summer fun [beach or bust]

i can't believe it's practically fall. i think the first official day is tomorrow. but i could be making that up? i guess you'll never know.

point is, i had such a fantastic summer and i figured that now was the best time to share some pics and stories from the summer i dubbed "summer fun twenty ten." i'm so creative. i know. first up:



car trouble. i feel as if it should me and joel's middle name. not only are we bad luck on ourselves when it comes to long distance, but apparently we're beginning to affect those around us. our friends cody and brittany, invited us on a last minute, quick beach trip taking advantage of the three-day weekend. being the beach-crazed couple that we are, we immediately said yes. no questions asked.

the day starts off great. we're so excited. we're going to the beach. how many games should we bring? not that many, we'll be laying out all day. what's that? it's supposed to rain? oh well! it will still be lots of fun regardless.

the car ride flies by and before we know it we're at the tunnel getting ready to hold our breathe. then all of a sudden...it happens. we think we run over something.

that something was part of brittany's car. we pull over to assess the situation. it ends up being some really important belt thing (girl lingo). but it's sunday, as chick-fil-a already proved when we attempted to start off our trip with chicken minis, and NOTHING was open. i've yet to have the "gotta have it" feeling about an iphone, but in the midst of that situation i was soooooo glad to have one nearby.

burger king became our home for the next 5 hours as cody called around.



did i mention it was raining??

group plan #1 : get a rental car, leave the honda at the hotel next door, and head to beach. sounds like an easy enough plan, right? wrong. we couldn't get a hold of anyone! no one answers their phone and the ones that did had a car for us but no way of getting it to us.

lessons learned from plan #1: enterprise's catchy little "we'll pick you up" slogan is lie. plain and simple. it only applies if they are in a 10-mile radius.

group plan #2 : get a taxi to bring someone to get the rental car. realizing that we were not going to be able to be picked up by a rental car, we had to figure out how to get the rental car that 30 minutes away.

enter "rah-hee-knee." now that's not how you spell the name of the taxi driver that almost disposed of cody, but that's how you pronounce it. let's just say we didn't have the proper funds, and the taxi/van hybrid made a quick U-turn, yelled, and demanded, "get out of my taxi!" before we knew it, cody was standing in front of us again saying, "well that didn't go very well."

lessons learned from plan #2 : never trust a taxi service who answers the phone with a simple "hello?" or whose address for his taxi service is his home address.

group plan #3 : call everyone we know who lives in mobile. thankfully, after several attempts of brainstorming new friends, college friends, high school friends, friend-of-friends, and even sizing up complete strangers (serial killer or no?), we finally caught a break. our good college friend brandon that we hadn't talked to in over a year just so happened to be driving through while visiting his family and was more than willing to come rescue us. we couldn't believe it! we were saved! or were about to be. he was still far away, so we decided to kill some time while waiting for our hero to drive up.


the boys threw the baseball




and brittany decided we should get souvenirs


then brandon showed up!



lessons learned from plan #3 : (1) never delete numbers out of your phone. (2) check in once in a while on those college friends of yours. they might have just broken up with their significant other, had emergency surgery to cut out melanoma, or had a brush with death involving a handgun...or in brandon's case...all of the above. (3) we are terrible friends.


at least he didn't go home empty handed



group plan #4 : pick up the rental car, drop the honda off at a nearby dealership to leave and get fixed while we go to the beach. at this point, we had been at burger king long enough for the workers' shifts to change and for them to start asking us questions. thankfully, cody made it back just in enough time for us to keep our sanity in tact.





lesson learned from plan #4 : no matter how long you've been stranded in a burger king parking lot, they will not give you free food.

we jump in both cars and head to the dealership. we quickly realize that the honda is not going to make it the few miles down the road. at approximately a .2 mile away from the dealership, the car's belt completely tears off and the temperature gauge in the car starts rising. no way we could make it without the honda overheating.

group plan #5 : push the car to the dealership, get in the rental, and go to the beach. we pull into a bank, and joel and cody take the rental to access the situation. if they could figure out where the dealership was then we would have an idea if we could really push it there or not.

problem was....the dealership was OUT OF BUSINESS!!



yup. i couldn't make this stuff up if i tried.

lesson learned from plan #5 : honda doesn't doesn't understand that when you move, you're supposed to change your answering machine to reflect that--or hey, turn it off.

group plan #6 : forget it. we're going to the beach. we leave the honda in a bank parking lot and head to the beach.




lesson learned from plan #6 : cody and brittany are who you want to be with in a time of crisis because no matter the situation they are consistently fun to be around.


this was right after brittany informed joel that rental cars are full of germs.


did i mention it started raining again?


amazingly, the car ride flew by the rest of the way; we laughed about all the things that went wrong, had a great time at the beach, and ate some of the best food at a local seafood restaurant.

i won't bore you with the rest of the things that went wrong since i doubt you're even still reading, but here is the condensed version:

:: cody and joel had to drive back to the honda the next day to leave a key, so it could be towed and fixed at the nearest (open) dealership.



:: honda ended up not having the part they needed, so they had to order it and it wouldn't be ready for another 3 days.

:: cody and joel then had to get a different rental car to take home because the one they gave us was for "in town" use only.


beach trip car #3


so from 9am-1pm, me and brittany had girl time tanning and talking on the beach and the guys finally showed up with smiles on their faces and were still able to enjoy a few hours at the beach. thankfully, it didn't rain. :)

also, in an attempt to give chic-fil-a another chance, we decided to stop there for dinner on our way back. and what do you know? we arrive at 8:15 p.m. just as the owners of chic-fil-a decide to close early because of memorial day...at 8:00 p.m.

seriously?!?!

but despite all the things that went terribly wrong, this trip was definitely one that will always be a highlight and forever associated with great memories and even better company!

next up: nashville!