Beach Bum

Hiya! Since the last time I posted, my skin has gotten more sunburnt tanner, my hair has gotten (sunbleached) lighter, and my heart has gotten happier. Because I just went on the most incredible, fun-filled, entertaining trip ever. That's right, folks, #67 has been crossed off the 101 in 1001! For the past few days, I spent the majority of the time soaking up the sun and having the time of my life laughing with my best friends. It seriously was such a perfect trip, even though not everything went as planned. Nevertheless, I wouldn't have changed a thing, and I love my lady pals even more now (if that's even possible).



Our little roadtrip began bright and early on Sunday morning. We all spent the night at one of my lady pal's house in order to make leaving the next morning more convenient. We went to bed with good intentions to get up earllllly and leave around 7. But after a snoozed wake-up call, a pit stop to pick up our friend A, a trip to the bank, and the ever-necessary Starbucks run, we didn't actually get on the interstate til around 9. This was not a major concern of ours, though. We were on vacation, after all!

Finally rollin' out.

The 7.5 hour car ride went by insanely fast, thanks to these lovely hilarious ladies....

Fun in da car.

....driving on back roads that allowed me to stick my head out of the sunroof....

Nice hurrr.

....and my awesome DJ skillz.

Played this song every hour, on the hour.

The weather was a little dreary throughout the trip, but we eventually made it to the beach (after a quick stop at Wally World to get groceries)!

Rain rain go away.

Yay beach!

We immediately threw all our crap luggage in our tiny room and headed outside.

So.much.stuff.

Love these gals.

C, J, A, J, and me.

It was great to goof around on the beach and feel the sand beneath my toes, even though the weather was still a little gloomy. We spent a little more time in the waves before exploring the town around our hotel. We ended the night with ice cream and lots of laughs in the hotel.

The next morning, we woke up sad to see another dreary sky. Shortly after, it started to rain. After getting over our disappointment and wiping our tears we remembered that there was an outlet mall close by. To Forever 21 we went! Shopping occupied our time until the sky cleared up. Then it was back to the shore for beach time!

Heaven.

K, J, me, A, and C.

Lovin' da beach.

You seriously couldn't even tell that it had been pouring rain a couple hours earlier. We made the most of our beach time before finally dragging ourselves away to freshen up for dinner. My lovely friend J and I had discovered a cute little restaurant on the pier, cleverly named Pier 14, while we were running on the beach in the morning, so we decided to check it our for dinner. We journeyed out to the pier both before and after dinner because we couldn't get enough pictures!

Pier!

Curls on curls on curls.

Love the ferris wheel.

After stuffing ourselves with seafood dinner, we ventured around the town a little bit more. Eventually, we found an amusement park area, and J, K, and C decided they wanted to go on this crazy, flippy, pukey ride.

Too pukey for me.

Me, J, and A didn't want to risk the chance of losing our dinner, so we watching while the adventurous ones rode. 

J and I pretending we rode.

The night ended with a walk on the beach and lots more laughter.

Tuesday morning brought beautiful sunshine and clear skies! Which obviously meant beach time!!

Can't go wrong with neon and navy hats.

Love my precious bestie.

J just being J.

After spending the entire day soaking up all the rays we could, we showered and got ready for dinner. But first, beach pictures!

Channeling our inner lifeguards.

This is my I LOVE THE BEACH face.

Best friends.

Sororities.

Me, A, and J.

I am obsessed with taking group pictures, so you can imagine how much I loved our little photo shoot. When we all felt we had channeled enough of our inner models, we headed to Broadway at the Beach. Joe's Crab Shack was our dinner destination.

Time to get crabby.

K, me, and J.

Bahahaha.

The food was delicious, the atmosphere was great, and we laughed the entire meal. Another night walk on the beach came after dinner, followed by talking by the pool until the wee hours of the morning. It was seriously amazing to just be able to spend time with my best friends in such a relaxing environment, without having any worries on my mind. I could not have asked for a more wonderful trip!
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On a completely unrelated note, I finished my Photo-A-Day challenge via Instagram (#98 on my 101 in 1001)! If you're unfamiliar with Photo-A-Days, it's basically where you follow a list of topics of a picture to take each day. You can interpret each topic as you wish! So here's my month of July in photos!

The list.

And that's July in a nutshell! I even decided that I liked doing the challenge so much, I'm continuing on with the August Photo-A-Day. Maybe this will be a permanent thing...who knows? 

Til next time,          

Shelby