One for the Guys!
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BOURBON TRAIL GIRLS GetawaysGetaways ATLANTA PAGE 61 Plus one for ASHEVILLE WATERCOLOR the guys! SAVANNAH THE KIDS HAD THEIR SPRING BREAKS IN MARCH, and your husband’s watching golf anyway. So now is the perfect time to grab your girlfriends and savor some much-deserved R&R. Whether you feel like shopping, sightseeing, or just chilling on a beach, we’ve got the perfect itinerary for you. Your man doesn’t golf, you say? Send him and his buddies to visit the bourbon distilleries in Kentucky. Of course, a bluegrass jaunt isn’t a bad option for the ladies either. GIRLS GETAWAYS pools and winding boardwalks. If that’s the the peekaboo shower in your guest room, its Books stocks shelves of beach reads. case when you arrive, sink into the quiet eye level tiled with clear glass for ogling the Duly tempted at breakfast, we headed arms of the Inn’s “adults-only” pool. There waves while shampooing. back to Fish Out of Water for dinner. Our you’ll find no crying babies or cannonballs The spacious rooms also come with a server, a knowledgeable Luke Wilson dop- to distract from tanning or heart-to-hearts plush queen bed and queen sleeper sofa, pelganger, steered us to a silky tuna tartare, in the hot tub. We settled onto its patio our fitting four comfortably. But if your crew playfully punched up with soy vinaigrette, first night there, as waiters from the Gather- is bigger or prefers more privacy, sorbet- and a locally caught grouper, tender and ing Spot sushi bar fetched us the requisite colored vacation cottages wind out from paired well with a creamy corn pudding. rum drinks and tiger rolls made with fresh- the Inn and can be had for about $100 more. Throughout our stay, there was not much caught Florida hopper shrimp. Strains of Banish the thought of kitschy, paint-peeled temptation to venture from the resort. We guitar from an acoustic set inside floated up hovels: These are the 1 percent’s House were so relaxed, a set at the Tennis Center to the balconies. Despite its four diamonds, Beautiful–worthy vacation homes, some seemed too much work. But before we left decked out with private pools and two- town, we drove toward Destin to reach story porches. the Silver Sands Factory Stores. I had so far The cabana boy fetched You might be farther from the beach resisted adorable sundresses and sandals in a cottage, but most come with bikes, as at the boutiques within the resort, choosing margaritas so we didn’t does the Inn. Nearby, the Boathouse lends instead to splurge on a tension-relieving have to lift one submerged kayaks and canoes for exploring the reedy Balinese massage at the small but attentive toe from the water’s shores of the sprawling coastal dune lake, InnSpa. At Silver Sands, I didn’t blink at sugary depths. a geographic anomaly only seen in the U.S. the likes of Coach Factory and Saks Fifth here in Walton County and in Oregon. Avenue’s Off Fifth, but Le Creuset was my Cyclists swished past us down 30A, but we waterloo. Who returns from a blissed-out this place feels more like a gracious man- stayed close to home, venturing westward beach trip with an insanely discounted sion on Martha’s Vineyard than the tony only to the mountainous dunes of neighbor- French oven? I do. Cloister at Sea Island, I thought—and thank ing Grayton Beach State Park, and eastward We set off on the six-hour road trip home, goodness. Formality has no place at the fire to Seaside, where food trucks line the per- and as we passed the Dothan, Alabama, pits that warmed our feet. fectly manicured town square and Sundog National Peanut Festival and the antebel- In the morning, we devoured toothsome lum mansions of Eufaula, the tether to bourbon-vanilla French toast at the resort’s home tightened once more. Chili cooked in Fish Out of Water restaurant next door. Our my new pot would soon replace dinners at deckside perch only furthered my hunch four-diamond Fish Out of Water. If I wanted SANTA ROSA BEACH, FL that the Inn’s designers, including famed a drink while on my front-porch swing, I architect David Rockwell, had conspired would have to get up and get it myself. n to draw attention as often as possible to Misty WaterColor the pristine oceanside view—a theory con- firmed again as the BeachClub Grille’s WaterColor Inn & Resort cabana boy set up our lounge chairs and Memories (from $370 fetched margaritas so we didn’t have to lift • in April), A DREAMY BEACH REFUGE ON FLORIDA’S PANHANDLE by Amanda Heckert 34 Goldenrod Circle, one submerged toe from the sugary depths 866-426-2656, of Santa Rosa Beach. And you’re a more watercolor - resort.com mature woman than I if you don’t giggle at The Gathering Spot We