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.