Lesson Learned

I have heard of this happening before, but me being the optimist I am and well lets just say that I don't always think things through, I didn't think that it would/could happen to me. Bring brand new sunblock with you on any vacation to the Sun.

Before I finished college and living in Ellensburg (December 2007), I thought I would use up all of my "food card money" on things that I could take with me. That entailed of cases of Starbucks Double Shots, cases of bottled water, and a butt-load of sunblock lotion SPF 15. It was a great idea as I had many plans of sitting out in the sun all summer (I was getting married and needed to be tan!) and with two trips to Mexico I was going to be stocked up! Needless to say, I didn't use all of it up. And as my life has been hectic since we came home from our Honeymoon to Cancun that stockpile of lotion has been sitting in our linen closet in our bathroom just waiting to be used.

On our recent vacation to the Caribbean, we brought our stockpile of sunblock. I knew that it was old, but it had worked last summer for the 30 min I spent outside on one of those hot days, just that one time. On our first day in the sun I wanted to make sure that my face was protected and my shoulders since they always seem to get burned, the rest of my body I thought would be just fine. Plus I wasn't planning on being in the sun too long and I rarely get burned at home (in Washington). Well the Caribbean is a lot closer to the sun, I fell asleep and just plumb stayed out in the sun a lot longer than planned. And guess what happened? Yep. You guessed it. I. Got. Burnt. Bad. I had the worst and strangest looking burn marks on my shoulders from the little bit of protection I got from the sunblock. Embarrassing. My body hurt so bad, we still had one more day at sea before our first stop to get more sunblock (it was going to be a lot cheaper off the boat). Not to mention that my backside was just as white as when I arrived, though it looked even more so with the comparison to the chile red pepper sunburned front side of my body. So the subsequent days of our trip I tried to even it out a little, using brand new sunblock that we got in St. Thomas and laid on my stomach to tan my backside. Even still by the last day of our trip my front side was still darker (and more red) than my backside could even hope to be...Oh well.

Lesson Learned. If you are going somewhere sunny for vacation and you haven't purchased sunblock in the last 3 months. You. Have. To. Buy. New. Sunblock. For. Your. Trip.

Has this ever happened to you? What is your worst burn story? Become a follower and leave a comment!!

Thanks!