arrived at WaterColor Inn There was nothing so tall here. The WaterColor and Fish Out of Water in late afternoon, racing to Inn, rising just four stories, is the only resort-style both 850-534-5050 drop off our bags before night hotel along 30A, a ribbon of highway stringing Grayton Beach State overtook adjoining Santa Rosa together more than a dozen picturesque vacation Park 357 Main Park Road, 850-267-8300, Beach. We ambled by the ebb- communities. In fact, neighboring Seaside is so graytonbeach.com ing saltwater, watching the perfect that its picket fence–lined streets famously sunset dance on the peacock- served as the set for utopian movie The Truman Sundog Books W 89 Central Square, green Gulf. It was November, and Show in 1998. WaterColor Resort, with its metal- Seaside, 850-231-5481, the pink-tinged beach was practically deserted. A roofed clapboard cottages, is a more contemporary sundogbooks.com lone sandpiper ran back and forth over the sand, take on Southern vernacular architecture. Built Silver Sands Factory as mesmerizing as a hypnotist’s watch. The traffic, a decade ago, it spreads over nearly 500 acres Stores 10562 Emerald Left: BeachClub pool. Above: With metal Coast Parkway, Destin, roofs and wide porches, cottages at Water- the jobs, the schedules left behind, all grew hazy, between the Gulf and a coastal lake. 850-654-9771, silver- Color are contemporary takes on Southern like the condo towers we spied shimmering some In spring and summer, teens on school break sandsoutlet.com vernacular architecture. PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF WATERCOLOR INN & RESORT twenty miles east along the shore, in Destin. and families on vacation swarm the resort’s six InnSpa 850-534-5010 ILLUSTRATIONS BY NEIL WEBB 63 GIRLS GETAWAYS ASHEVILLE, NC the multilevel New Morning Gallery, a sort enough for grilled pimento cheese sand- of department store for fine crafts—where wiches at kitschy Early Girl Eatery, though we unanimously adopted a crazy-haired the long list of vegetables and shelves of tin angel named Ramona as our weekend layer cakes were tempting distractions. This totem (metaphorically speaking, given her trip, we skipped the Cinderella Castle–like $700-plus price tag). Biltmore House—though we might have Corner Kitchen 3 Boston Way, As I discovered over the next two days, relented had it been time for this spring’s 828-274-2439, thecorner- kitchen.com Asheville is the perfect destination for Festival of Flowers (April 7 to May 20). Atlantans who love to shop. We don’t need Instead we explored Grovewood Gallery, an Biltmore Village biltmorevillage.com another Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, or artisan community behind our hotel. Saks Fifth Avenue. What we’re lacking back Never ones to miss a meal, that night our Fig 18 Brook Street, 828-277-0889, figbistro.com home are quirky, pedestrian-friendly neigh- party headed over to gritty West Asheville borhoods full of handmade objects, vintage to check out the Admiral for dinner. We’d New Morning Gallery 7 Boston Way, 828-274-2831, finds, and affordable art. Asheville practi- summer. It’s as close as the Blue Ridge gets read the buzz in Garden & Gun; how scruffy newmorninggallerync.com cally invented the genre. Its famously bohe- to the monumental National Park lodges. could it be? Yikes. With the attached barbed The Chocolate Fetish mian culture has matured into a sophisti- Unfortunately, on this night the lobby wire–enclosed auto lot and occasional drift- 36 Haywood Street, 828-258- cated milieu, with a gallery or sidewalk cafe was so chaotic with conventioneers and a er, I questioned the wisdom of bringing my 2353, chocolatefetish.com seemingly on every corner. Just comparing nondescript bar singer that my mother and mother here. But we were driving a rental French Broad Chocolate Lounge chocolatiers—the Chocolate Fetish versus I beat a quick retreat to our room. We had car and found a parking spot beneath a 10 South Lexington Avenue, 828- 252-4181, frenchbroad- French Broad Chocolate Lounge—kept us chosen not to stay in the relatively spar- streetlight—so we soldiered on. chocolates.com happily entertained. tan historic section, but our comfortably Inside the tiny cinder block building, Table 48 College Street, The culinary scene has likewise evolved decorated room had one great retro feature: the seediness was more endearing. Vintage 828-254-8980, table- from hippy to hipster. Our first night we screened windows that cranked open, help- nautical plaques, a console TV–turned– asheville.com visited the James Beard–nominated Table ing us savor the panoramic mountain view. planter, and a neon Budweiser sign with The Grove Park Inn (from $199 downtown.