Beach House Photo Diary

 Happy Tuesday! If you follow me on the gram you may have seen that I was our of town with Tony and my family last week. Last year I talked about how my family decided instead of lots of gifts at the holidays, that instead we would go on a family trip in the summer. I am a teacher, and my mom also works in a school, so we are both off for the entire summer. Last summer we went to the Finger Lakes and got a lake house, so over the winter we got together and booked a house right on the beach in Virginia.

Obviously, there is a global pandemic, so I will briefly mention why we decided to go, and how we did it as safely as possible. Here in New York State, there are restrictions and mandatory quarantines for travelers coming from certain states. We watched up until the last minute, and VA was not added to that list. Obviously it was still a risk, but in case you are interested, here are some things we did to make it as safe as possible.

  • We drove the whole way. We rented a van and my husband and brother took turns driving. We kept stopping to a minimum and of course wore masks whenever we did. 
  • We stayed a beach house, not a hotel and spent the majority of our time there. 
Okay on to some photos! 
We left on a Sunday night in the middle of the night to arrive at a decent time. The drive was about 10 hours with stopping for gas and food. It actually wasn't bad! I had wanted to fly back in the winter but obviously it turned out to be a good thing we did not! We arrived in the early evening, and I headed right out to the beach outside the house with my camera to take some photos. The beach our house was on was so quiet and peaceful. It wasn't a private beach but it sure felt like it! 



 The beach itself was wonderful! It was the perfect temperature, refreshing but not freezing cold, and shallow a lot of the way out, especially when the tide was low. We swam most evenings, and two full days we spent at the beach all day. My favorite though was probably one night my we went night swimming, and it was so much fun and beautiful to swim under the stars.

 Planning what to bring for this trip, I knew I wanted to splurge a little and get a nice bathing suit, and I decided to go with Summersalt. I am so glad I did! If you didn't know about the brand, their suits are so comfortable, flattering with compression technology, have the cutest patterns and prints, and are made with sustainable materials, including waste in the oceans like old fishing nets. I am so happy with it, it made me comfortable and confident. I am obsessed with the gingham print, and will definitely be purchasing more from this brand in the future.

You can find my suit here.


 This photo was taken on the top balcony of the beach house our first full morning. I got up to watch the sunrise almost every day, which is one of my very favorite things to do at the beach. Years ago in Maine I made Tony get up with me and drive to the beach to watch it. This trip, the beach was literally right outside our door.

 The house also had a bottom porch with this amazing porch swing. I spent time reading here every single day, especially in the evenings. One lazy afternoon at the house with my family there was the most beautiful breeze and we just spent hours sitting outside watching the waves in the bay and birds float in the breeze. It was magical. I am currently reading The Heir Affair, the sequel to the Royal We. I hadn't read The Royal We yet, so I read that first, and finished it the first few days of the trip, then began The Heir Affair, which was super fun to start it back to back to the first one. Perfect super fun beach reads.



 One day we did go to the main VA beach area to see the ocean. I was so happy that it was not crowded, but it was incredibly hot, so we didn't stay long, but we did get some great family photos at the beach area.




 My mom and I took our coffee to walk on the beach every morning and look for shells, and then one morning I woke up before every else, brought out a towel and sat on a towel on the beach and watched the sun peak over the horizon, which is when I took these photos. Then Tony woke up and took a walk with me, and my mom took this photo of us from the balcony of the house. The last morning, my whole family woke up and we watched the sun rise together. There is something magical about the moment.





 Our last full night, I insisted that we take sunset family photos on the beach after watching the light every evening and determining the best time. I am so happy with how they turned out, it was just beautiful and also the perfect temperature outside, it was finally cool enough to throw on a light sweater.






I want to end by saying that obviously traveling at any time, but especially now is a huge privilege, and I definitely acknowledge that. I will say that I always love traveling, but this time it felt different. It felt healing, after being at home for so long, filled with such anxiety. It was nice to just connect with nature and disconnect from that anxiety for a few days and spend some much needed time with family. I know not everyone has that opportunity, but I hope you all can find time to enjoy the people in your life and the world around you this summer.


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