summer vacation 2k16

Hello all! For those who don't know, things have been a little hectic in my corner of the world. Not only did I recently graduate from college (cue horror music), but I have also been in the heart of job applications and interviews. Definitely not glamorous, but I guess I have to be an adult now. More exciting news, though, my family just got back from a trip to the beautiful Hilton Head Island.

Sonesta Resort

Last week I spent a beautiful seven (ish) days chillin with alligators and soaking up the warm southern sun. I write those words with a bit of humor seeing how it was cloudy 5 out of the seven days we were there, but it was still as lovely and relaxing as I had hoped for!

 Yes, I know how to ride a bike. No, I was not permitted to actually ride it on Sonesta property.

After the rain and my stomach flu subsided, I was more than ready to explore the island. Every where you went felt like the inside of a jungle. ---An extremely tame jungle, consisting of mainly salamanders and Starbucks, but a jungle nonetheless. I loved riding on the beach. The salty breeze and the sound of waves lapping onto shore was the perfect environment. My second favorite place to ride was by the alligators! Every time we passed the many ponds on the property, there was at least one alligator lounging on shore or creeping through the water. My little sister and I tried to see how close we could get to them, but I'm accident prone and particularly attached to my limbs, so we didn't go too close.

This is one of the four alligators straight chillin by the bike paths. 

Not scary at all or anything.

My 9 year old sister takes great pictures. 

Seltzer water and koozies were staple pieces for this vaca.

Shout out to the life saving motion sickness bracelets. You da real MVP

The last full day we were on the island, we went deep sea fishing. Before I get any further I'm going to start with a disclaimer that I love boats. In fact, I want to own a boat when I'm older. This trip started like any other. I was extremely excited to be on the water. My two younger sisters and I were sitting in a small seat in front of the captain, my older sister was sitting on the bow of the boat and my dad and sister's boyfriend were in the back of the boat. The first five minutes were all fun and games. Flying and diving with the waves had us all excited and laughing. After about ten minutes of pretty rough waters on a ~20ft boat things were not quite as positive as they had once been.


My youngest sister was naturally laughing the entire time with no care in the world or worry about flying off into shark infested water. (Hilton Head is home to many different sharks, including hammer head, tiger, and bull sharks.) When we finally came to a (relative) stop, we were all a little shaken up. My older sister had the beginnings of bruises from holding on the bar, I was finally relieved of the duty of making sure my younger sisters didn't fly off the boat, and the guys could finally get off the bottom of the boat. Oh, I forgot to mention--there were no seats in the back, so when the waves got bad they hit the floor and held onto a small bar in front of them.


Needless to say, only the guys and my youngest sister fished for the first hour. The rest of us were glued to our seats, staring at the island and trying not to lose our breakfast. After an hour of a fairly extensive internal monologue, I found my sea legs and was able to join the crew. As terrifying interesting as the trip started out, things really turned around!


I caught my first fish and followed that up by locking lips with it. Apparently its bad luck not to? We  The captain tried to catch a shark. The day before they caught a 10 foot bull shark in the same spot using the same boat! (Don't ask me where they put it. Your guess is as good as mine.) The ride back was much more enjoyable. We even saw dolphins swimming through the bay! My dad claims he saw two black fins skimming the surface, but I prefer not to think about that possibility.

This little guy walked up to the boat and wouldn't go away 

until we fed him one of the fish we caught.

There were definitely a few bumps along the way, but to say this vacation was "memorable" is an extreme understatement. I would 100% recommend visiting this beautiful island if you have not already.

That's all for today's blog! I hope you enjoyed it. :) As always, don't forget to subscribe to the blog and follow all my super cool Twitter, Facebook and IG accounts if you have not done so already. (DO IT. DO IT. DO IT) If you have any requests for future posts, I'd love to hear it! So leave a comment, DM, message, email--whatever your heart desires!! Ya gurl loves ya. <3

xoxo,