Picture This

While I do try to include at least a few pictures with my stories...it was difficult finding some for today after promising to leave the bachelorette weekend film in the box...

I did find a few niblets though - the rest, you'll just have to imagine.  

So this was my first weekend as a grown-up (she says with air-quotes) on a girls' weekend.  Sure, I've heard of groups doing it...even been invited to a few...but have always found ways around it.  The thought of spend a whole 48 hours with the same people crammed into a hotel room was just something I never thought I could survive.

Okay.  I can say it.  I was wrong.  

Or maybe it was just that this particular group of people was the right one to give it a go with....

The occasion was to send Lori off in style to get married next month - one last trip to visit her Raleigh crew, although we took the party down to the shore.  We ate like we would never be fed again.  We drank enough to make sure we wouldn't risk dehydration (hey, it was VERY hot out).  We did fashion shows, traded shoes, curled each other's hair and had pillow fights in our lingerie.  

Some of that's not true.

We did go on a two hour kayak tour - here's my thoughts on that...DO IT.  If you are ever in the Wrightsville Beach area, call up Hook, Line & Paddle and ask for a tour by Michael.  You won't regret it.  Michael knew he was getting a bachelorette party.  He didn't know we weren't 20-year-old hungover girls.  He was happily surprised.

I really wish we'd had cameras on the kayaking - but of course, this was a purposefully undocumented weekend...

Because here's what happens when you mix cameras with alcohol...you start pretending you are in pictures with people you don't know...and then two seconds later when you ask them to take YOUR picture...you remember that the one you just took where you were pretending to know him is on the LCD screen from where you and your friends were laughing at how funny it was.

I'm just saying.

If you want to feel young again - go to a college town, like Wilmington.  They card everyone - it's really fantastic.  It wasn't that fantastic for the gal in our group that forgot her i.d. because surely we wouldn't get carded...but then again, it was easy to swap i.d.'s...because maybe they weren't really that concerned with us.

Some of my favorite things from my first girls' weekend?

1.  Kayaking.  It was amazing to do something like that in a group - we were all so inspired.

2.  Bruschetta.  When I had my 'alone' time, I was put on Bruschetta duty.  It's easy to make.  And a great excuse for 'me' time.

3.  Crossfit rocks.  Apparently there was some kind of training thing going on...so we were lucky enough to be seated by a whole gaggle of well-toned Crossfit dudes. 

Things I learned?

1.  Eventually you don't care who tries on your clothes.

2.  The beach is creepy at 3am.

3.  Trying to make sure a whole group is happy 100% of the time is impossible...but it's still fun to try.

And the ultimate sign of success?