The Emerald Coast: The name alone conjures up images of green water, sugar-white sand and languid afternoons spent reclining under a royal-blue beach umbrella, reading a book while the kids swim in warm Gulf waters or build a sand castle. You contemplate snorkeling but decide to snooze in the sun instead.
Welcome to Destin.
For the Friedman family, Chesterfield residents, the vacation to Destin begins when they back out of the driveway. “We love the drive down there; it’s part of the trip,” says Nancy Friedman, who first visited Destin 10 years ago.
“My cousin told me about it. She’d traveled all over the world, been a lot of places, andshe still liked going to Destin,” says Friedman. “We’ve never had a bad time. There’s always a new place to eat. We shop, sightsee, drive to Seaside [where Jim Carrey’s The Truman Show was filmed], go to the movies. We’ve never grown tired of the place.”
The beauty of Destin, its St. Louis fans say, is that you can pack the van up with luggage, toys and family and be down there in 12 hours—with a stop in Tunica or Memphis for barbecue.
This past October, the Friedmans—along with the newest addition to their family, grandson Zachary—rented a four-bedroom, four-bathroom penthouse on the beach so they could attend the annual Seafood Festival. The cost was significantly less in the off-season, but the weather was still perfect, the water still warm—and they didn’t have to wait an hour for a table at the best restaurants.
Destin has repeatedly been voted one of the top five Favorite Family Vacation Destinations in the South and one of the top three best beach towns by Southern Living readers. Most resorts have activities for children, and the city itself offers a variety of things to do, from water parks to Destin Commons, a giant outdoor shopping mall with a nautically themed outdoor playground and a 49-head fountain for kids to run through in the summer. Families can find restaurants that are laid-back and unusual; regulars cite Dewey Destin for seafood, McGuire’s Irish Pub for tender smoked prime rib, specialty microbrews and Irish music.
Destin’s swarming with St. Louisans. When the Cardinals played the 2006 World Series, the Friedman family ran into Soulard residents at a restaurant, everybody dressed in red and gobbling dinner so that they could get back in time for the game.
The year was 1996. Donna and Bill Bull took a family vacation to Marco Island between Christmas and New Year’s. Although they’d vacationed in Sanibel, this was the first time they’d come so far south. The weather was perfect: The temperature averaged in the low eighties, and a slight breeze ruffled the palms. Bill said to Donna, “This would be a great place to own a second home.” A few days later, the two of them drove 30 minutes north to Naples with the name of a real-estate agent in hand. Within hours they’d purchased a condo in Naples Heritage, a golf community in southeast Naples.
“My nephew and I had a tee time in an hour back on Marco, so I told the agent and my wife, ‘Let’s get this thing done so I’m not late for my golf game,’” Bill recalls. “It happened that quickly. We’d never thought about it before, and we’ve never regretted it. Naples has everything we’d been looking for.”
Donna wanted to live near the beach. Bill wanted to live on a golf course. In Naples, they found the best of both worlds. They loved it so much that almost three years ago they sold their Ballwin home of 16 years and moved into a home they had built on the fifth fairway.
Though it’s known as the golf capital of the world (boasting the second largest number of golf holes per capita in the United States), Naples is also a premier cultural destination and a winter haven for many St. Louis couples and families. It’s a city that has it all: five-star dining and international cuisine; high-end boutiques; more than 130 art galleries; art and history museums, including the Naples Museum of Art; music, including the nationally recognized Naples Philharmonic Orchestra; and award-winning theaters.
“We like the European atmosphere,” says Bill, “especially the outdoor cafés and restaurants on Third and Fifth streets. Campiello, on Third Street, is our favorite. It has a Continental flair to it, and the food and service are excellent.”
Ask Wildwood resident John Horstmeyer his favorite restaurant, and he’ll laugh and answer, “We have quite a few. It’s the joke down here that the snowbirds’ favorite pastimes are golf, eating out, watching the Weather Channel and laughing at the people freezing up north.”
Much like the Bulls, Linda and John Horstmeyer were drawn to southwest Florida for the weather but were torn between living in a golf or beach community. “How we ended up here was more of an accident than a grand plan,” says John. “We had a decision to make: beach or golf course. We opted for golf.”
Now retired, the Horstmeyers spend October and April at their home in Naples and return to their children and grandchildren in St. Louis for the rest of the year.
Naples is a social place. “I haven’t found anyone here, especially in Naples Heritage, that I haven’t enjoyed talking with,” says Bill. At least once a month, he and Donna attend a stage play, art opening or symphony performance in Naples. “We meet a lot of people from St. Louis,” he adds. “I’ve played golf with other St. Louisans or met them at a social event. There are also quite a few we meet at our church who come down for the winter months.”
