Playing Tourist

Alicia has been telling Randy and me about “30A” for the last couple of months. Of course, we had no idea what she was talking about. She explained that 30A is a stretch of road on which many scenic beach towns lie and is known for its artsy, unique atmosphere – and we really needed to go.

So, today was that day! The weather forecast was for a beautiful, sunny day so it was the perfect day to play tourist. Alicia was our chauffeur and tour guide.

The first picturesque town we came to was Rosemary Beach. It has a lovely town square in which you can find cafes, boutiques, etc. The architecture you find here is not the typical, “beachy” look; it's reminiscent of a European design. From the town square, we had an easy walk to the beach where lots of folks had decided to enjoy the sunshine and emerald waters that this area is known for.

We also took a walk through one of the neighborhoods and really enjoyed seeing the unique homes found there.

From Rosemary Beach we continued our drive through scenic Alys Beach until we got to Seaside.

Seaside is a very artsy beach community. Upon arriving at its town square, the first thing I noticed were several vintage Airstream trailers lined up along the road. They were cafes!

Alicia told us the first one to set up there several years ago did so because the lease on his storefront space wasn't renewed. So, he set up the Airstream on the side of the road and began selling frozen treats!

The community was not happy about it, but soon the other trailers followed. It's very cool!

Another neat fact about Seaside is that portions of the movie, “The Truman Show,” was filmed there. At that time, Alicia had a kite shop on the beach and Jim Carrey bought kites from her!

One of the neighborhoods in Seaside is Ruskin Place. In addition to the fabulous homes, there are shops in which you can find all kinds of craftsmen as well as a very serene park.

Some of the houses have more of the “beachy” look I expect to find in a beach community, but many also reminded us of Charleston. And there was a fairly new nondenominational chapel as well.

 We really enjoyed walking the neighborhood, admiring the homes, most of which, from the signs hanging on the outside, were owned by out-of-state folks. We saw Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Georgia, Oklahoma, and even our home state of Maryland!

We had a lovely time exploring this fun area of the panhandle. Alicia was fantastic tour guide. I want to go back next year and check out some of the area we didn't get to explore, like Alys Beach. If you want to know more about these areas, just click on the links in the post.

Tomorrow is our last day of work. Isn't that amazing? Four months gone, just like that! We'll spend the weekend preparing for departure on Tuesday.

Until the next time . . .