Travel Tuesday: Santorini Part II

Another Tuesday, another travel tale.  Today I have more pictures to share from my stay on Santorini! Specifically the pictures I have here are from where we stayed on the island - Kamari Beach.  The hotel we stayed in looks pretty in the pictures, but the rooms were horrible and like I said last week if you're going to Santorini, stay in Fira it's a much nicer part of the island then this.

The outside of the hotel was really the nicest part of the whole place.  I do have to say the pool was not bad at all and I honestly thought about sleeping out there.  (Not really, but it was way nicer than our room!)  However, there were a lot of stray animals in Kamari and if you sat by the pool at night they would come out to bother you.  I was Skyping my Mom one night and I had multiple stray cats and a dog staring at me, which on top of breaking my heart (the strays in Greece just killed me as an animal lover) made me really nervous.  The hotel was also right next to the Santorini airport so there were constantly planes overhead, coming and going at all hours of the day and night.  Although not ideal it was pretty cool at times to watch the planes land from the beach.

The beach in front of the hotel was a black rock beach with the most crystal clear water I have ever seen.  I took a walk on the beach one day by myself to take pictures and was able to get these beautiful shots. I asked a couple that was sunbathing on the beach to take a picture of me and they landed up taking like 20 photos without me even realizing.  It worked out really well though because then I had my choice of pictures to choose from!

I really loved how clear the water was here.  I was quite amused with the fact that you could see everything and had to take a few pictures of my feet to show my Mom exactly what it was like!  Not far from the hotel, just a short walk up this beach, was the quaint little town of Kamari Beach where I spent the day walking around.  Next Tuesday I'll have all the information on my time spent in the town including the amazing fish pedicure I had that you cannot get in the States!

  

                

Make sure to add me on Snapchat - @kthomp22!

Today I'm linking up with Travel Tuesday and #TrendingTuesday.

Beauty Review: LUSH Vanilla Dee-Lite Body Lotion

I gave you a little insight into how wonderful Lush's Vanilla Dee-Lite was last week when it made my Must Haves of the Moment list.  I picked this up a few weeks ago when I was at my favorite Lush location on Walnut Street in Philadelphia (if you ever get the chance to go there the staff is awesome and so knowledgeable).  I was looking for a body lotion that would work well for summer time and absorb quickly; I had previously used Sympathy for the Skin and was very happy with it, but wanted to try something different this time.  After playing around with several lotions I decided on Vanilla Dee-Lite because of its light texture and yummy scent.

From the minute I started using this it has been fantastic!  There's nothing I hate more about a lotion then a sticky after feeling, especially in the summer with the humidity, but there is no stickiness with Vanilla Dee-Lite.  Its super light consistency allows the lotion to instantly absorb into your skin, which is something I absolutely love.  In addition to the great texture, it has incredible moisturizing properties.  The lotion is packed with coconut oil, coconut water, hibiscus infusion, and illipe butter that all work to make your skin super soft.  Kiwis are also blended into the lotion to add vitamins and minerals to this powerful formula.  These ingredients all come together to really hydrate skin, and make it silky.  All of the ingredients in this lotion are natural or safe synthetics, and this is a vegan product, meaning that it does not contain animal products of any kind; these are each properties that I like because I feel like it is a healthier product to use on my body.  I know I mentioned before the scent, but it's something that I want to tell you a little more about.  As you can imagine Vanilla Dee-Lite has a beautiful Vanilla scent (the Lush website explains that it is scented with their "famous Vanillary fragrance"), I have to say though that I like it better on the skin then in the bottle - I can't even explain why it just smells better when you're wearing it.  The best part is that the scent lasts seemingly forever so you don't even have to wear perfume if you don't want to, but if you do it's light enough that it mixes nicely with other fragrances.

I put this lotion on right when I get out of the shower and allow it to really sink in while I do my hair.  A little of it goes a long way, and you need much less than I initially thought to cover your whole body.  A few weeks ago I had surgery and couldn't shower regularly because of stitches I had, so I would put this on to 'freshen up' and to make myself feel a little better.  It kept my skin in good shape and helped me to smell pretty and feel it too!).

If you're looking for a lotion I really recommend giving Lush's Vanilla Dee-Lite a try.  It's a great body product that I have become obsessed with using.  I can definitely see this luxe lotion being a must have of mine for a long time to come!

Do you use any of Lush's beauty products?  What do you think of their natural approach to beauty?

  

                

Make sure to add me on Snapchat - @kthomp22!

Today I'm linking up with On the Daily Express and More Pieces of Me, MIMM, #HowISummer, Monday Must Haves, Monday Morning Gossip, and Monday Morning MakeUp Madness.

The Haskell with America's Best Racing

So I had originally intended to have this post up yesterday, but my parents sold their house a while back and Wednesday was our big moving day!  Needless to say all of yesterday was spent trying to unpack (I'm not sure how helpful I actually am!) and sorting out different things so I had to take off from this little space for the day.  I'm back though with a follow up to Wednesday's post where I talked about Ladies' Day at Monmouth Park Racetrack. Today I'm going to tell you all about the main event of this past weekend, Sunday's William Hill Haskell Invitational that I attended with America's Best Racing.

The Haskell is Monmouth Park's biggest race of the year and is fêted in style.  America's Best Racing had their fabulous tour bus on site again, and I remembered to get some outside shots of it this time to share here (for pictures of the inside check out this post).  This tour bus was a delightful space to escape the crowds and cool down with the air conditioning since the track was very hot and crowded on Sunday.  I brought my family (Mom, Dad, and Sister), and two friends with me to the track, and we all felt quite special getting to hang out on this awesome bus.

One of my favorite parts of the Haskell was how dressed up everyone got.  On Wednesday I said that Ladies' Day showcased how glamorous racing really is, but that is honestly a sentiment that carried through the whole weekend.  Not only does the fashion aspect demonstrate the glamour, but the tradition and class that come with this sport, as well.  I was in love with the hat that Victoria, an Ambassador for America's Best Racing, had on with the peacock feathers, it was just fabulous!  My Mom and sister got in on the fun with fascinators and I wore a big hat in the sun.  The girls from the Lilly Pulitzer Shops at Riverside were back on Sunday with the Lilly Jeep, and they looked so cute that I had to take their picture in front of it!  (Fun fact: They made the adorable hats they have on!)

We spent a lot of time in the paddock watching the horses be brought in and out; it's fun to watch the horses and then go bet on them because you get to see who you've picked.  The awesome people at America's Best Racing escorted us into the paddock and everyone really enjoyed getting to spend time in there.  We not only took pictures with our group, but with other bloggers that America's Best Racing had as guests, and of course of all the beautiful horses!

We all did a little betting at the track, but unfortunately we did not do well on the final race with our horses not coming in at all!  However I think everyone made a little money and had a good time so all was good.  It's quite interesting to listen to the people who know all about betting because it gets so complicated.  I feel like it's something though that once you learn, you've got it down; maybe one day I'll actually learn it!  However, for now I will stick to picking my horses based on names, numbers, colors, and pretty horses!

If you have a track near your house I recommend you to stop by and spend a few hours so you can experience this truly unique sport for yourself.  If you do this I really encourage you to dress up so you can enjoy the sport and all it has to offer in style!  This was a wonderful weekend and I hope to be able to go to next year's Haskell festivities!  Thank you to my family and friends for coming with me, and thank you to America's Best Racing, especially our favorite Ambassador Victoria, for having us!

  

                

Make sure to add me on Snapchat - @kthomp22!