Happy Thursday loves! So if you read my post yesterday these are the pictures I was talking about. I was SO excited to get to do some pictures in Key West, especially with my new lens, but word to the wise. When going to an area that is high heat, high humidity and you're keeping the hotel room cold... your camera lens is most likely going to cloud up. And I'm not talking "just wipe it off and you're good to go" cloud up, I'm talking full on cloudy mess INSIDE the lens. We started taking these pictures not even realizing the lens was cloudy (because we always use the viewfinder instead of the screen to shoot) and after a few I asked to see what we were working with. That's when we noticed the pictures looked a bit "foggy". No big deal, I wiped the lens down, we moved and took a few more. Still cloudy. At this point I'm thinking "what is going on here??" so I took then lens off and looked in the back side and bingo, there was our problem. After doing some research this happens a lot to people going to tropical destinations because the room will be less humid and much colder than outside and the lens has natural moisture in it that will cloud up and condense when going straight from inside to outside. Good to know, right? After a minor freak out, investigating how to clear it and just sitting around trying to decide my next steps the lens finally cleared on its own and I was able to continue with the pictures. Unfortunately by that point it was almost time to go to Hemingway House so I only managed to snap a few pictures before it was time to get ready to go.

I included some of the cloudy pictures (and edited them to the best of my ability, which actually turned out a LOT better than I thought) just so you can see the difference... plus some of them were cute! So if you're ever in a tropical location with a DSLR with detachable lenses keep that in mind! This was the outfit I wore out during the day on the 4th of July in Key West. It was the perfect breezy dress to combat the extreme FL heat but still be festive. I ended up rocking red, white and blue bangles with it to get my full American spirit on but I forgot to grab them for these pictures, whoops! When you're trying to sneak out of a hotel room with people still sleeping it can be tough ;)

*Linking up with Tara from Mix & Match Fashion*
 

dress / bikini / sandals / necklace / bracelets / lips

Happy Humpday loves! I can't believe we're already half way through the week! Yesterday was so crazy and hectic it felt like the day literally flew by. I'm not complaining there but it's definitely a change to come back to so many e-mails after only being technically gone a day. I did a few fashion posts in Key West but I'm not as happy with the pictures as I could be. I'm still going to share them but after I get some time to edit them first! So instead I'm going to do a bit of a photo dump on you guys and share all the pictures I took with my phone, aren't you guys lucky? ;)

Our long weekend started bright and early Friday morning when we left from my house a little before 6 am. Yup, you read that right, 6 am... before I even leave for work on a daily basis. But when you have a 7-8 hour drive ahead of you an early start is definitely the best. We arrived in Key West ahead of schedule but were lucky enough to be able to check in early and get our stuff put down. I attribute that to our VIP status of staying at the same place every year ;) It's always nice to show up and have the staff know exactly who you are! After putting down our stuff we did what everyone should do when starting vacation... we headed to the beach bar for a cocktail!

That cocktail lead to happy hour which lead to grilling out and then going out for... you guessed it. More cocktails! Hey, when in Rome... er, Key West...

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early (literally, 6:45 am) and got ready to do some blog pictures. Unfortunately the massive humidity clouded up my lens which lead to some hazy pictures... eek. I'll be sharing those with you tomorrow so don't judge. Eventually the lens cleared up but only after I had a minor melt down and was out of time for pictures.

After breakfast we headed over to Hemingway House to get our six toed cat sighting on. It was seriously like Where's Waldo but with cats. And they were everywhere. Once we got our fill of crazy (yet still cute) genetically abnormal cats we headed over to The Rum Barrel for some rooftop bar, rum tasting fun only to get there and have the rooftop bar be closed until 6 pm. Whomp whomp. We ended up sticking around anyway and still doing a rum tasting before exploring the rest of the island.

Saturday night we attempted to go back to The Rum Barrel (this time after 6 pm) only to STILL have the rooftop bar be closed. These people apparently didn't get the memo that was one of the main reasons we went there! After a drink we decided to head out and hit up a tequila bar where I got an amazing cocktail before bar hopping a bit and then heading home.

Sunday we headed out bright and early to rent a boat for the day. We ended up going to a little secluded (at the time) area called Snipes Point which was seriously amazing, with the exception of me almost getting eaten by a shark. No joke. Ok, so that might be a slight exaggeration BUT I did see a shark and it was way too close for comfort. Especially since I was no where near the boat and the shark was swimming right at me and I had no where to go. Luckily it turned and I didn't get any super close encounters but it was close enough for me to pretty much not want to get back in the water. At all. Until I got drunk. Whoops. Once I get drunk all fear is out the door.

After the boat day we headed out to dinner and out for some adult beverages (are you sensing a trend yet? Seriously though, there's not much else to do in Key West besides eat, drink and be out in the sun). I was still plenty drunk from the boat and exhausted from treading water and being out in the sun all day so let's just say my enthusiasm was low. Ok. I'll admit it. I fell asleep. At a bar. In my defense it was a quiet, low lit bar and we were on a SUPER comfy couch. Don't judge. Or do, I don't mind. I feel like most of my comments are going to be about this paragraph....

Monday morning we slept in a bit so even though I had planned on doing some pictures that didn't happen. We did manage to go out and see a few things before grabbing lunch and of course the obligatory slice of key lime pie before hitting the road and making the 8 hour trip home. Sometimes I think we're crazy for driving 16 hours for 48 hours somewhere but every time I get to Key West it just feels worth it. Although I really am debating on going down at a different time next year and flying. I'm getting too old for this driving stuff!

Happy Friday (and early 4th of July) ya'll! I am currently on my way to KEY WEST!! Actually, by the time most of you wake up and read this I'll probably be almost to Key Largo so I'll be getting pretty anxious to get to Key West even though I'll still be a few hours out. Boo. I'm keeping this short and sweet because let's be real, I'm writing this Thursday night and I still need to pack... whoops! But I wanted to link up with my girl Amanda for our Friday Favorites before I left! I will be absent on Monday though while we start our trek back from vacation. I'll be back Tuesday though!

So for today's favorites I decided to do something a little different. Today I'm sharing with you my favorite things I'm taking with me to Key West!

 1. Up until Wednesday I had a completely different 4th of July outfit planned but now I'm planning on rocking this skirt and a different white crop top out with red lips and my red, white and blue bangles.


2. Seriously, how adorable are these koozies Kate got us for Key West? I can't wait to break them out when we get there! I had planned on ordering us cute little red, white and blue Vino 2 Go Tumblers for our trip but my birthday planning got in the way and I ended up forgetting all about it until Kate sent me this Snapchat {follow me @ pamelanicole84}. Whomp whomp.


3. I posted about this in a previous Friday Favorites post but I finally broke down and got it for Key West! I'll be sporting it all day today so look for it on Instagram!


4. I got this necklace for my birthday and I've been wearing it on repeat ever since. I'll definitely be rocking it in Key West since I'm not planning on bringing a lot of jewelry. Although just as an FYI if you plan on getting it, the gold in this picture is a LOT brighter/darker than the necklace actually is. At first I thought it was the silver one until I compared it to a silver necklace I have then I went to Kendra Scott's website and realized they definitely brightened the colors on the Nordstrom site.




5. I didn't get my nails done for our trip but I did do them myself last night and I decided to go with this fun red, white and blue confetti top coat over Essie Marshmallow. Since my outfit for the 4th is only white and blue this is how I'm subtly throwing in the red! Along with my red lips of course!

Hope everyone has an absolutely fabulous and safe 4th of July! I'll see you guys on Tuesday but feel free to follow along on our Key West adventures through Instagram!