First Day of Summer

Over the weekend for Father's Day (and the first day of summer!) my dad, sister, and I drove down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the day. I was having nostalgia for the ocean. I'm very happy that we live as close to the beach as we do; it's nice to be able to just leave for the beach in the morning, spend the whole day there, and come back home not too late at night. I spent the day relaxing in the sand and jumping in the ocean when it got too hot. I love just floating on top of the water and letting the waves rock me back and forth (until a very big wave comes and completely flips you over. Not fun). Later on my dad and I took a walk on the beach and up the Apache Pier. For dinner we went to the House of Blues, my favorite restaurant in Myrtle Beach. I had the BEST mac & cheese and then we all split the triple layered cheesecake that was absolutely heavenly. I think it might've actually been better than the Cheesecake Factory. *Gasps!*

Overall, it was a pretty perfect day and I couldn't have imagined a better way to officially kick off the summer season. ☼ ☼ ☼

Summer Haze

I have been home from New York for over a week now and I am thoroughly bored. You notice just how small your town is when you come back from a huge city like New York. It seems that now there  are ten times less things to do, see, and eat. I miss being surrounded by skyscrapers and even the loud honking noises outside the window that eventually became a sort of lullaby that put me to sleep. And, of course, I miss my friends. Since I've been home other than reminiscing I have been setting myself up for this coming school year, scrapbooking, daydreaming of New York City, blogging, reading, daydreaming of New York City, tanning, swimming, and did I mention daydreaming of New York City? I know, I need to move on. Or go back.

Anyways, today was another lazy summer day for me, sitting out by the pool and soaking up some rays. I am both happy and sad that I have nothing to do. Happy because, well, I don't have to do anything, but sad because I get very bored and unmotivated and negative when there's nothing planned out for me each day. Fortunately, I will be going to Colorado in a couple weeks (!!!) and I have orientation on the 26th. Until then I will continue to blissfully relax by the pool, increase my risk of skin disease, and daydream of traveling to faraway places...

These pics were taken this morning in my backyard while I was lazily enjoying breakfast and iced coffee by the pool in my backyard. (Perfection). My pool is surrounded by a wooden fence draped in ivy, which made for a lovely backdrop for these photos. I'm wearing a new tribal halter top I got from Forever 21 which I am in love with, and would be perfect for a festival! Now all I need is the tickets (:

Breakfast parfait with vanilla yogurt, fresh peaches, blueberries, crushed pecans, honey, & cinnamon

Freckles :)

Bringin' pigtail braids back

Down By The Lake

I love living in a neighborhood with lake access. The lake offers so much to do on a warm weekend; kayaking, canoeing, swimming, and it also provides a beautiful backdrop for photos. My sister and I like to come down to the dock sometimes and take pictures, providing entertainment on a warm and sunny summer day. We took these yesterday while the sun was still up (and it was blistering hot) before cooling off in the pool. Boy, do I love summer.

Welcome to New York

As I crossed the bridge to the wonderful city of Manhattan, Taylor Swift's "Welcome to New York" instantly started playing in my head and filled me with a surge of happiness and excitement for my adventures to come during my weekend in the great New York City. I had been to New York once or twice before, but I was very young, probably only in middle school, if that. I went with my parents and siblings for vacation and we visited the Natural History Museum, Times Square, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, and saw Wicked on Broadway. All the typical touristy things one could do in New York City.
But this time I was here with two of my best friends from high school, and we were staying on our own in my friend's grandmother's apartment in the East Village. What could be more cool than staying in an apartment with your best friends in New York City? It was exciting just to think about the freedom that we were going to have and all the things we could do without any parents nagging us. (However, my friend's dad drove us into the City and her grandma was very strict about meeting us for dinner at least one night while we were there). Other than that, we were free to roam the concrete jungle all by ourselves!
We got in on Thursday and after dropping off our bags at the apartment we immediately headed to SoHo to do some city shopping. Most of the stores we went to I had never even heard of before. I was so overwhelmed by all the pretty clothes I saw (and also quite sad that I didn't have the money to buy every single cute article of clothing that I fell in love with upon looking at it). But I was able to snag a few things that caught my eye without fully diminishing my bank account. On Friday we spent the whole day at the Governor's Ball (which I throughly went into detail about in my last post). Did I mention how amazing that was? Probably. But just in case you didn't get it the first time -- it ROCKED.
On Saturday we woke up exhausted from the festival and spent the morning going over all the most memorable happenings while laying in bed with the many car horns and shouting voices heard from the windows beside us. Which reminds me, trying to sleep in New York City is almost impossible. Literally, people will be up screaming and honking their horns until 3 AM. WHY?? After finally rolling out of bed we went to have coffee at The Bean, which is now my new favorite coffee place, and ate breakfast at a little Mexican restaurant across from our apartment. It was probably the cheapest place you could go to in New York City and it was pretty good. Now that's my kind of restaurant! After breakfast we took a bus to the Staten Island Ferry and rode out to see the Statue of Liberty. Then we ventured to the One World Trade Center and strolled by the river. And then, instead of taking the bus, we walked for over an hour to get back to our apartment. A very long walk, but it was nice to see a large part of the city from a first-person perspective.
While in New York I began to admire the New Yorkers charging down the street with a purpose, hailing taxis like it was nothing, or chatting with friends over coffee/lunch. I saw these people and I wanted to be them. I wanted to have everything figured out (or at least look like I do) and be able to conquer such a big city like New York. There is so much that New York has to offer that I would honestly love to live there. I could see myself working as a Graphic Designer for a major company in the city, taking the Subway to work, and spending the weekends downtown with friends, hitting up bars or going out to romantic dinners. A girl can dream right?

