last day in austin! we woke up and got our stuff packed. i met up with nicole, michelle and jen to get brunch with jack and staten. while we were waiting to get a table at 24 diner, i walked next door to waterloo records. i found a tiger trap 7” i’d been looking for for awhile so that was awesome! our food was good, even though the server seemed kind of spaced out. we said our final goodbyes to everyone, and then jen and michelle dropped nicole and i off at the airport to head home. my flight wasn’t until 5 or so, but i was fine to chill with nicole until she had to leave and then hang out at my gate for awhile. whenever i’m at a new airport, i always worry about how long it takes to get through security, so extra time isn’t so bad.

waiting at my gate i read through gil’s zine which was entertaining and then steve turpin showed up! we talked for about an hour, and then i was thinking my flight should be boarding soon so i went up to talk to the agent at the counter and she said i’d missed my flight! WHAT?? how was that even possible? she said she’d been saying my name over the loudspeaker and my flight had left without me. so it was going to be tough, if not impossible, to get on another flight out of austin. i didn’t make the next available flight, but i did make the second one headed to dallas. my original layover was in dallas to richmond, but looking at all of the schedules, i knew once i got to dallas, i would have missed the flight to richmond unless there was some miracle. i even asked the flight attendants if they could let the flight leaving for richmond know that i was on this plane and i was on my way, but they weren’t being helpful at all. at this point, i was in a state of panic, knowing i had to get back to richmond for work on monday morning! i was bound and determined to do whatever it would take to get there.

once i landed in dallas, i made a mad dash for the gate where the richmond flight was leaving from, but the plane had JUST left. there had been a delay, so there HAD been a slight chance i could have made the flight. thinking as outside the box as i possibly could, i was trying to figure out if i could get to any airport within driving distance from richmond. at one point i even convinced myself that i could drive from texas, which couldn’t have been more ridiculous. but honestly, i was freaking out.

eventually, i thought about DC since they have two airports and there are usually plenty of flights headed that way. dulles was overbooked, but the agent for regan told me she could confirm me on the next flight out! amazing! i called liana in a panic and asked her if she could pick me up from dulles at 1am, and if she did, i would owe her BIG TIME. i think my exact words were, “if you can do this, i will be your slave for a month!” desperate times call for desperate measures.

i got on the flight to dulles, and we ended up being stalled on the tarmac for about 30 minutes. the woman in the seat in front of me was complaining and cursing about how she would NEVER fly american airlines again, and i wanted to agree, but i knew it had sort of been my own fault so there wasn’t much i could whine about. she was going on and on and then she said she was headed to richmond! turns out the flight i missed had been mixed up in so many delays from austin to dallas that all of the people headed from dallas to richmond missed their connection… so i would have missed my flight ANYWAY! it made me feel a little bit better and once the plane was finally in the air, i breathed a huge sigh of relief. i would actually get home to richmond tonight.

during the flight, i talked to the woman headed to richmond, and told her i was headed in that direction too. since liana was already coming to pick me up, i asked the ladies (there were two of several people from the flight to richmond that missed it, and they decided instead of waiting in dallas overnight, they’d fly to DC as well) if they wanted to ride with us. sure, it was probably a little sketchy, but i figured it would be fine. liana was there to meet us once we finally arrived at 1:30 am, and we had a 2 hour drive back to richmond. the two ladies needed to be dropped off at the airport, which kind of sucked but at 3:30 am, what’s another 20 minutes, right?? i finally hit my pillow around 4:15 am, and had to get up at 6:30 for work, but i had finally made it home.

austin was awesome! i had such a great trip. got to spend time with old friends, meet new friends, eat good food, go swimming and party all night! i’d been wanting to explore austin for so long, and i finally got the perfect chance to check it out.

saturday morning, we all wanted a big breakfast. someone heather works with had suggested she go to kerbey lane café, which is a little chain in austin. it was a great menu with a lot of items to choose from. on foursquare, there was an overwhelming recommendation to try the kerbey queso, so we decided to kick it up a notch and get the cowboy queso which was guacamole, black beans and queso with chips. super yum. i felt like i could have eaten everything on the menu, but by the time my breakfast tacos came, i ate one so quickly and was totally stuffed. i’d also gotten another dublin dr. pepper, but this time from the fountain. imperial cane sugar is everywhere in austin!

