The week before we arrived for our fifth year at Rosemary Beach, it had rained there a week straight. The Saturday we flew in, it magically stopped! Vacation weather is hit or miss...ours was luckily a hit!
I spend my spare time fantasizing about travel. There are many European cities that I'm dying to explore...but we keep returning to the family vacation that we can count on for family fun. We love LOVE Rosemary Beach!
After a month of wearing a bulging pink hard cast, my daughter finally had her arm cast cut (sawed) off just in time. We happily skipped along eager to see the emerald coast. Our first day at the beach was her seventh birthday. She kept saying that her arm felt naked and how she liked the way the ocean breeze felt on her newly repaired arm!
Everywhere you shop and eat in Rosemary you will find a book of activities for the week. Our favorite thing about Rosemary Beach is the simplicity of doing the same thing every day...wake up and eat breakfast in our house, find a little activity (storytime, children's theatre, arts and crafts) for the children, spend several hours at the beach, and come back home (stopping at the Sugar Shak first) and then get ready for dinner. It's a perfect routine for our family.
My most favorite store in the world is Pish Posh Patchouli’s where you can design your signature scent at the custom scent bar; then select soaps, lotions, perfumes galore. My little mermaid created her first perfume mixing coco mango and coconut. We think it smells like Rosemary Beach.
The day before we left, I took the kids for one last sweet treat at the Sugar Shak and the cashier was telling me that the weather for the next week would be rain, rain and more rain. I told her, "That's OK because we're going back to Texas tomorrow where it hardly ever rains." The cashier looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, "So that's why Texas women have such BIG hair!" Funny!!
There are many more "must see" places to hit but for our summer family vacation, Rosemary Beach is as good as it gets.
Posts you may have missed:
Rosemary Beach: A Watercolor of a vacation
Return to Rosemary
TASTE Rosemary with these recipes from our favorite restaurants:
Yield: 1 serving.
3 ounces Pinnacle or
Pearl Pomegranate Vodka
1/2 ounce white
cranberry juice
1/2 ounce peach
schnapps
4 ice cubes
1 Tea Forte lavender
citrus infuser
Put vodka, juice and
schnapps in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass.
Serve with the infuser on the side. The imbiber dips the infuser into the
martini until it is flavored as desired.
TOMATO OLIVE VINAIGRETTE from
Onano
Yield: About 8 servings.
4 large ripe tomatoes, (peeled, seeded,
and diced)
2 shallots, minced
1 cup kalamata olives, pitted and
minced
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients and set aside
for 1 hour to let flavors blend.
Serve as desired.
(To serve Spinach & Gnocchi Grouper
with Tomato Olive Vinaigrette as does Onano Neighborhood Cafe, sauté baby
spinach leaves and potato gnocchi in browned butter and set on a plate. Add a
piece of grilled grouper. Top fish with a large dollop of room-temperature
Tomato Olive Vinaigrette.)
SERRANO WRAPPED FIGS from La Crema
Yields: 36 pieces.
36 figs
1/2 cup red wine
Sweetened Goat Cheese (recipe follows)
36 thin (3- by 1/2-inch) slices Serrano
ham
Smoked paprika
Tupelo honey
Put figs in a bowl and add wine; set
aside 30 minutes.
Cut off both ends of figs and create
hole in the center with a large pastry tip. Fill hole with Sweetened Goat
Cheese.
Wrap each fig with a slice of Serrano
ham. Insert a toothpick in top. Serve on a plate sprinkled with paprika and
drizzled with honey.
SWEETENED GOAT CHEESE
Yield: About 1-1/2 pounds.
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
8 ounces goat cheese, room temperature
Tupelo honey to taste
Beat cheeses together until well
blended. Add honey as desired. Refrigerate until used.