Panoramic view of our view from our apartment

Our first night in city 

Street art

One of my favorite stores in SoHo, Don't Ask Why

View of the Manhattan Island from the Staten Island Ferry

One World Trade Center

A small garden, right in the middle of the city 

SoHo buy

SoHo

The Governor's Ball Music Festival

The Governor's Ball was by far one of the best days of entire life. I know, you might not believe me or think that I'm overreacting but remember that I'm only 19 years old and so saying that so far this has been the best day of my life isn't saying that much. And I'm definitely not overreacting about how truly amazing this day was. I only attended the festival on Friday, as my friends and I didn't want to blow a ton of money on a three day festival ticket, plus food and transportation. My bank account has suffered enough after just one day of the festival.

I starting looking at the weather in New York two weeks before the festival, and every day until the day of, and at first I was haunted by the image of rain clouds on my weather app, but on the day of it showed only clouds and a 20% chance of rain. We expected to be in the clear. Wrong. So of course it started raining as soon as we got on the bus to the ferry. It was cold, raining, and I was dressed in nothing but a crochet crop top, high waisted shorts, and a sad (but fashionable) excuse for a cover-up. The weather put me in a depressed mood the entire ferry ride over to Randall's Island, but as soon as we stepped off the boat and I saw the signs and stages for "Gov Ball NYC" my mood instantly brightened. So what if there was a little rain? I was at a MUSIC FESTIVAL for crying out loud! I had dreamed of this day for months!

The hardest thing about music festivals is choosing which shows to go to. At the Governor's Ball there were two artists playing at two different stages every hour and a half or so. So, during each time period you had to choose which artist to see. And there's no breaks! The music stops for no one to take a bathroom break, get some food/water, or go to the bathroom. There were a few time periods where the artist didn't interest my friends and I so that's when we took the time to do those things. But we ended up seeing Priory, Rae Sremmurd, Future, Odesza, The Decemberists, and Drake. Just looking back at this list I feel so extremely lucky that I got the chance to see all of these amazing artists perform live. It was almost euphoric to be standing in the huge crowds of people, dancing with my friends, and enjoying the music. Overall all the artists I got the chance to see were awesome live. Priory was a great way to kick off the festival, especially with their performance of "Weekend." Rae Sremmurd got the crowd hyped up until Slim Jimmy fell off the stage. I was only like 100 feet away from him! #PrayForSlimJim. Very memorable moment. I had only little interest in Future but a lot of people said he was good and my brother suggested I see him, so we did and he did not disappoint. Now, Odesza is one of my favorite artist EVER so you can only imagine how excited I was for that. I cannot even explain how amazing that concert was. Every time I think about it it feels like I was in a dream state. After it was over I actually wanted to cry. The Decemberists were excellent live; and then my phone died. How unfortunate that that had to happen right before the Drake concert. In a way it kind of made it better though. I felt like I was much more in the moment without a cell phone to distract me. The crowds at every concert weren't even that bad until we got to Drake. It seemed like everyone at the festival was waiting all day for him (most of them probably were). My friends and I managed to push our way through a sea of people to about halfway to the stage, where we met a group of guys, and one of them let me get up on his shoulders to get a better view of the show. Now that was awesome. The Drake performance was so mind-blowing, as I'd been listening to Drake every since middle school and now here I was listening to him perform live in front of me!

The whole festival was so surreal, almost too good to be true. I think back on it and feel overcome with a sense of great happiness that I got to experience it all, but also a slight sense of sadness that it is over. I wish it could've lasted forever. What could be better than that? Now that I've dipped my toes into the festival world I've developed a greater appreciation for live music and I'm eager to attend more festivals and concerts in the future. Perhaps Bonnaroo 2016? ;)

Governor's Ball Welcome Sign

My friends and I posing in front of one of the beautiful art pieces strewn across the festival grounds.

Priory

ODESZA

Future

The Decemberists

And finally...Drake
(photo taken from Instagram)