after breakfast, we headed back to the condo to find everyone hanging out eating round rock donuts that steve and aiden had gone to pick up. the glazed ones were to die for! we did some more relaxing around the loft, and karen decided to take another nap so i called michelle to see if she wanted to hang out. sean had finally come up from san antonio, so heather and i met up with them to go back over to s. congress. it felt hotter than it had before, so we immediately wanted to get into a store with a/c. michelle had been telling us about parts & labour before, but we couldn’t find it on friday, but we found it this time! it was a super cute little shop with lots to look at. i got a pair of earrings, and we enjoyed the a/c while we could. then we stopped by jo’s again and i got an iced belgian bomber, which is a less sweet version of the iced turbo – a jo’s specialty which is something like espresso, coffee, sugar, milk and hazelnut flavor. super tasty and freezing cold! perfect for a hot austin afternoon. we walked around SOCO more and peeked into the san jose hotel which was so cute, i’d love to stay there if i ever go to austin again. it kind of reminded me of a texan version of an ace hotel! michelle said that jake gyllenhaal had been recently spotted in austin around SOCO, and i kept an eye out for him, or sandra bullock or lance armstrong haha, but no luck. probably for the best, since we were all sweating like crazy and probably not looking our best anyway. before we left, we stopped into STAG, a men’s shop we’d seen the day before. it was so nice inside, another well curated store for men with lots of clothing and shoes, but also really great accessories, personal care items, books, records, pocket knives, keychains, etc. like a much cooler urban outfitters for seemingly attractive men.

once we were through strolling SOCO, we headed back to the loft and met up with nicole and headed to mekong river with sean and michelle. everyone was in the mood for thai food apparently because karen, heather and tracy came a bit after we did and wayne and eva showed up later too! i had another perfect dish of pad see ew (my favorite at thai restaurants) and we even got a small show. some kid passed out in his food and the ambulance came. we thought he must’ve been dehydrated or something, but we later found out that he’d gone into diabetic shock. scary! nicole was anxious to get to mohawk because we heard that bands were running ahead of time and we didn’t want to miss rival mob! we got there in time to see them play, and also watched rampage and youth of today. all of us girls were having too much fun sitting at the picnic table laughing to catch YoT, but everyone else was enjoying it. i tried to even sneak a peek over the balcony, but there were just too many people for me to even see anything! must’ve been a good show.

after mohawk, we walked over to emo’s to try and see if we could get in for iron age. nicole had gone to meet up with sean for drinks, and michelle, jen and i got into emo’s and watched most of iron age’s set, which was their last show. it was so loud that i could feel it vibrating in my throat, so michelle and i went to meet up with nicole and sean. we went back to emo’s to catch the very end of the show and afterwards everyone was outside anxious to keep the party going. we’d suggested going dancing at shakespeare’s, but i guess the line was super long, so instead we just went to plush, which was this little club next to emo’s.

once we got into plush, we had no idea what to expect, but there were about 15 of us dancing so it was super fun. the two DJ’s were actually really good and played a lot of stuff i wanted to hear, and things i expected to hear in texas like screw music! i was also just really happy to be out dancing again, and so were all my friends, we had such a blast. the music went on long after last call, but around 3 they shut it down and we headed back to the loft. a bunch of people were back at the condo (surprise, surprise!) and heading to wade and claire’s place to go swimming, but by 4 am, i had to go to bed. there was no way i could have stayed up to go anywhere!

friday morning, everyone woke up in dire need of coffee. i was anxious to get the day started. because i’d gone to bed earlier than everyone else did, i was also up earlier. i thought about exploring by myself, but since there were only two sets of keys and ten people, i was stuck in the condo until everyone else woke up! while everyone else got coffee, i got a jamba juice smoothie, and we walked around 6^th street for awhile, checking out some of the shops along the way. it was a pretty touristy area, mostly bars and restaurants and shops selling t-shirts and trinkets.