For solitude, the Bulls drive 20 minutes to Naples Beach, which the Travel Channel named America’s best all-around beach for 2005. They visit its white sands at least once or twice a week to relax, read and walk. “There’s something about the sound of the ocean waves—it’s very peaceful,” says Bill.
Cheryl and Gary Koeneker, who lived for years in Eureka, head toward Naples’ social life. They recently purchased a home in Bonita Bay, 15 miles north of Naples, and although their new place is located in a 1,200-acre development with three golfcourses, biking and hiking trails, a marina and private access to Bonita Beach, the Koenekers often drive to downtown Naples for shopping, dining, nightlife and cultural events.
Lanya and Bob Klages of Eureka first visited Marco Island in spring 2002 at the suggestion of a fellow St. Louisan who owned a condo there. “We decided to take a long weekend and check it out,” says Lanya. “When we crested the top of the Judge Jolley Bridge, the view of Marco Island was spectacular—beautiful blue-green waters, the Marco Island Yacht Club sitting majestically at the entrance of the island, flowers in the median, palm tree–lined streets and very little commercialization.” Before they’d even crossed the bridge, she exclaimed to her husband, “This is it! We’ve found it.”
Two months later, they purchased a waterfront lot and began construction on a single-family home. “Marco is a quaint little island, not fully developed, with lots of locally owned businesses,” says Lanya. “You get to know the people who live and work there. Someday this will be our home, so picking a spot where people lived year-round was important to us.”
The Klages own the Smith Management Group, a company that specializes in condominium- and homeowner-association management with about 13,000 units in the metro St. Louis area. They visit Marco Island at least four times a year, staying for seven to 10 days at a time.
“My husband likes to fish, and Marco Island is a fisherman’s paradise,” says Lanya. “I like to walk the beach and get my latte at the Marriott Hotel’s coffee shop. It’s kind of a ritual.”
Uninhabited islands, bays, pristine beaches and a naturalist’s catalog of wildlife surround Marco Island, which is the largest of Florida’s Ten Thousand Islands. The 4- by 6-mile island may be off the beaten path, but it sustains more than 90 restaurants. The Klages’ favorite, Sale and Pepe, is located in the Marco Beach Ocean Resort and boasts outdoor patio dining that overlooks the Gulf of Mexico.
“If you time your reservation right, you can see the green flash as the sun sets over the Gulf,” Lanya says. “They have an Italian chef who creates authentic upscale Italian dishes. We think it’s the best food on the island.”
In April, the Klages host an annual trip for two other couples from St. Louis. “The guys will fish, and the girls will go to the beach and visit the cute island boutiques,” Lanya says. “Then we will venture up to Naples for nights out on the town.”
Crossing the causeway to Sanibel Island is “like going back in time,” says Louann Elledge of South County, whose family has been visiting the island for the past 20 years. “There’s none of the hustle and bustle you find in other resort towns, and there are no high-rise condos to mar the view. The only fast-food place is a Dairy Queen that I think is as old as the island itself.”
Louann and her husband, Jerry, first heard about Sanibel’s charm from otherSt. Louisans. “We were hooked on our first visit,” says Louann. “If you’re looking for rest and relaxation, Sanibel is the place. It’s quiet and laid-back. My husband loves to fish from the beach while I look for shells.”
Sanibel’s beaches are perfect to catch an unusual variety of seashells carried in by the clear blue Gulf waters. Every March, the island exhibits shell art and collections at its annual Sanibel Shell Fair and Show, strengthening its claim as the nation’sshelling destination.
Louann’s favorite resort is the Shell Island Beach Club, on the eastern end of Sanibel. “There’s a great view of the sunrise at that end of the island,” she says. “It’s a little quieter, and my husband likes being able to walk to the fishing pier.”
The Island Cow, located on Sanibel, offers patio seating, a large menu and live folk music. Restaurant options also extend to neighboring island Captiva, just a bridge away. There, the Green Flash faces the bay and offers a sophisticated upscale menu; the Mucky Duck’s just plain fun.
Sanibel’s not big on nightlife—the ritual is going for an ice-cream cone after dinner—but by day you can go kayaking, biking, birdwatching, golfing or deep-sea fishing; stroll the beach at sunset and watch dolphins dance along the waves; rent a boat and cruise the canals; drive or hike the J.N. “Ding” Darling Wildlife Refuge.
“Many of the resorts give you a list of residents staying there and where they are from, which helps in starting up conversations,” Louann says. “Our last trip, we stayed at a condo called the Sunrider. One of the first people I met in the pool was from St. Charles.”
