A Memorial Day weekend spent lounging on a Gulf Coast beach is as close to perfection as it gets. With sand between your toes, a salty breeze, the sun warming your skin, waves gently lapping against the shore, families gathering, children playing and adults relaxing with a bushwacker or daiquiri in hand, you’re transported to paradise while daily life melts away. School is out, summer is officially beginning and life is good.
For Kate Montgomery, Memorial Day comes with even more reasons to celebrate, because her birthday usually falls over the same weekend. She grew up observing both holidays together — often at the beach — and now continues the tradition at her beachside getaway near the Alabama-Florida state line. Some might just call it a condo, but Montgomery calls it “my little slice of heaven.”
Montgomery grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and yet her childhood fostered a love for the shore. Every year, she and her family would spend their summer vacation in Orange Beach and Perdido Key. As she carried the tradition into adulthood and moved to the Eastern Shore, she visited friends who had bought a condo at The Windward. Montgomery fell in love with the property and decided it was the perfect place for her and her children to establish a beachfront escape in Perdido Key.
Now, she takes her daughters, 12-year-old Caroline and 7-year-old Emma Kate, to their home away from home at the beach as often as possible, especially to celebrate Memorial Day and welcome summer with family time. The girls build sandcastles, swim in the pool, splash in the waves and walk along the beach to look for seashells — a special tradition that Montgomery began with her father along the same stretch of beach.
Over the years, Montgomery and her dad have spent their walks doing more than simply hunting for shells; they have talked, prayed and laughed along these shores, and still do. “I’m so thankful I can continue the tradition and watch him walk with my daughters, as well,” she says. This cherished activity has become one of her most treasured pastimes and is one of the many reasons the beach is so special to her.
“When I go on other kinds of vacations, I need a vacation from my vacation,” Montgomery laughs, since traveling with kids in tow can often be tiring and overwhelming. The beach, by contrast, serves to rejuvenate her rather than exhaust her. “It is my happiest place on earth,” she says. “It is the only place I can truly relax and unwind from all the chaos.” For the busy medical sales executive who spends her days in the operating room or traveling the interstate to cover her Gulf Coast territory, that is saying something.
Montgomery and her friends and family relax and play together through time on the beach, poolside mahjong and friendly competition over a game of spades. Family crab hunting is a must, although Montgomery’s mom is the only one who manages to catch any. “The girls run around screaming, and I’m in the background, laughing,” Montgomery says. “We don’t end up with any sand crabs. Just sandy bodies and lots of laughs!” Those are even better prizes than sand crabs, and whether tubing, boating, going on a dolphin cruise or trying something new, they’re up for anything — even parasailing. “Last year, the girls and I went parasailing with my dad,” Montgomery recalls. “It’s a memory we’ll never forget!”
Holiday weekends bring some of the most fun, like Memorial Day, when Montgomery’s parents come down to the condo to spend the holiday and to celebrate Montgomery’s birthday. “My mom shows up with every USA accessory she can find for the kids,” Montgomery says, recalling the pictures they have from years past of themselves and their guests in full patriotic attire. “She is indeed the hostess with the mostest!” Montgomery has recently taken on the hostess role, and for Memorial Day, the neighbors get together for a potluck around the pool, where they offer door prizes and enjoy time together. Everyone brings a dish to share, even though Montgomery wholeheartedly admits that she is not a cook. “Boiling water is an accomplishment,” she confesses.
What does someone who doesn’t cook take to a potluck? For Montgomery, the answer is simple: her mom’s shrimp salad. The delicious recipe is a crowd-pleaser and is not labor-intensive, so she can spend more time in her beach chair and less in the condo’s bright, colorful kitchen. More ambitious cooks can boil the shrimp themselves, of course, but Montgomery picks them up from the grocery store, where they are already cooked, peeled and deveined. All that’s left to do is assemble the salad. For Montgomery, the nostalgia of the dish is almost better than the dish itself; her mom started making this pasta salad as a way to use the leftover shrimp from her dad’s shrimp boils. The recipe feeds a crowd — perfect for big beach weekends — and can be placed in a cooler and transported down to the beach for a seaside lunch.
