Rainy Days, the Beach, & a Concert

Last week, my family headed down to Ocean City, NJ for a little beach getaway.  My aunt and uncle had rented a beautiful condo two blocks off the sand and had invited us down.  AJ and I drove down on Wednesday evening and my parents joined us on Thursday morning.  I planned (and packed) for three days of sun, sand, ocean, and a tan.  What we got was rain, wind, and more rain.  Big bummer.

But, we had an awesome time anyway.  We played a lot of mini golf (seriously...my dad is a complete champ.  He wins the hole-in-one prize hole like every time), had an Apples to Apples and Mafia game night, and then spent our one sunny day driving through the Jersey coast and Atlantic city and then home to PA.

driving through Philly // on the way to the beach!

on the way home // cousins/couples hanging out on the boardwalk

my parents, AJ & I // with the Shriver's taffy man

my dad and his prize hole free game // visiting Lucy the Elephant in Margate

Then, on Monday night, AJ and I headed back to Philly for a Relient K concert (can you say throwback?!).  These guys were my favorite band when I was in middle school and high school.  I still like them (their newest album dropped two weeks ago and is pretty good), but this concert was more reminiscent of all of the times I stood in line for hours as a teenager with my friends, waiting to see them at grungy Philly venues, and less about their new stuff.  They're so much fun live, Matt Thiessen is just full of witty banter and they're pretty goofy.  We also fell in love with one of their opening bands, The Rocketboys.  So much so that we walked away from the show with a vinyl, CD, and t-shirt!  (for a grand total of $40.  I love when band merch is incredibly cheap)  Anyway, I highly recommend you check them out. They're very chill rock, and their newest album, Build Anyway, is magic.

In other news, I'm a terrible photographer.  I never take my camera anywhere with me anymore and I feel awful about it.  I took it to the beach and it never left my backpack.  I sort of blame my iPhone.  I mean, it fits in my pocket.  I can't say that about my DSLR.  But I really do need to make a better effort to take real, good photos more often.  

RAINY DAYS, THE BEACH, AND A CONCERT

Last week, my family headed down to Ocean City, NJ for a little beach getaway.  My aunt and uncle had rented a beautiful condo two blocks off the sand and had invited us down.  AJ and I drove down on Wednesday evening and my parents joined us on Thursday morning.  I planned (and packed) for three days of sun, sand, ocean, and a tan.  What we got was rain, wind, and more rain.  Big bummer.

But, we had an awesome time anyway.  We played a lot of mini golf (seriously...my dad is a complete champ.  He wins the hole-in-one prize hole like every time), had an Apples to Apples and Mafia game night, and then spent our one sunny day driving through the Jersey coast and Atlantic city and then home to PA.

driving through Philly // on the way to the beach!

on the way home // cousins/couples hanging out on the boardwalk

my parents, AJ & I // with the Shriver's taffy man

my dad and his prize hole free game // visiting Lucy the Elephant in Margate

Then, on Monday night, AJ and I headed back to Philly for a Relient K concert (can you say throwback?!).  These guys were my favorite band when I was in middle school and high school.  I still like them (their newest album dropped two weeks ago and is pretty good), but this concert was more reminiscent of all of the times I stood in line for hours as a teenager with my friends, waiting to see them at grungy Philly venues, and less about their new stuff.  They're so much fun live, Matt Thiessen is just full of witty banter and they're pretty goofy.  We also fell in love with one of their opening bands, The Rocketboys.  So much so that we walked away from the show with a vinyl, CD, and t-shirt!  (for a grand total of $40.  I love when band merch is incredibly cheap)  Anyway, I highly recommend you check them out. They're very chill rock, and their newest album, Build Anyway, is magic.

In other news, I'm a terrible photographer.  I never take my camera anywhere with me anymore and I feel awful about it.  I took it to the beach and it never left my backpack.  I sort of blame my iPhone.  I mean, it fits in my pocket.  I can't say that about my DSLR.  But I really do need to make a better effort to take real, good photos more often.  

Dear Boyfriend,

Yesterday, we spent a perfect day together at the beach.  You seemed a little muffed when I suggested leaving at 8am, so I pushed it to 8:30, which ended up being closer to 9:15.  As my mother's daughter, my first instinct was to think "we're behind schedule!", but the longer we're together, the more I'm realizing how much better it is to forget the "schedule" and just live in the moment on these little trips that we take just the two of us.

Yesterday, we lounged, we walked, we ate, and we talked.  My favorite parts of the day were probably the three miles we walked on the beach and the six hours we spent in the car.  That seems like a long distance and a lot of time, but those types of things always seem to fly right by when I'm with you.  I loved asking each other silly questions like "What saying would you like to put into 1,000 fortune cookies?" and singing songs together from our road trip playlist.

I loved everything about yesterday.  I hope I remember it forever.

Love, Betsy

DEAR BOYFRIEND,

Yesterday, we spent a perfect day together at the beach.  You seemed a little muffed when I suggested leaving at 8am, so I pushed it to 8:30, which ended up being closer to 9:15.  As my mother's daughter, my first instinct was to think "we're behind schedule!", but the longer we're together, the more I'm realizing how much better it is to forget the "schedule" and just live in the moment on these little trips that we take just the two of us.