back at the loft, everyone wanted to go to the hamilton pools, but i had plans to hang out with the girls. they left and i met up with nicole, jen and michelle. we went to s. congress (or, SOCO) to eat at home slice pizza, where claire works, to get some lunch. it was really good! although i feel like all i do on vacations is eat pizza, not necessarily a bad thing, but… you know. it was super hot outside and we kept walking down past jo’s where we saw a sign on the side of the building that said “i love you so much”. it looked like graffiti i’d seen before in NYC, and so we all took pictures in front of it. as we were getting our picture taken, sarah and rob drove by and honked. it was pretty funny because i thought it was just someone driving by making fun of us! we walked up s. congress to go to uncommon objects, a store that tesni and liana had told me about and said i had to see! sure enough, it was instantly my favorite store. it’s like a perfectly curated antique store with only the best of the best coming through the doors. i fell in love with everything, but didn’t buy anything because it was pretty expensive, and i didn’t have room to take lots of stuff home. but if i lived in austin, i would be in trouble!

after shopping for awhile, we decided to go to the house where everyone from boston was staying because they had a POOL. it was in this neighborhood that looked like where someone’s parents lived, and we hoped the backyard that we were walking into was where our friends were staying! sure enough, it was, and they were already well into relaxing by the pool. it was really nice to jump in because it was just so hot out. i’ve never been a big fan of summer heat, and austin was even worse. unbearable at times, even! i joked that i probably wouldn’t have any friends if i lived in austin, because i’d always be that girl complaining about the heat. it gets old to complain about the heat, so after awhile i tried my best to ignore how uncomfortable i was.

we all chilled by the pool for a LONG TIME. it was just so nice! they found tiny cowboy hats and water guns in their house as a welcoming present, so we all had a fun time playing with those. jack had made a good mix, so we had good tunes. overall, we couldn’t have had a more perfect afternoon! wayne and eva showed up with casey, and chase came over, and sarah and rob came later too. so many friends! we started to get pruney skin and wanted to get ready for the nights shows, so the girls dropped me back off at the loft and i showered while they went back to jen’s and did the same.

once we were ready for the night, we all met up again at the jackalope for dinner. i had the veggie burger, one of the few veg things on the menu, and it was alright, nothing special. the waitress was kind of a flake, and we were anxious to get to the venue, so we quick hurried up and made it to mohawk just in time to see free spirit. ceremony played after them, and then unbroken. i was excited to see ceremony’s set, and it certainly didn’t disappoint! during unbroken, heather texted me to say she was on the shuttle from the airport to the loft, and i went to go let her in. on the way back to the loft, i stopped by red 7 because we’d heard that the big freedia and katey red show was sold out, and sure enough, it was. i was crushed! but knew better than to think i’d get to do everything i wanted to in austin this weekend. as long as i was hanging out with friends, it was alright.

heather and i chilled at the loft until everyone came back and we decided to try and hit 6^th street to find something fun to do. turns out, we didn’t have to go far because it looked (and sounded!) like a serious party at LODGE, right downstairs from our place. we texted everyone to come meet up with us, and eventually a big group of our friends was dancing until they shut the place down. and after it was all over, we just had to walk upstairs, so perfect! it was also good because it was so loud upstairs from the music at LODGE that there was no way we could have slept or done anything other than join the party. i’d read about complaints on yelp and didn’t think it would be a big deal, but they were all true, it was so crazy loud in the condo.  

when we went back upstairs, everyone had come back and brought way more friends. it specifically said on the condo rules that we were not to have any parties. too late! this was definitely a party! but i don’t think anyone minded much because it seemed like all of the doors in the lofts were open and everyone was having a good time. somewhere around 3 i had to put my earplugs in and go to sleep.

i woke up with buddy’s face right next to mine, and chase passed out somewhere on the floor with nicole and jen already up and getting ready for the day. nicole had said she might hit the gym in the morning (crazy person!), but instead just woke up early. i got a text from sarah saying that she and rob were also in austin! a long time ago, we’d talked about going to austin together, but i didn’t know that she was actually going to be in texas the same time as we were, so i was super, super excited! we don’t get to hang out in richmond much anymore, so it was a fun surprise to know that we’d be able to chill in austin. karen and the rest of the crew were waiting in line for some BBQ (at 10 am! when i asked her why they were in line so early she just replied “it’s TEXAS!” haha…. true?) so jen and nicole dropped me off to meet up with everyone at franklin barbeque while they went off and had an old roommate date day together.

