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Seaside, Florida is located on the Florida panhandle midway between Fort Walton Beach and Panama City. Click on lower numbers to zoom in. Click on higher numbers to zoom out.

Idyll-by-the-Sea in Seaside, Florida	Zoom
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Maps provided by http://www.expedia.com

For current weather and forecasts, please visit weather.com or wunderground.com.

For weather conditions for (almost) any historical day, visit wunderground.com.

For more min/max temperatures, average number of hot/cold days, and average precipitation, visit FLA USA.

To get driving directions from your city to Idyll-by-the-Sea, enter your "City, State" (or just your ZIP code) and press "Get Driving Directions!":

City/State/Zip:

We recommend using one of the following airports to get into the area, and then obtaining ground transportation to Seaside:

• Panama City (Bay County) Airport
• Fort Walton Beach (Okaloosa Regional) Airport
• Pensacola Airport

Or just take a look at the map to the right for other major cities near Seaside.

Seaside is the kind of place that is all about reconnecting -- reconnecting with your family, your sense of time, your ability to relax, your sense of community, your enjoyment of the simple things, and your sense of self. It is about taking the time to watch a sunset, to stare up at a night sky full of shimmering stars, to speak to your neighbors, to take long walks and to talk with those you love.

Many folks I know ask me "Why Seaside?" To answer that, you have to know about the community in which my mother was fortunate enough to be raised -- Washington Grove, Maryland. You have probably never heard of it, but you have heard of dozens of communities like it across the country. Washington Grove started life at the turn of the century as the site of a Chataqua -- that most Victorian of convocations that involved a coming together of people interested in spending their summers escaping the heat of the cities and enriching their lives through a sense of shared community and learning. Yahoo also has information about Washington Grove.

Many of these Chataqua sites started as tent sites and grew to house "cottages" as time wore on. As such, their placement to form the town is key to encouraging the sense of connectedness with neighbors. In Washington Grove, the oldest lots were actually platted as tent sites, and the houses are very close. Within a few years, larger house lots were sited such that all the fronts (and broad front porches) of the houses faced on broad "Avenues," which were for walking only. The rear of the houses faced on "Streets," which served the service functions of the houses. Architecture took its cue from the time, too. Some cottages are cute little Victorian "A" frames, with all kinds of gingerbread trim. Some "cottages" got quite grand as the community transitioned into a summer refuge and then a suburb of growing Washington, D.C. My grandfather's twin sister, Aunt Helen, lived in the same house in Washington Grove throughout most of my life -- her house had been built by the architect of Union Station and has all sorts of leftover pieces and parts from that grand public building down in Washington, D.C. There was the General Store where my mother would stop everyday on her way home from school to get an ice cream. Summer concerts and classes were held in central meeting halls and on the lawn around a concert gazebo.

Growing up going to Aunt Helen's house for all the holidays always gave me such a feeling of community. We would always visit all the friends and neighbors on the "Avenues" that my mother had known growing up in the Grove. At New Year's, everyone would go out on their porches and bang pots and pans at midnight to ring in the New Year -- you'd hear a cacophony of joyous racket throughout the community as neighbors greeted one another. When a neighbor needed help, everyone pitched in. My mother's friendships forged during all her years growing up in the Grove remain some of her strongest. And everyone spoke to one another, looked after one another, and knew each other's children and family. You felt that overwhelmingly warm, cocooning feeling like you were "home."

That feeling, that feeling of "home" was exactly what I felt when I first came to Seaside. The sense of how the place is designed is so very intrinsic to promoting this feeling -- just like it is in Washington Grove. Broad porches, a mandate in the Seaside architectural code promotes neighborliness, as does the proximity of the houses, and the "walk-ways-only" that link the backs of all the cottages. The encouragement to walk around town, and the center of town with it's "General Store" (Modica Market), its picture-perfect little post office, its pedestrian-friendly shopping and eating areas, and it's central amphitheater where concerts and community events are held, all join forces to create that wonderful sense of belonging. Seaside feels like home.

Here is a Seaside, Florida town map. Idyll-by-the-Sea is located about 1000 feet (one fifth mile) from the central amphitheater.

Seaside, Florida Town Map

Around Town: Modica Market · Amphitheater · Ruskin Place · Church

Beach Pavilions: Natchez Pavilion · Odessa Pavilion · Pensacola Pavilion · West Ruskin Pavilion · East Ruskin Pavilion · Savannah Pavilion · Tupelo Pavilion

Fun Places
· Adult Pool · West Side Pool · Croquet Court · Playground

• The Beaches of South Walton - Information on the beaches area like Recreation (Golf, Tennis, Nature, Water Sports), Dining (Casual, Fine, Seafood), Shopping, Events, etc.
• Yahoo Information on Seaside, FL - Local Web Directory with information on Business & Shopping, Health, Community, Real Estate, Entertainment & Arts, and Travel & Transportation.