Last weekend, my mom and I decided to take a spontaneous early Summer vacay to the Jersey Shore. We stayed for four days in Stone Harbor with our wonderfully close family friends, the Cahill-Tullys. It was a perfect (and much needed) getaway in their adorable beach house by the water.

The memories that we made were wonderful — and the company was even more special.

Since we decided to go on the vacay pretty much right before we left, my mom and I didn’t have anything ready or packed. Though, thanks to Marie Kondo and her esteemed method of ~tidying up~ we were able to pack our beach essentials fairly effortlessly.

All I had to do was choose a couple pairs of denim shorts, tanks, bikinis, and dresses. Then, I rounded up the necessary beach accessories: sunhat, sunnies, sandals, cover ups, etc. — and I was good to go!

My favorite bikini is Tootsie (in Blue Moon) from Triangl, which you can find here. All my other bikinis are from Target!

Each day basically started by waking up early, choosing a cute beachy outfit, and taking a mirror pic to share with my best friend, Kelsey. Examples below:

After taking said ~beachy insta-worthy pics~ I would walk to Harbor Square with my mom and stop in our favorite coffee shop, Cafe Noir. My favorite thing to order is an iced cappuccino — just espresso and foam.

In fact, I got Kelsey hooked on this drink at the same time I was. I anticipate lots of new obsessions will be discovered when we go to Stone Harbor together in a month … but on a whole new level!

After properly caffeinating, we would walk to Playa Bowl and order lunch to eat on the 102nd street beach. My favorite acai bowl to order is the Tropical Bowl: bananas, pineapple, coconut flakes, granola, and honey. My favorite juice is the Green Room: kale, apple, cucumber, mint, and lemon.

(The juice is amazing for skin health and regrowth, which you’ll soon see becomes very relevant.)

Then, we set up our towels on the sand, apply our Sun Bum sunscreen, and eat our bowls. It was super relaxing and it felt great to get my daily dose of Vitamin D. 🌞

I also made some wonderful friends at the beach who agreed to help me get a good pic for instagram. Pro tip: hats are a great photo prop!

After a few hours of tanning on the sand and splashing in the water, we headed back to the beach house and got cleaned up. There’s something so freeing about taking a cool outdoor shower after a hot day on the beach.

After cleaning up, we went to 96th street and shopped till we dropped. I picked up a sweet, blue midi-dress with orange flowers from a small boutique called People People. I also bought a comfy Stone Harbor hoodie from Breezin’ Up, for our late night beach walks.

At the end of each day, the two families and all of our friends got together to cook and eat together on the backyard porch. A team effort, we grilled 50 Maryland crabs, shrimp, and lots of veggies. My job was to sauté the asparagus (salt, pepper, and lots of lemon) — it was quite the hit.

Unfortunately, I ended the vacay with a bit of a bodysurfing accident which started with a large wave and ended with my face getting scraped pretty badly by the sandbar.

This is when I started drinking lots more green juices from Playa Bowls — I think it actually helped with the skin regrowth a lot! Well, that and excessive amounts of Neosporin. Thanks, Dr. Mom.

Overall, our short but sweet Jersey Shore getaway was a wonderful start to Summer 2019. My mom and I greatly needed some time to relax and recuperate after some stressful life events back at home. It really shows how therapeutic some good friends, home-cooked food, and sunshine can be in otherwise hard times. 🌻

I can’t wait to come back to Stone Harbor for July 4th with the rest of the Cahill-Tully-Moore gang, plus my BFF Kelsey! (Get ready for updates on that vacay in about a month.)

In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a fabulous start to their Summers! Remember to make the most of every day you’re given in this beautiful world. 🍓 xoxo, ESM