virginia beach

my beach vacation with my dad's side of the family 

was dedicated to relaxation. we slept as much as 

we wanted, we ate what we wanted, we did whatever 

 made us happy. the whole week was very therapeutic for me, especially 

when my closest friend, rebecca,  joined us half way through the week. 

i regret not taking more pictures on this trip but instead i was more focused on 

getting some much needed r&r. what is pictured is just a glimpse into 

what a typical day included. dragonflies, home cooking and lots of ice cream!

swallowtails

sorry for not having posted in a while! 

i've been very surprised to see that people are still 

looking at my blog everyday without me having to post. 

thank you! 

here are some generic butterfly pictures. when i 

was little i use to think that seeing a swallowtail 

was an omen of good luck.

old orchard beach carnival

these pictures are very bittersweet for me. 

i had a beautiful night the night that these were

taken. feels like a year ago when it was 

actually less than a week. 

my heart is very heavy today.

msc. old orchard/ lenny the chocolate moose

here are a few more pictures from our beach vacation in maine

one of our many tourist-trap-trips was to see lenny the 

chocolate moose. lenny is sixteen years old 

and the size of a full grown moose. very interesting but i 

think i'll stick to my hershey's kisses.

saco drive-in theater

okay, i am feeling so lame because this post only has three pictures but,

sunday night when we went to the drive-in in saco, i was

having such a blast that i really just forgot to take pictures. 

last year when my family visited old orchard beach, we knew there

was a drive-in but we never managed to get our butts off the beach 

and actually go! so, this year we made the drive-in top priority.

the movies? despicable me 2 and monsters university. top notch. 

i really miss drive-in movie theaters. back when we lived 

in state college there was still one around and i remember

sitting on the hood of our ancient volvo (that thing was 

basically a tank) all wrapped up in blankets.

 i mean, really, 

they're just awesome. and it makes me sad thinking about how my 

own kids will probably never get to experience a drive-in.

maybe if i ever win the lotto i'll make it my own personal vendetta 

to bring back the drive-in. maybe.

bob's clam shack

first stop on our maine vacation: bob's clam shack in kittery, maine.

after eight hours of driving we revisited this awesome dive 

(mom found it last year on diners, drive-in and dives) and i

splurged on the lillian special*.

i'm sorry for my lack of blogging but i wanted to hold off
on publishing these posts until we got home for safety reasons.
don't want to tell the whole world we're away from home!

i also wanted to point out that i've been afraid
that i've been over-editing my pictures so i didn't
touch these latest few. maybe i will later on in
the week but, who knows! 

*the lillian is the pile of fried deliciousness you see
above. also, my sister kathy thought i looked exactly
like the tourist-trap clam

http://www.bobsclamhut.com/

d.c. for the day

on monday matt and i paid

 a visit to my favorite day-trip destination: d.c!

it was around 95 degrees all day long, there was a red 

panda loose at the zoo (rusty has since been found, phew!) and

i was getting flustered over the tiniest things, but matt 

made everything better. he always does. 

to all my fellow photography friends, doesn't the zoo suck 

for getting good shots?! i mean, i was ecstatic the entire

day to get some good pictures of adorable animals but 

the harsh sun and fingerprint-covered glass

made for a photography nightmare! 

just about the only good shots i got were of monkeys,

and for those of you who don't know me, i'm terrified 

of monkeys.

oh well. the trip made for great memories with matt 

that i will always cherish. thank you, d.c. 

**we also stopped by the air and space museum for like twenty minutes

to avoid the heat. cool place, love to go back**