sure enough, there was an actual line at franklin barbeque. the place opens at 11 am, and we’d heard that it sold out pretty quickly so you have to get there early if you want to get some. diaz knew about it, and everyone was really excited to eat some texas BBQ. at first i didn’t think i was going to eat anything, since it was not one of those spots that caters to vegetarians, they only had MEAT PLATES. but i looked on foursquare and saw several recommendations to try the bourbon banana pudding pie. yum! so i got a side of coleslaw, that came with a single piece of white bread, and the banana pie. oh, and an imperial sugar cane dr. pepper. i guess in TX they call it “dublin dr. pepper” and it comes in a glass bottle like mexican coke.

everyone ordered and we found a table and started to dig in. tracy got the brisket and ribs, karen got a rib plate, and greg got a pulled pork sandwich. everyone raved about how good it was and said that i should try some. i wasn’t interested in eating meat, although it probably would have been the right place to try some if i was feeling adventurous! i ate my coleslaw and it was really good, and then i went for the bourbon banana pudding pie, which was more like a tart, and it was SO AMAZING. one of the guys who worked there was walking by and asked me how i liked it and i couldn’t stop talking about how delicious it was. he told us we should stop by the farmers market over the weekend because the woman who makes all the pastries (they had maybe 4-5 different kinds of pie) sets up shop down there. we finished up and stopped by CVS to stock up on sunscreen and extra stuff and then headed to the sheraton.

karen had booked a hotel for everyone to stay the first night that they got in, and it was something like six or seven of them in a room! anyway, before they had to check out, we put on our suits and took one last dip in the pool. they were playing some 90s sirius radio station by the pool, and we were loving that. lots of stone temple pilots, which prompted karen to out her long standing crush on scott weiland. diaz came down to meet the girls in the pool, but we didn’t stay for long, it was time to check out at 2 so we could check into our condo! the boys stayed behind and we packed up our stuff to head over to the pecan street lofts.

somehow, the boys had made it to the loft before we did, so after finding the parking lot, we all brought our stuff in and claimed rooms. we had been joking that it would be like the real world where everyone runs around the house picking out the coolest room, but girls got first pick since tracy had set the whole thing up. we chose the room with the closet. typical girl style! we sort of unpacked some stuff, and took a look around the place. it was really spacious and open, kind of like a ski lodge, and the location was great because it was right out on 6^th street! we were above a club called LODGE, and part of our condo was a balcony overlooking their backyard patio that had a waterfall!

after we’d explored the loft enough, and ran into some more friends that were also staying there, we all decided to head to barton springs pools. it was a short drive, and we stopped to get some beers to bring as well. i had these fire doritos for the first time and it felt like my mouth was on fire! once we got there, we made the short walk to the free part of the pool (otherwise its $2 to get in, but all of our other friends didn’t pay) and found lots of other people in town for chaos too. (read: crust punks) the boys were already in the water, and i stayed on the rocks with karen because everyone was saying how mucky and slimy it was on the river bed. tracy said she was talking to maggie about me, and i’d been wanting to be introduced to her for awhile since we have so many great friends in common! it was super fun to be able to finally meet her and we chatted about getting together later in the weekend. danielle was also somewhere near by, but i never saw her… sarah texted me saying she was going to come by after she’d had her interview at UT. the boys all went to jump off some bridge, and no sooner did they go and we heard someone come back and say that they’d all been ticketed by the police. really only aiden got a ticket, and steve was the only one who’d been able to jump. after that, we were kind of ready to get out of there since the mood had been drastically dampered.

