Beach Day in New Jersey

My second week of Penn is ending with a blast. I mean, it's not every week that you get to go on amazing trips two days in a row! The activity for today was a visit to the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey. The weather started off pretty warm in the morning, but it was actually a bit chillier than the preferred weather for the beach. Nonetheless, the beach and the boardwalk were absolutely stunning and had the most interesting stores, from gelato and caramel popcorn to apparel and souvenir shops. 

Ocean City, New Jersey

My friends and I spent more time walking up and down the boardwalk than actually being near the ocean. There were so many people around which made it difficult to find a spot, but it was mostly because we were completely occupied by the super amazing food and items on sale. Our first stop was at Shriver's Gelato where they had a large variety of sorbet and gelato flavors. Feeling quite content and happy with how our day was going so far, I followed the Julias as they headed off to make sandcastles. Julia Shebek had this exciting idea of putting random pieces of seashells onto the castles to make it look more artsy, but we gave up on it in the end after I kept destroying it on accident. 

Collected seashells from the beach for our sandcastle

There were a few brave souls who actually went into the freezing ocean, while I watched from the sidelines and felt my toes go numb from just dipping my feet in the water. Soon after, we found ourselves walking on the boardwalk again as we passed by a roller coaster ride, mini-golfing, and a ferris wheel. Physics students already had their fill of amusement parks from yesterday, so most of us just ended up exploring the rest of the beach. As it started sprinkling, we chose a nice spot on one of the benches for people-watching, and it was pretty interesting to see people freak out once they felt a few drops and looked up to find a bunch of seagulls hovering above their heads. 

After an extremely fun time at the beach, everyone in the same bus that I was in immediately fell asleep, while my friend, Jami, and I talked about our progress on the Physics project. I walked quickly towards my dorm once we arrived back at UPenn so I could have some time to work on the PowerPoint for my group project before getting dinner. Miraculously, I opened up my email to find that one of my group members already started on a few of the slides for us (this is why I love my group), so I was also able to help work on the project with him as well.  

The boardwalk and drive back to UPenn

Everything after that was pretty relaxing and mellow, which was a great way to end another good day with amazing people.