Wow, what a great weekend. It’s a rare thing when I do so much in that time. Thursday night, Bionca and I went outside to watch someone in our apartment complex shoot off some fireworks. One of the guys had some good ones that were almost professional grade. It was a nice little bonus, and we enjoyed it while laughing at the dude across the street try to blow his hand off.
We woke up the next morning and met with Katie and Nicole at Nicole’s place and went to Ormond Beach. It was really nice. We met up with some of Katie and Nicole’s other friends and hung out there until a bit after noon. It surprised me how cold the water was. It really didn’t feel much warmer than when we went in May. I was able to get in, and after a time it didn’t feel that bad. Most of our time spent there was trying to play a version of volley ball, but we all sucked and wound up just hitting the ball and someone else running after it most of the time. I brought the body boards, and I go to go out on the waves for a bit. The waves were a bit too infrequent for my taste, but of decent quality once they finally came in. As a result, I spent a bit of time just bobbing with the surf rolling in. I really love that sensation. I could likely have stayed there for much longer. This time though, I didn’t get burned. I was almost obcessive about reapplying the sunscreen, and I just came home with a bit of a tan.
After we left the beach, we went home to clean off, and get ready for the fireworks at Lake Eola. The fireworks were scheduled to go off at 9pm, so we decided to try to get there by 7pm, and make sure to get a good spot. What we didn’t know was that it was a much larger affair than a fireworks display, and there were already a ton of people there. It took us quite a while to find parking, but we finally were able to. Unfortunately, we parked on the complete opposite side of the lake from Katie, so we hiked all the way arround.
We finally found them, and wound up in a great spot that was really close to where they were being shot off. Some other of Katie and Nicole’s friends were there, and we just hung out while waiting. As much as a pain as it was to carry that blanket all the way out there, I was very glad for it. We were able to set up and relax while watching the show. I actually laid down completely since they were practically right over our heads. The other thing that made it nice was that they had the spectrum glasses. I had never watched a fireworks show with them before, and I must say it was rather cool. With the way that we played with those things would would likely have thought that we had dropped acid. They really did a nice job with the show. It was one of the better fireworks displays that I had seen up to that point.
Saturday was NASCAR day. John had won tickets from his job, and he had two extra tickets, so they invited Bionca and I. Once again, we got there “early,” and once again we found out that we were late to the party. There is a ton of stuff that is going on outside of the track. Most of it was not stuff that I was particularly interested in, as it was just basiclly big advertisements. We dod go into a few of the things, and I must say that they were impressive, but the only good thing out of it was a little gift pack that I got from one booth. The good thing about it was that it came with a little fan, some asperine (and other small drugs), and a seat coushin. The coushin wasn’t much, but it was a world better than the hard seat. Also, the fan an the aperine came in handy as well.
After walking around the sideshow we got some food at one of the few vendors that were there (I was shocked at how little food there was available). It was really good though. It was basically a colombian roast beef roasted over a fire on a pike, but they had this sofreto-like dressing/sauce for it that made it fantastic. I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a ton of time to eat, so I basically ate the thing while walking up the stairs to our seats.
The race started on time, and with pretty big fan-fare. It’s quite an event they do. At first I tried staying seated, figuring that people would get tired of standing the whole time, but no instead they just start sitting while the cars are on the opposite side of the track, and stand then they reach the turn coming up. Eventually, I was joing the rest of the yahoos. It frustrated me because if everyone would just stay seated, everyone would be able to see. So it was one jerk who would start a chain reaction of jerks, until we were all jerks. I tweeted throughout the race, as I was only partly interested in it.
NASCAR just isn’t my thing. I mean I must say that I was excited for Kyle Busch because of him falling to 32nd and working his way back up to win, but ultimately it didn’t spark a real interest in me. I’ve been to other sporting events, and every once of them had me more interested (including high school football) than the race. One thing at the end that was really impressive to me was the fireworks show. It was the most intense display that I have ever seen, and only not as impressive as Disney because of the other things that Disney does with it. The show must have lasted like 15 minutes in total, and went full force almost the whole time. I was very impressed. I don’t know if they do that for every race, or just because of the holiday weekend, but I really enjoyed it. All in all, it was a great time.