on the way back to the car, we ran into sarah! karen and i jumped into her car and we met everyone else at chuy’s for happy hour margaritas and their free nacho bar! the drinks were only $3.75 and they had a pretty decent nacho bar, so we were all happy. i had two frozen margs and was feeling great! our waitress was super nice and patient for dealing with all of us who wanted the drinks to keep coming. after chuy’s, sarah was going to go back to the place she was staying and meet up with us later. we got into tracy’s car and headed back to the lofts, steve fell asleep but us girls were having too much fun dancing and we got pulled over! the cop let tracy off with a warning, but we couldn’t stop saying how ridiculous it was to be pulled over for having too much fun.

back at the condo, we all took showers and got ready for the first night of shows! i only had a wristband for mohawk, and figured that’s where i would be most of the weekend anyway. a couple of other people had planned on going to other shows, but that’s why it was so nice to be super close to all of the venues. a bunch of us headed over to mohawk and ran into gil and nicole outside. touche amore was playing and we got some more drinks from the bar outside. everyone staying at the boston house eventually showed up and the night really started! title fight played, and i watched them for awhile. and then converge played. i didn’t even really see them because i was so busy talking to everyone.

after the show was over, karen, wayne, eva and i all walked towards 6^th street to meet up with AJ, kate and leah. karen and i got a slice of pizza at roppollo’s, that someone had recommended to karen, but it was pretty gross. so lukewarm i had to ask them to heat it up twice, yuck! so we eventually found AJ, kate and leah and they were all going to head back to their place, so karen and i met up with tracy and evan and went to the jackalope, a dive bar across the street from our loft. even with $2 draft and well specials, i only wanted a diet coke! so we had a few drinks, but i was so tired that i had to go to sleep. i don’t usually stay up as late as everyone else does, and i wanted to try and rage, but my body wasn’t having it. luckily i brought earplugs to sleep because everyone came back to the loft and had a party, but i was already sound asleep.

this trip started out on a strange note because on saturday over memorial day weekend, nicole got a weird phone call while we were in virginia beach. someone from american airlines had called saying her flight was cancelled. no sooner did i think “thank goodness mine isn’t cancelled!” til i got a phone call saying the same thing (we didn’t know that we were on the same flight from richmond to dallas!) so we called AA back immediately and got our flight switched from 6:30 pm on weds. to 4:30 pm on weds. through chicago instead of dallas. fine with me as long as we didn’t miss any texas time! i was worried about telling work i’d have to leave two hours earlier than i thought, but it ended up being no problem.

so, 3pm on wednesday, i left work and picked tesni up from her house so she could drop us off and take my car back with her. we made a quick stop to pick up nicole from work and headed to the airport. i was really happy i got to fly with nicole, because it was going to be a pretty long journey, and it would have been boring to fly alone. especially since we were both so excited about going to austin, it was fun to be able to be excited together. we got to o’hare with no problems and ahead of schedule, so we tried to find a place to eat. i’d gotten back into using foursquare on my phone when elise and i were in LA, and we totally lucked out a couple times with the tips and specials. so i looked to see if there were any specials at o’hare and sure enough, with your first check-in at burrito beach, you get any burrito for $1! i couldn’t run to terminal C fast enough to get my cheap burrito. i got one with black beans and goat cheese (had to try it!) and we i passed nicole my phone to use the second special, free chips & guac! it probably wasn’t legit to pass her my phone, but they didn’t seem to care (or even really know what foursquare was, but they honored the specials anyway. yay!) so we found a place to sit down and eat a quick meal while people watching between flights.

after we were done eating, we headed for the gate that would take us to austin and i got a text from greg woodburn saying that he’d just landed at o’hare too! next thing we know, we’re a group of three, and we were on our way to texas! greg’s seat was in row 19, and nicole and i were all the way back in 31. the flight wasn’t full though, so we asked the stewardess to go grab greg and make him come sit in the way, way back with us. it was super fun, we were like the bad kids on the school bus sitting in the back. my window seat was right next to the super loud part though, and it was kind of annoying the whole flight. and even though we were sitting with friends, we all ended up taking out our books and reading entire flight. before we left, i’d stopped by barnes & noble to get a book for the trip, and picked out one of the suggested paperbacks called “ROOM”. i started reading and couldn’t stop, and by the time we landed in austin, i was already ¾ of the way through! (recommended read if you don’t want to have to think at all. it’s written in the POV of a five year old boy, so seriously, quick & easy read!)

