I can’t believe it. The official start to fall is next week, so I thought I would end this week with some of my favorite photos from our last summer vacation to the Outer Banks, North Carolina. Hope you enjoy them, and have a great time on this last weekend of the official summer season!
We are headed to Maryland to celebrate our nephew’s 1st birthday and our friend’s child’s 3rd. Party party! These kids are growing up too fast! Time for me to get to packing.
XO,
Gina
Would you believe that today marks one whole year that I decided to make the change to my little ole blog, popcorn and pandas? I know, I can’t believe it either. It’s been a crazy year full of adventures and travel, fashion and fun, pregnancy and now a new baby. It’s been wonderful and therapeutic to have this creative outlet to share with you all, and I am completely grateful that you all have chosen to follow along for this past year.
Below I have reflected a bit on some of your favorite posts this past year:
My first two outfit posts with the amazing photographer Marisa
Lettered sweaters were my jam
Sported my favorite Halloween costume
Rang in the New Year in Winter White
Foxes became super trendy
I had some ups and downs, announced my pregnancy, and did a cool photo shoot with Justin to find out the sex of our Little Monkey
I added some Flair to my wardrobe
Craved everything peplum
Felt a little Guilty
I ate my first mangosteen
Went to Arizona and saw the Grand Canyon
I made some waves with Waveborn
Made fresh homemade tomato sauce and pesto from the garden
Enjoyed the sunrise on Branch Lake in Maine
Watched as my belly grew larger and larger
And gave birth to a beautiful baby boy
It’s been such a great year, and I am hopeful that this year will bring even greater joy. Thank you so much for following my adventures. Would love to hear any feedback that you have of things you want to see from me in the coming year. What you like/don’t like. What you want to see more or less of (outfit posts, lately posts, shopping posts, personal stories, photography, baby stuff, etc…) I have less free time on my hands, but hopefully I can make things happen!
Happy Friday everyone!!!
XO,
Gina
It’s 4:13am and I am awoken in the middle of the night due to pregnancy and my inability to control my bladder from the urgency to relieve itself these days. So, I hop out of bed to make my way downstairs to the restroom in the lake house, when I look out the bedroom window. Holy sky. This is amazing. We had thought about waking up early to watch the sunrise, and had set our alarms for 4:55am since the sun was supposed to come up at 5:00am, but we weren’t really sure if we would be able to force ourselves out of bed at that hour. After waking up and taking care of business, I quickly grabbed my camera and took a few shots across the lake and into the colorful sky. It was eerily quiet, peaceful and serene. Just me and the lake and the brightly colored sky. I wrestled with the idea of whether or not to wake the rest of the gang this early, and ultimately decided that they needed to see what I was seeing at that moment. It would just be too selfish to exclude them from this view, and by 4:55am, they may have missed all of this. So I woke up Zack and our friends, Erin and Rai. They weren’t too pleased at first, grumbling and groaning, but when I showed them a photo I had taken of the sky, they knew they too needed to jump up before they missed this magical moment. Zack and Erin got so excited in fact, that they broke out the kayaks and enjoyed the sunrise from atop the water. Rai and I stayed behind taking in the moment from the lake house dock and capturing photos. I know photos can’t really do justice, but my memories and these photos are all I’ve got. Hope you enjoy.
If you were still unsure about whether or not you should visit Maine, then these photos probably did the trick. We were lucky enough to wake up to this view every morning, even though it might have been a bit earlier than we were used to!
Hope everyone is having a good Thursday. I am looking forward to a little girl’s night. My friend Jess is moving to New Jersey at the end of the month, so this will be the last one she hosts in her NYC apartment. I then have to go home to pack for our trip to Maryland this weekend for both my friend Teri’s bridal shower and my baby shower for the Little Monkey. We are trying to get the guest bedroom cleared out, and after this weekend it’s go time on that nursery!
XOXO,
Gina
Wow!! What a trip! Well, here is your first sneak peak into our Maine adventures! While I took many photos with my “real” camera on the trip, sometimes it is just easier to run around with your iPhone instead of lugging around the big heavy camera all the time. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have already seen some of these photos, but you may want to read on if you plan on visiting Maine. If you haven’t planned on it, you should still read on, and you may want to afterward!