Her family’s little piece of paradise reminds Montgomery of the wonderful summer vacations she took growing up, enjoying the sand and surf. During her childhood, Orange Beach and Perdido Key had not yet grown into the popular vacation spots they are today. The Windward evokes recollections of what the area was like before the rest of the world discovered these hidden gems. “It’s a true throwback — quiet and calm and family-oriented,” she says. “There’s just no place like it. There really is no other place.”
Montgomery’s daughters have become fast friends with the children in the neighboring condos. The kids — and the adults, too — can be found on the beach from sunup to sundown. While kids today encounter the distraction of electronics to a greater extent than previous generations, Montgomery is grateful that Caroline and Emma Kate are experiencing a childhood more like her own, before technology entered our lives so fully. Her girls can spend their summers doing cartwheels in the sand and laughing with friends. It only adds to the fun that their condo is located steps away from the Flora-Bama. When they’re tired, hungry or thirsty from a day in the sun, Montgomery and her family will walk to the popular spot to enjoy lunch and drinks — virgin strawberry daiquiris for her kids, a bushwacker for her and the famous Flora-Bama burgers all around. And when there’s live music, you can almost certainly find them on the dancefloor.
Whether celebrating Memorial Day, her birthday or simply relaxing on a beautiful summer afternoon, the beach is where Montgomery finds happiness and where she reminisces about the many fond memories the area holds for her. Best of all, the beach is where she and her family hope to continue their summer traditions and make many more memories for years to come. When asked what she loves most about the beach and, even more importantly, how being there makes her feel, Montgomery is quiet, considering her answer. “It’s nostalgic,” she says at last. “I love everything — you smell the salty air and the way the wind is a little heavier. I really equate it to heaven on earth. When I think about heaven, I think it will entail me sitting on a beach. It’s just joy. You can’t be unhappy at the beach.”
Easy Beach Day Recipes
Savory Summer Melon Salad
SERVES 8-10
Ingredients
1/2 cantaloupe
1/2 honeydew
1/2 small watermelon
3 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
3/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
8 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
Juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
Remove peel and seeds of the melons and cut into bite-sized cubes. Add to a large mixing bowl. Top with all remaining ingredients and stir gently to combine. Serve immediately.
Perdido Beach Pasta Salad
SERVES 4
Ingredients
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning
1 tablespoon mayo
1 1/2 pounds boiled shrimp, cut into bite sized pieces
12 ounces bowtie pasta, cooked
4 ounces sliced black olives, drained
Small jar pimentos, drained
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
5 green onions, chopped
1 can shoe peg corn, drained
Directions
Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl and whisk until well mixed. Add all remaining ingredients and toss gently until well combined and coated in dressing. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight to blend flavors. Serve cold.
Dreamsicle Pie
SERVES 8
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar
1 quart vanilla ice cream
1 container orange juice concentrate
8 ounces whipped cream
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar to a medium bowl and stir to combine. Transfer crumb mixture to a 9” square baking dish and evenly distribute across the bottom of the pan. Using the bottom of a measuring cup, gently press the cookie crumbs into a firm, even layer. Bake for 10 minutes then remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
2. Set ice cream, orange juice concentrate and whipped cream, if frozen, on the counter to soften for 10 minutes. Add ice cream and orange juice concentrate to a large bowl and stir until well combined. Spoon on top of graham cracker crust and use a spoon or spatula to spread evenly. Place in freezer for 30 minutes or until beginning to firm up. Remove from freezer and top with whipped cream. Then cover and return to freezer for several hours or overnight.
3. Remove from freezer and cut into bars. Serve with a small wheel of fresh orange on top, if desired.