it got dark and we finally landed in austin around 10:30. as soon as we got off the plane, greg was on the phone with aiden, who’d just landed from connecticut too. perfect timing! greg and aiden took off to the rental car counter, and nicole and i waited outside for jen to pick us up. the boys were staying at a hotel with the rest of the people coming in from new york, so we said our goodbyes and planned on meeting up with them the next day. jen came by and we headed to her house, which was pretty close to the airport. i’m always pretty dazed and confused driving through new areas, because i have no clue where i am. and it was pretty late too! we just sat around talking and hanging out with jen and chase’s dog, buddy. i was totally exhausted, so i went to bed while nicole and jen stayed up. eventually more people showed up at the house, but i was already passed out. it had been a long day, and i knew i had even longer days ahead of me, so it was nice to be able to just crash.

last day of the trip! and we had thought about hitting the beach one more time, just because we could, but it was super cloudy out and didn’t look like a prime beach day. katia and deanna had also left at 7 am, so instead of sitting around and getting stuck in REAL traffic (if friday wasn’t horrible, we knew monday would be killer!) we decided to just try and hit the road. we stopped at starbucks for the fourth and final time and got on 64. there were a bunch of highway warnings saying that the tunnel was really backed up, so we took an alternate route that took us around the tunnel, and that worked out just fine! it was a bit longer, but probably better than sitting in a parking lot on 64.

after that, we were all just anxious to get home. i always rush to do beach laundry after i get home so i don’t have to bring all of the sand into my room! katia had a memorial day BBQ, but i was looking forward to spending the rest of my three day weekend just lounging and trying to stay cool. richmond was a lot warmer than virginia beach had been, and it was scorching in the house. emily came over and we got mexican popsicles, and i had to get her to put aloe on my back where i couldn’t reach. even after all of that suncreen i lathered on, i still got a little too much sun

overall, the trip was a lot of fun and it was nice just hanging out with my girlfriends on the beach. i also enjoyed being able to go to the beach twice in one weekend! can’t wait to get back to 86^th street already!

sunday morning we tried to go to pocahontas pancakes for real (they had a teepee inside! we HAD to go!) but the line was actually out the door. we were too frightened to even ask how long the wait would be so we headed back to our old faithful, starbucks. now for the third time, we were practically regulars! some guy made weird comments about mindie’s tattoos (poor girl, got harassed at the beach every day for some reason!) we somehow found eight seats together and ate our fake breakfast and hung out for the last time before tesni and liana had to leave!

after starbucks, we took one last group picture on the boardwalk of #wildwomenweekend and the rest of us headed back to the hotel to hit the beach for the day. katia and catherine were going to go meet up with katia’s yia yia for the afternoon while the rest of us girls went to lay out in front of the hotel on 55^th. it seemed a lot hotter on sunday, and it was definitely WAY more crowded than 86^th. mindie and nicole had their boogie boards, and they both let deanna and i borrow them a couple of times. it was really fun, but i kept thinking i was going to get mowed over on a wave by all the surfers that were in the water! it’s crazy how they get so close and don’t really do much to avoid hitting people who are just swimming.

we didn’t stay out as long because it was hot and we didn’t bring sandwiches or beer this time. on the way back, i finally got in touch with sophia and stopped by their little camp to say hello. we were anxious to get back into regular clothes so we all quick took showers and got ready again. we were all pretty hungry and still waiting for katia and catherine to get back from lunch with yia yia, so we went back to pelon’s to get tacos and burritos. i’d never had the veggie burrito again, but wasn’t feeling a fish taco for the second day, so i had it and it was good! fact: you can’t get a bad meal at pelon’s. katia and catherine met us as we were finishing up and we all headed back to the hotel to hang out, reading books and laying around until we decided what to do at night. we thought about trying to see the movie again, but i don’t think people were feeling it… mindie and i decided we just needed to can the idea and see it together back in richmond.

