when we got home, and then earlier this spring, I got the same rash all over my arms after wearing sunscreen to Jacob’s golf match.

The rash started on my face and arms – and also on my chest this year – early on in the week at the beach, so I wanted to nip it in the bud before it got too bad.  It does not look pretty.  Haha.

We got back to the condo around 8:45 CST, so it was already dark, and since that was 9:45 our time, we ended up getting ready and going to bed a little early because we were all exhausted from all the sun, fun, (and margs).  Haha. 

And that was the first three days of our trip!  I’ll be back soon to recap the rest, and it’ll probably be divided into two more posts since I have way too many pictures!

Happy Monday, y’all!