Dear Beckster:
Yes, we have two cottages at the Cottages at Camp Creek -- Ahhh The Good Life and Key Lime Cottage. I called the guests who were at the cottage right after Arlene, and they said all as fine. I also called our Association president and asked about the path to the beach and the boardwalk (which was just rebuilt after Ivan in November) and he said it held up beautifully. As for the beach, I believe you'll be as happy there as anywhere else. It's a small beach in terms of width, but it's also less crowded than most beaches because we don't have really big communities in the area so the beach and beach access serve fewer people. I saw a photo I believe on this discussion board (it would be the same beach as Blue Tide at Seacrest) and it looks like the sand near the ocean is white and fine, then there is some of the black peat near the dunes, and perhaps some of the dunes (that were just rebuilt) lost a few feet at their foundation. If you took photos near the water and several feet back, you would have the same white sand/emerald green water look and feel that you expect of the beaches along here. There typically is a small natural stream just about 2 inches deep that goes from the dune to the left of the beach access to the ocean which is great if you have children. They like to build sandcastles along the stream. You may see one house about 3 hourses from the right of the beach access that has the edge of the porch still hanging a few feet over the edge of the dune since Ivan -- gives you a sense of how high up the water went during Ivan last year (it was still like that when I was there early in May).
We have an 11 year old and 13 year old and their favorite things to do are to take a bucket and catch frogs near the pool in the morning (then name them and let them go), swim in the pool, go to the beach and build sandcastles, do puzzles and play games, go to Angelinas for lunch on Mondays - Friday when they have specials, go to The Red Bar, go to the dollar store in Panama City Beach (there are plenty of them) to shop for gifts (we bring them there because they can shop for about an hour and get it out of their system and not cost us much at all -- I bring a book to read when the're there), go to Thomas's donuts (inexpensive and old-fashioned not-good-for-you-at-all kind) in Panama City Beach (but remember the roads will be crowded and it may not be worth the trip). We also like to take a trip to Grayton Beach State Park (about 10 miles from the cottages) because it costs about $5.00/car for the day and there are bathrooms, picnic tables, grills, showers, changing rooms, etc. and you can see what the coastline looked like before people built beach front buildings. Deer Lake state park is awesome and worth a trip (about 1-2 miles from the cottages), but it's hard to stay there all day because of the lack of convenient bathrooms. Seaside (about 6 miles from the cottages) has the free concerts, movies, and plays in the evenings. Rosemary Beach now has free concerts, sandcastle building lessons, and movies as well, so check their website to see what's going on. The Cottages at Camp Creek are a short walk across the street to the beach, 200 yards or about a 4 minute walk. Very easy and quick to get back and forth.
We love our small community (in large part, because it's small). It's fresh and new, is nestled in the natural environment of the coast (oak shrubs and other native plants/trees), mostly one story cottages (nice because you get a great view of the stars at night from the hot tub and pool) with about 6 large cottages in the back and about 6 large ones in the front, has a large pool for the number of people who use it, and you're likely to meet other nice people vacationing with and without children when you're there, as well as some friendly people who don't rent their cottages. Each cottage has a large porch that tends to be nicely furnished for relaxing. Most have grills as well. There is a small private yard in front of each porch that gives you a sense of privacy and space, as well as two car private parking for each cottage right next to the back door of the cottage. Again, we love it -- very lovely and convenient (of course, we're quite biased as I'm sure everyone is when they talk about their own places/communities).
Just let me know if you have any more questions. We'll be there in mid July and again in August. Can't wait to get there. Wish we could get there more often.
Best,
Paula