so after hanging out and lounging for a long time, which really is the whole point of vacation… just relaxing… we decided to venture out again in search for vegan pizza! a couple people had told us about a few spots with vegan cheese at the beach which was great news for the vegan ladies in the group. the rest of us were just excited to eat more pizza. we called z pizza, which is supposed to be the better place because they have daiya, but they were out! nooo! so catherine found a coupon for a place called beach bella pizza and we headed that way. it looked crowded from the outside, but we realized it was just a big group of teenage boys and their dads, maybe some kind of boy scout thing? so it was just us and a ton of dudes. mindie really wanted tea because her throat had been hurting for awhile, but they didn’t have any. and then they didn’t have creamer for the coffee. and then they didn’t have coke products. and then we couldn’t get the garlic knots to be vegan. and then we couldn’t use the coupon for the vegan pizza. it was chaotic, and i felt bad, but our waitress was totally incompetent. eventually we all got our pizzas and everyone was just happy to be eating, i guess. the pizza was OK, but after the whole fiasco, i definitely wouldn’t go there again. hopefully next time z pizza has daiya in stock!

after dinner, we stopped by 7-11 so nicole and mindie could get hot tea. we saw some guy roll up in a car and get out to pee right in front of the store! only wearing socks! we were all like, OMG what is happening! and of course took camera phone pictures to document the insanity. i think some people in another car were taking pictures too because there were flashes going off from another direction, and the dude didn’t even stop. alright then! so we all had a good laugh, and headed back to the hotel. after having some serious girl chats, deanna, catherine, nicole and mindie headed down to walk on the beach at night. i was feeling super exhausted and just wanted to read my tina fey “bossypants” before going to bed. eventually everyone came back and we fell asleep, last night of vacation!

saturday morning we all woke up and were anxious to hit the beach, but not before getting something to eat! we tried to go to pocahontas pancakes, but we didn’t want to wait and have a big sitdown breakfast so we ended up going to starbucks. with all of our beach gear and iced coffees in tow, we headed for 86^th street. that’s the spot that we usually go to when we take day trips down to the beach, and even though our hotel was on 55^th, we wanted to go where we knew the beach was super chill. didn’t have any problem finding parking for two cars, which was nice, and we immediately found a great spot for all six of us to set up camp. mindie had a sweet setup with a beach umbrella and a chair, i only had my beach sheet and ace hotel swim club towel. everyone made sure to lather up with sunscreen and we layed out.

my favorite part of the beach, by FAR, is being in the water. laying out is alright, but i get so hot and have to cool off in the water. i think i could spend all day crashing into waves! so we did that for awhile and enjoyed our peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. tesni even brought some brooklyn summer ales, so we poured ‘em into hot pink cups and sipped in the sunshine. around 3pm we decided to call it a day and headed back to the cars.

as per usual, after a long day at 86^th, we hit up pelon’s baja grill for fish tacos and root beers. it’s another one of my favorite summer traditions! i don’t eat much seafood, but there’s something about fish tacos after beaching it all day that i can’t say no to. if you’re ever in virginia beach, i highly recommend pelon’s! after our late lunch, we headed back to the wyndham. it was so nice to be close to a place where we could quick change out of our wet suits and take a shower, instead of sitting in the car all the way back to richmond. and it was just fun knowing we had more beach time ahead of us! and more friends arriving! katia and deanna were on their way.

after we all showered and got ready, we took the shuttle bus down to the boardwalk. it was nice that the hotel provided rides every hour so we didn’t have to drive or worry about parking. we hopped out of the van and immediately went into one of the shops in search of boogie boards and funny beach shop trinkets. all of the shops seemed to carry the same junk, but we still went in to every one that we passed by. mindie was looking for one of those shirts with a woman’s bikini body on the front, and unfortunately was unsuccessful. we had some good laughs looking at all of the crazy stuff they did have though, crop tops and booty shorts. lots of slogan tees, and the big seller this season seemed to be the osama bin laden themed shirts… pretty tasteless, but what else do you expect from virginia beach? (or any beach, really)