Yesterday, we lounged, we walked, we ate, and we talked.  My favorite parts of the day were probably the three miles we walked on the beach and the six hours we spent in the car.  That seems like a long distance and a lot of time, but those types of things always seem to fly right by when I'm with you.  I loved asking each other silly questions like "What saying would you like to put into 1,000 fortune cookies?" and singing songs together from our road trip playlist.

I loved everything about yesterday.  I hope I remember it forever.

Love, Betsy

home.

I'm back!

We had a lovely couple of days down by the shore.  It was so wonderful to spend time with friends!  Not only did we discover the best sale ever at J.Crew (I got three shirts for $15!!) but we also ate way too many mint Oreos, had way too much ice cream, and watched just the right amount of Ryan Gosling movies.

I've been blessed to get to know these girls first as campers together when we were teenagers and now as counselors at that same camp for a week each summer.  Though we're split between Pennsylvania and Delaware, we've made a great (and successful) effort to see a lot more of each other this year.  Time with them is always a blast.  

I also thought you'd enjoy this little video from our escapades this weekend.  Our beach house has a couple of golf carts, and we decided to take one for a ride around 10pm on Friday night.  About 3 minutes after leaving the house, we realized that the battery was quickly dying, and that we were on the slowest golf cart ride ever.  

home.

I'm back!

We had a lovely couple of days down by the shore.  It was so wonderful to spend time with friends!  Not only did we discover the best sale ever at J.Crew (I got three shirts for $15!!) but we also ate way too many mint Oreos, had way too much ice cream, and watched just the right amount of Ryan Gosling movies.

I've been blessed to get to know these girls first as campers together when we were teenagers and now as counselors at that same camp for a week each summer.  Though we're split between Pennsylvania and Delaware, we've made a great (and successful) effort to see a lot more of each other this year.  Time with them is always a blast.  

I also thought you'd enjoy this little video from our escapades this weekend.  Our beach house has a couple of golf carts, and we decided to take one for a ride around 10pm on Friday night.  About 3 minutes after leaving the house, we realized that the battery was quickly dying, and that we were on the slowest golf cart ride ever.  

so long, farewell...

via

I'm headed to the beach for the next few days to spend some much-needed quality time with friends!

No, we won't be swimming (or spending much time on the beach, for that matter).

We've got a lot of movie-watching, game-playing, outlet-shopping, girlfriend-gabbing time planned, complete with a couple of packs of Oreos and some warm beverages.  

So, until the weekend....so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu!

Hope you have a great start to the first full weekend of 2012!

#6: Location

At number six on the list is Gordon's location.  I'm a big believer in the idea that everywhere is somewhere (does that make sense?).  I hate when people say things like "there's nothing here"; I beg to differ.  However, I do think that there are some places that have an edge over others, and Gordon's location definitely has an edge.  It's settled on Boston's North Shore with quick access to really great coastal towns like Gloucester and Salem.  Boston is only about 30 or 40 minutes away (and the commuter train runs only a mile or two off of campus) and we're just down the road from the beach.
I love the ocean and have never lived so close to it for such a long period before, so that is one thing that I'm going to miss dearly.  Bike rides down to the water, late night star-gazing on the beach, Sunday study sessions at a hidden cove, yeah, I'll miss that.
Boston might be one of my favorite American cities.  Completely walkable, rich with history, with tons of great restaurants and shops, Boston is amazing.
I always get a giddy feeling when coming back to school, for many reasons, obviously, but when driving north on 128 after coming back from a break, spotting familiar sites never fails to get me excited to be back at a great school, in a great area.

Excuse me while I flood my room with my tears.

Orient.

Maegan over at The Sunday Creative used "orient" as this week's prompt, and how fitting it is!  As it turns out, I'm sitting on my freshly-made bed at Gordon after having just moved in and find that it's time to orient and reorient myself to this place, this new apartment, my classes, old & new professors, friends, and responsibilities, and so many other surprises that will come my way during my "senior semester".  (Not to mention all of the freshman that are making their way through the crowded waters of college orientation!)  Sometimes I wish that I could take a step back from it all, reorient myself and assess the situation, and then dive back into it all.  But alas, that's not the way life works!  However, the definition of orient made me think immediately of this picture that I snapped at the beach this week.  Is there a magic one of these things that will let you take a look at life from a distance?

Beach or Bust!

There's absolutely no question that my favorite way to spend a summer day is at the beach.  My family and our cousins, the Cambrias, headed down to Rehoboth, DE on Saturday for a day of sand, sun, surf, a 5-mile walk, and some good 'ole seafood.

Playing checkers at Cracker Barrel

Hey there, Daddy-O!

Riding a wave

Catchin' some rays

Digging a hole...

"If you put that on Facebook, I will remove the tag and then hack onto your account and remove the picture"  Heh, yeah.

[insert comment here]

My mom is gorgeous.

Just a little beach reading!

It was a windy day.

I don't know this little munchkin, so call me a creeper, but she was too cute to NOT take her picture!