Well hey there, hi, and hello. We’ve been back home in New Orleans for a few days now, but for the purposes of writing this blog I am sipping on some rosé and listening to Jimmy Buffet to get back in the beach headspace. You can call that dedication to my craft, but really it’s a desperate plea to be taken back to Florida as soon as earthly possible. Send help in the form of the keys to your beach house please!

We seriously could not have asked for a better first post-quarantine vacation. The weather was gorgeous, the timing impeccable, and the company? Kill me now and I’ll die happy. Our bffs PJ and Thomas organized the trip for PJ’s birthday, and after going over two years without seeing them (even though we talk to them almost every day) we cried when they asked us to come along. And then again when we saw them. And then again when we left. It was a blessing from the ocean goddess herself to get to spend so much time with them and meet their kiddos for the very first time. Each of their moms and younger sisters were on the trip, too, which made it feel like we were just another part of the family.

I’d never been to 30A, and if you’re like “Wtf does 30A mean?”—it took some explaining for me to understand, too. That’s the name of a stretch of highway between Destin and Panama City Beach with not many (if any) high rise condos or large commercial areas, but just gorgeous small beach town after gorgeous small beach town. Some of the more popular and established towns in the area are Seaside and Rosemary Beach, so maybe you’ve heard of those. We stayed about in the middle of those two spots and made plenty night trips to walk around the towns and grab fancy dinners and ogle at the multimillion-dollar real estate. Some of the homes were legitimately stop-you-in-your-tracks stunning. Maybe next lifetime that could be us living there!

This isn’t a guide to 30A, because I’m not about to do all that, but my recommendations for anyone staying near Rosemary Beach: grab dinner at La Crema one night, Edward’s the next, and make sure to stop by the Sugar Shak for vintage candies and ice cream after! If you’re in the market for a new plant friend or just want to twirl around a gorgeous nursery, make sure you stop at Clay 30A, too!

Most of our time was spent on the sand and in the water, of course—and the guys’ three foster kids had never been to the beach, so that called for lots of crashing into waves with them on our shoulders and digging for critters like clams, sand dollars, and crabs. The kids were the most charming, confident, and well-spoken young people I’ve ever met, and while I personally have had baby fever for several years now, this trip totally solidified it. I even heard Beau say for the very first time the exact words, “I want to be a dad,” and I was not holding a gun at his face this time.

At dinner one night PJ and Thomas told us they thought we were good with the kids and that we’d make great dads (It’s easy to be engaging and attentive to kids who are already so well rounded, polite, and funny as hell), but I realize now that I’m writing this we never said back to them that they already are great dads, and that if we can raise kids even half as well as they have I’ll be pretty proud of us. I don’t even think they read our blog so I guess I should tell them that over text, but I want the world to know it (at least, the small portion of the world that comes to this little corner of the internet).

Between the pandemic and home renovation, our brains have been stuck in a cycle of same shit different day for a while now. Replace this door, tear up that flooring, paint this wall, walk the contractor through all the issues, shoot photos of all that, rinse and repeat. Getting to spend a week somewhere new with some of our favorite people felt like breaking free from a year-plus of monotony, and it was so needed. Since we’ve been home we’ve both had a bit of pep in our step, and have been feeling much more like ourselves than we were even just a few months ago. If you’ve been stuck in a cycle since the pandemic started, here’s me urging you to take a small trip to liven things up, even if it’s just a town or two away!

While we’ve had to dive back into stuff around the house, we’re more excited than ever to show you some of the things we’ve been working on :)

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

xoxo

Matt

Beach Musings & Photo Dump