We picked up our friends Erin and Rai from the airport in Boston on Tuesday morning and started our journey to Maine. Along the way to our lake house in Elsworth, we decided to take the longer scenic route through Camden, a town we had visited for a wedding a few years prior. I have to admit, another main reason for taking this route was for the amazing lobster rolls at Red’s Eats! We ate here last time we were in Maine, and it’s absolutely amazing. They pile on the lobster, add some drawn butter, throw it on toast, and it’s ready to chow down. Although, the lines here are typically and famously long, we have gotten lucky both times and have arrived with no line. The first was at closing time, and this time it was for opening. We arrived 30 minutes before opening and were the first group in line. Not 2 minutes after we arrived there was a ridiculous following behind us. Talk about perfect timing!
After Red’s Eats, we continued on to Camden, where we drove to the top of Mt. Battie, picked some Maine blueberries, walked along the water, and ate blueberry ice cream. It was the perfect little day time stop through on our trip.
We eventually made it to camp at the Branch Lake house, Shaw Cottage. We met the owner there who gave us the grand tour, and we found out that we were actually the first people to ever rent the house! He even left us blueberry pancake mix with blueberry syrup as a little welcoming gift. How sweet was that? We stocked the house with groceries for dinner and breakfast and played Cards Against Humanity while we cooked. So fun!
The next morning, we hung out at the lake, took the motor boat and kayaks out for some fun, went swimming, and had a ball. That night, we gussied up and drove down to Bar Harbor (which surprisingly seemed closer than it did on the map) for dinner at Havana. It was an adorable little spot with fantastic seafood and Latin cuisine. And of course we got ice cream after at Mt. Desert Is. Ice Cream. Yum! After returning to Branch Lake, we did another one of my favorite Maine activities, which is looking at the stars. I don’t know whether it’s lack of pollution or being closer to the top of the globe, but the stars just look amazing in Maine. I could literally see the Milky Way Galaxy outline; it was unreal.
Day 3, we started off the morning bright and early (and I mean early) around 4:13am to watch the sunrise. I cannot wait to actually share these photos with you soon. Zack and Erin went kayaking to check out the morning sights and the sunrise from the water, and Rai and I stayed behind to capture the view from our floating dock. I don’t know if I have seen a sunrise so beautiful! It was picture perfect. Once the sun was fully up, we were actually still exhausted so we went back to sleep for a few hours before really starting our day.
Once we were fully up, we headed down to Acadia to check out some easy hiking trails. Unfortunately, we ended up “hiking” by a golf course and the side of the road for an hour instead of on a “real” trail. That was kind of a bummer, and it was super hot out, so we decided to then hit up Sand Beach quickly before lunch. Sand Beach was really beautiful and had gorgeous rocky cliffs on either side of it. The water was so cold, I don’t know how people were actually swimming in there, but it was at least refreshing to dip my toes in. After Sand Beach, we headed to Jordan Pond, which was a really great restaurant within the State Park. We treated ourselves to their famous popovers, lobster stew and sandwiches while taking in the views of the water and mountains around us.
That night, we headed into town at Bar Harbor for their Fourth of July fireworks show! We have seen fireworks in Manhattan for the past couple years, which are always fantastic…but there is something about sitting on a big lawn overlooking the water with the band playing patriotic tunes that just makes you feel good ‘ole American on the Fourth of July! We were all really impressed with the pyrotechnics, and we headed back to Elsworth that night with big smiles on our faces.
Our last full day in Maine was spent lazily enjoying the peaceful lake. The early morning and the hustle and bustle of the previous day made us all exhausted, and we wanted nothing more than to relax and enjoy the serenity. We kayaked, sunbathed, took multiple swimming dips in the lake, read books and magazines, and had long chats on the floating dock. I think we each had a little nap that day as well. We ended the day with a delicious tapas dinner at Cleonice in Elsworth, although I have to warn you, there is no AC there, which was pretty brutal! Luckily, the food was good enough to make it worth withstanding the heat.
We definitely wish our trip to Maine could have lasted longer. We had a great time with great friends, and a trip back is definitely in our future! Stay tuned for the rest of my photos next week from the “real” cam.
Happy Friday ya’ll!
XO,
Gina
