Genuine Seaside

Evening, Campers! Silver Cliche' here writing for the second day in a row from Grayton Beach State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.

We had our first day off the road on this trip and spent it close to “home” (a term we use to refer to wherever the Airstream happens to be parked at the time). Just three or four miles down County Road 30A from our campsite is a place we have known of for almost 20 years – Seaside – but had never visited. It is one of the preeminent examples of a style of community planning and development known as “the new urbanism”. It was designed in the early 1980's by the architecture and urban planning firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk from Miami. We know of Seaside because we lived for 10 years in another community they designed around 1990 – the Kentlands in Gaithersburg, MD. Both of these communities draw inspiration from small towns from the early history of our country. They mix residential, commercial and retail space in close proximity – specifically within walking distance of one another. They provide small lot sizes for individual residences but ample park and community space to avoid a congested, claustrophobic feeling. Both use small, narrow streets and alleys to slow traffic and provide hidden access to the less appealing aspects of life such as parking and trash removal.

If you've shared our journeys before you may recall that a common theme for my daily musings is “authenticity”. I recall spending days railing against that pinnacle of disingenuity -- Jackson, WY. On the other end of the spectrum were places like Cabool, MO which is a small town that appears to aspire to absolutely nothing and achieves far beyond its aspiration. I was prepared to place Seaside close to Jackson on the “Silver Cliche' authenticity scale”. I was wrong. It is clearly a new community. It clearly draws inspiration from seaside towns of 100 years ago. But it doesn't pretend to be them. While Jackon has a Disney-esque facade that attempts to convince the visitor that it is authentic, then surprises them with tee-shirt shops and new age stores inside, Seaside is exactly what it appears to be. It is modern, the portions we visited were unabashedly commercial but didn't pretend to be anyhing else. It works. Both Mrs. C' and I shared that feeling. In fact she summed it up best. Seaside, she observed, fits the place and the role it set out to fill. It is what it appears to be.

Here are some sights from Seaside. A series of repurposed Airstream trailers create an outdoor food court. We enjoyed sandwiches from the one on the right of the upper frame. The white building behind it with the large American flag is the town post office.

Here a commercial pedestrian street with an iron gate at the end and a park beyond:

 

 

Here a group of condos on the Gulf of Mexico at sunset.

We had dinner at a restaurant in Seaside (including probably the best fried green tomatoes I've ever had) and called it a day. Here at the park where we are camped is a beach open to park visitors and campers. We stopped to take the last pic of the day before calling it quits to go home. Here it is:

So, tomorrow we leave Florida and have one of the few long driving days of the trip (a choice driven by the camping options available downstream). 4:20 of driving to New Orleans. We'll try to hit the road by about 9:00 to go from this place that is pretty much what it appears to a place that is legendary for being precisely what it appears to be. So, until tomorrow from the French Quarter…

SC'