Contest Winner Lives the Life at Alys Beach

Ashley Spencer and friends are living it up this week in a premier Alys Beach home. She's the winner of the South Walton TDC's "Find Your Perfect Beach" Contest. She chose Alys Beach as the place to spend the week. The prize included a courtyard shrimp boil by Grayton Beach Catering with music from Geoff McBride and Joey Shaling.

A panel of judges selected her photo and creative poem entry from among 15 finalists (after receiving hundreds of entries), giving her and her friends an amazing week-long vacation in the South Walton beach neighborhood of her choice.

The vacation package – valued at more than $15,000 – includes transportation for four, a six-night, seven-day stay in one of 15 distinct beach neighborhoods, and a number of activities unique to the area. In a poem Spencer wrote to accompany her family beach photo, she showcases her love for the area in her own words:

A Poem for South Walton – by Ashley Spencer
Driving up to Grayton in the middle of the night
We'd rather end up here than on any foreign flight
Waking up early, heading to Hibiscus for brunch
Then hitting the white sands with the usual family bunch
Live music at The Red Bar, then driving down 30A
Stopping by the Seaside REP to catch a groundbreaking play
Loved ones coming from far and wide
Watching countless sunsets by the ever-ebbing tide
From Rosemary to Sandestin, there's no shortage of coastal fun to be had
If you try to look any further, you must be quite mad
For a more perfect beach you'll never find
And just like us, South Walton will always be on your mind!

Spencer isn't the only winner of a trip back to South Walton.  Nancy Castleberry of Pell City, Ala. has won a four-day trip for two just for voting to help select the contest finalists. 
During the two-month-long "Find Your Perfect Beach" Contest, South Walton fans and visitors had the chance to win prizes valued at more than $90,000 ... from the grand prize trip and American Express gift cards to Sony Bloggies and portrait sessions on the beach.