From Natural Bridges to Carmel

In my opinion, I rarely go out and explore places that I have heard of.  So when my aunt asked me and the three other people I live with if we were interested in going to one of the many beaches we have nearby, there was no way I would let this opportunity pass us or rather me by. Now deciding to go was the easy part, at least on my end, but the factor of what to wear to the beach was a different sort of challenge, one that involved figuring out how to transition beachwear to acceptable fine-dining attire.

While deciding what to wear interms of from choosing a top to picking bottoms, I knew the accessory I wanted to wear for the day would be my square hoop earrings.  I remember when I saw these online I just had to have them; they are, as Jenn Im of clothes encounters on Youtube put it, an interesting take on the classic hoop earrings we have seen and been loving as time goes on. 

Now since we were headed to the beach, I figured the sun would be shining beautifully and enough to take a toll on my ever so fragile asian eyes. Therefore (since deciding these were the easiest part of the equation) the next accessory I had to bring with me on this day trip was one of my shades.  While I have a few kind of aviators, I went with my non-reflecting ones because I figured these photos would look better with them and also because they were my oldest pair and has a history of being able to survive places such as the beach. 

Since I was smart and knew that I would probably get myself wet, I decided to go with my trusty pair of jean shorts and one of my favorite tanks.  However since I didn't want to worry about showing my tummy I chose a light airy quarter-sleeved top to act as a cover up. 

Needless the say the beach was fun and difficult to shoot pictures because of how chaotic people of all ages are in the water.  Now while I did have fun shooting and getting the bottom half of me attacked by waves, I do have to say that if I had a choice between living by the beach or somewhere else, I'd choose somewhere else.  To me the smell of the seasalt and other scents of the ocean would be quite unbearable to have around day and night, not to mention all the other natural events happening everyday on the beach such as dozen upon dozens of small flies gathering and hovering around several days old seaweed. Yeah no thank you, I'll just visit.

Our next destination was to go to the tiny town of Carmel where there we would be spending sometime enjoying its' streets before headed to our dinner reservations at André's Bouchèe.  While we were there we discovered an alley that was quite charming and enchanting to see. Therefore we seized the opportunity and did a "quick"(note the quotations) shoot before heading off to dinner.

 To close let's talk about the look.  Although the restaurant we were headed to was labeled as casual, it was what I now call the wealthy's definition of causal.  This meant customers cannot just walk in with wardrobe items such as flip-flops or just a tank with jean shorts.  Needless to say we needed to clean ourselves up a bit before dinner.  I needed something quick and easy to change into in the car after the beach; I decided to go with my maxi.  Maxi's are great because they are one piece and can make you look quite put together and ready for dinner after trips to the beach(which was exactly what I needed). Since Carmel was quite chilly, I kept my top-acting-as-a-cover-up on which in my opinion did not look too awful with the maxi; since the dark shades of the maxi dress went with the light mint color of the top the pieces went together just fine.  In terms of shoes, I dressed my feet up just a bit with my brown embellished gladiator sandals just to add a bit more effort to the look. 

What I learned from this day trip was how to be conventional and transition smoothly between activities that were practically on different ends of the spectrum.  My biggest advice for anyone doing activities that require different types of outfits is to pick common items to use for both occasions while making both quite different from each other.  Look appropriate for both occasions while making transitioning in between looks easy for yourself. 

Thanks for reading! 

Feel free to leave comments about how you've dealt with the frustrations of having different dress codes or just any thoughts or questions that you have about clothes, fun, or whatever! :)

Til next post~!

-SL

Photos By: Your's Truly and Eunice Chan