The spring time cold is slowly starting to dissipate, and the summer sun is breaking through the fog. Finally, school is out for the summer, so grab your bathing suit, sunglasses, your SPF 50, along with your other summer essentials and hit the beach. But what is really essential to make sure your summer festivities start off without a hitch? What occupies the number one spot of your summer essentials list? A fully stocked picnic basket with a cooling ice cold drink? Or the stock pile of aloe vera oil because you just know you will be getting burnt. No matter what you deem most important while planning for the endless days of sitting on the beach, there are some things one must possess in order to have the most awesome summer ever.

1. Sunscreen, Lots and Lots of Sunscreen: No matter how many times you say to yourself, “Oh I don’t burn. I put sunscreen on this morning,” you haven’t used enough. There is never enough protection against the harmful UV rays that one day could lead to cancer and wrinkles. So, just save yourself some pain and wear the damn sunscreen.
2. Life Saving Aloe Vera: The sun is hot, it has always been hot and as much as you don’t want the sun to burn you, it will. So be prepared and get some aloe vera oil because it’s a life saver. So, once you return home as red as a ripe tomato after a long day at the beach with your senile mind having forgotten to reapply the SPF, this is when you remember that you have some handy dandy aloe just waiting to be used.
3. Extremely Big Beach Towel: To finish the list, we have the beach towel. It’s not just any beach towel — not one that just barely covers your body and allows sand to mix with your food —no, it’s a towel that’s big enough for three people to lay on, but you keep it all to yourself. The towel is there to protect you and your food, because, let’s face it, there’s nothing worse than being covered in sand while trying to eat you food.