mindie and nicole finally found their boogie boards, and tesni bought mike ashley a really great frame for his birthday as a joke. we took a group picture on the beach and walked by the spot where bands play live music. we joked that we should have brought our blankets to sit out and jam with the rest of the crowd, but no thank you! we also took another group picture in front of the big neptune sculpture and strolled along the rest of the boardwalk. before we were going to get back on the shuttle, we figured we should probably get some food to take back to the hotel. the nearest place we saw was a greek restaurant, and since we’re all fans of greek food, it was going to be perfect! but when we looked at the menu, it didn’t look like real greek food at all. they didn’t have hummus or grapeleaves! and hardly anything for vegans to eat, sorry catherine. so i just ended up getting some kind of “greek burrito” which was a greek salad in a pita rollup. waiting outside for the shuttle, we got invited up to some hotel party from dudes hanging out on a balcony. it looked like a total sausage party, which is why they were begging six sweet girls up to their place, but uh, no thanks, we’re having a #wildwomenweekend!

we caught the shuttle van back to the hotel and all ate our food, which was really subpar. i think everyone was kind of bummed on their meal, so now we know, ask katia’s yia yia where to get good greek food in virginia beach next time! apparently some of her friends own restaurants, and katia had never heard of the place we went to, so it wasn’t a legit spot. anyway, we got in touch with katie keane who was in town visiting her parents and told her to come by the hotel to hang out! we were also waiting for katia and deanna to show up, and thinking about going to see hangover 2 at the theater when everyone arrived. catherine put on her beach shop purchase to show everyone (a coconut bra!) and we all piled in the bed to surprise katia and deanna when they showed up. we were all going nuts laughing and dancing around the hotel when katie came by too. we spent the rest of the night telling stories and getting wild, and we decided to skip the movie to just hang in the hotel. eventually, it got super late and we all passed out. katie went back to pungo, and we called it a night.

i got out of work two hours earlier than usual on friday and immediately headed over to the black sheep to meet up with tesni and liana. they both still had an hour or so left of their shift, so i sat down and liana gave me some coconut gelato from gelati celesti. omg, it was delicious! definitely a cool, tasty treat for the summertime. reminded me that i should actually go out to gelati celesti for dessert sometime soon. they quickly finished up and ate their shift meal, and liana and i left to go pick up mindie. we met up with tesni back at the house, packed up her car and hit the road! #wildwomenweekend (a name we stole from one of tesni and liana’s co-workers when he told us that’s what his mom and her friends call their girls-only vacations)

we expected a LOT of traffic on 64 E to the beach, but were pleasantly surprised. of course we took a mini detour to get starbucks around williamsburg, but other than that, and missing the exit for 264, we didn’t get stuck in the bumper to bumper mess that we thought we would. i guess maybe everyone left a lot earlier? either way, we were happy. we finally got to the hotel and waited while mindie checked in. after parking and trying to gather ALL OF OUR STUFF (it’s amazing how much stuff four girls can bring for only a three-day weekend!) we headed up to our room at the wyndham resort.

the room was a double suite, since at some points we’d have 8 girls staying the night, so it was pretty big. the décor was alright, but we weren’t even bothered because the price was right and we were just happy to be so close to the beach! after settling in (and trying on all of the terrycloth robes they provided), we decided to drive down to the boardwalk to get some pizza for dinner before nicole and catherine showed up. we looked at one of those travel magazines in the hotel to try and find a decent pizza place, but we should have known better than to think any kind of beach food would be palatable. they’re not trying to impress anyone with their food around virginia beach… just feeding the masses of people who roll through during the summer months. we settled on NY pizza and split an extra large cheese. afterwards, we stopped at 7-11 to get some drinks for the hotel room, and mindie got her first comment of the weekend on her hair. i think the woman asked her if it was real or a wig. what? rude!

the four of us headed back to the hotel just in time to meet up with nicole and catherine, who’d left earlier because they didn’t get out of work til later. they didn’t hit any traffic either, so we were all feeling good! now six, we headed back up to the hotel room and put the robes back on. catherine called the front desk and asked if we could get two more robes so we could all just lounge around. we all had some drinks and we chatted and laughed for as long as we could, but it’s hard to stay awake on a friday night after working! so we ended up going to sleep around 12.

i leave for austin, TX today! headed there for chaos in tejas and to see a bunch of fun friends from all over the place. should be a good time, expect an update when i get back!