back to the sea {baker beach with hanes}

Fleece crewneck sweatshirt and men's tagless comfortsoft dyed a-shirt: Hanes; Shorts: Levis; Sandals: Old Navy; Hat: Hat Attack; Sunglasses: Ray-Ban; Bag: Everlane; Necklace: Jennifer Zeuner; Bathing suit: Mikoh

"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea - whether it is to sail or to watch it - we are going back from whence we came." ~ John F. Kennedy 

As much as I love the pace and energy of a city, there's something undeniably special about being able to stand right next to the ocean, with your toes sinking in the sand, waves lapping against your legs, and just feeling small. I've shared my thoughts around this before here on the blog, particularly in this post when I was reflecting on how I felt about leaving California for the opposite coast.

And my answer and feelings are the same as before. I will always be a city girl. But I'll also always crave the ocean.

Fortunately, moving from one coast to another means I'm never far from the sea and perhaps even more fortunately, working with a predominately San Francisco based team means I also get to visit my beloved Pacific Ocean pretty regularly. When I do visit, I try to fit in some dedicated beach time, and if the weather cooperates, I'll hop in to catch a few waves.

One of my favorite San Francisco beach haunts would have to be Baker Beach. It's tucked right behind the Dr. Seuss-esque trees of the Presidio with a breathtaking view of the Golden Gate Bridge flanked on one side. More often than not, it's shrouded in fog, but that rarely stops me from heading out with a blanket, a few friends and a 6-pack of something hoppy to just catch up and lose track of time. For these occasions, I love throwing on a trusty pair of perfectly distressed shorts, a wide brim panama hat, a slouchy sweatshirt and ribbed tank, like these by Hanes, to cozy up and breathe the ocean air in.

You might recall from earlier last year when I partnered with Hanes to share a few of my low-key weekend moments so I was excited to partner with them again to share how I incorporate the heritage brand in my off duty looks. For me, my beach moments are my time to disconnect and reflect, to run around, to muss my hair up with salty water, to splash others, to surf, to yell out to the waves and feel both invincible and humbled at the same time. It's important to me to feel untethered and just ready to run at full speed if I want to and I love my outfit to keep up, even if that just means I'm draping it over a nearby log before hopping into the ocean myself to surf a few waves. Hanes does that for me -- it's undeniably soft and comfortable, but packs just the right amount of laissez faire style that I think embodies the California spirit so well.

Photos by Anna-Alexia Basile 

This post was in collaboration with Hanes. As always, all opinions and styling are my own. Thank you for supporting all This Time Tomorrow collaborations!