Sunday, Bionca worked so I was home alone, and took the time to do some laundry, play DDO (which I hadn’t in a while), and buy some groceries. We woke up late since we had gotten in at 2 am or so. It was nice to relax with all of the walking that we did the previous two days. I was pretty pooped.
I think that that was about as great of a weekend as I can expect. Thanks to everyone that made it so!
Here’s some of the pictures that I took.
We woke up the next morning and met with Katie and Nicole at Nicole’s place and went to Ormond Beach. It was really nice. We met up with some of Katie and Nicole’s other friends and hung out there until a bit after noon. It surprised me how cold the water was. It really didn’t feel much warmer than when we went in May. I was able to get in, and after a time it didn’t feel that bad. Most of our time spent there was trying to play a version of volley ball, but we all sucked and wound up just hitting the ball and someone else running after it most of the time. I brought the body boards, and I go to go out on the waves for a bit. The waves were a bit too infrequent for my taste, but of decent quality once they finally came in. As a result, I spent a bit of time just bobbing with the surf rolling in. I really love that sensation. I could likely have stayed there for much longer. This time though, I didn’t get burned. I was almost obcessive about reapplying the sunscreen, and I just came home with a bit of a tan.
After we left the beach, we went home to clean off, and get ready for the fireworks at Lake Eola. The fireworks were scheduled to go off at 9pm, so we decided to try to get there by 7pm, and make sure to get a good spot. What we didn’t know was that it was a much larger affair than a fireworks display, and there were already a ton of people there. It took us quite a while to find parking, but we finally were able to. Unfortunately, we parked on the complete opposite side of the lake from Katie, so we hiked all the way arround.
We finally found them, and wound up in a great spot that was really close to where they were being shot off. Some other of Katie and Nicole’s friends were there, and we just hung out while waiting. As much as a pain as it was to carry that blanket all the way out there, I was very glad for it. We were able to set up and relax while watching the show. I actually laid down completely since they were practically right over our heads. The other thing that made it nice was that they had the spectrum glasses. I had never watched a fireworks show with them before, and I must say it was rather cool. With the way that we played with those things would would likely have thought that we had dropped acid. They really did a nice job with the show. It was one of the better fireworks displays that I had seen up to that point.
Saturday was NASCAR day. John had won tickets from his job, and he had two extra tickets, so they invited Bionca and I. Once again, we got there “early,” and once again we found out that we were late to the party. There is a ton of stuff that is going on outside of the track. Most of it was not stuff that I was particularly interested in, as it was just basiclly big advertisements. We dod go into a few of the things, and I must say that they were impressive, but the only good thing out of it was a little gift pack that I got from one booth. The good thing about it was that it came with a little fan, some asperine (and other small drugs), and a seat coushin. The coushin wasn’t much, but it was a world better than the hard seat. Also, the fan an the aperine came in handy as well.
After walking around the sideshow we got some food at one of the few vendors that were there (I was shocked at how little food there was available). It was really good though. It was basically a colombian roast beef roasted over a fire on a pike, but they had this sofreto-like dressing/sauce for it that made it fantastic. I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a ton of time to eat, so I basically ate the thing while walking up the stairs to our seats.
The race started on time, and with pretty big fan-fare. It’s quite an event they do. At first I tried staying seated, figuring that people would get tired of standing the whole time, but no instead they just start sitting while the cars are on the opposite side of the track, and stand then they reach the turn coming up. Eventually, I was joing the rest of the yahoos. It frustrated me because if everyone would just stay seated, everyone would be able to see. So it was one jerk who would start a chain reaction of jerks, until we were all jerks. I tweeted throughout the race, as I was only partly interested in it.
NASCAR just isn’t my thing. I mean I must say that I was excited for Kyle Busch because of him falling to 32nd and working his way back up to win, but ultimately it didn’t spark a real interest in me. I’ve been to other sporting events, and every once of them had me more interested (including high school football) than the race. One thing at the end that was really impressive to me was the fireworks show. It was the most intense display that I have ever seen, and only not as impressive as Disney because of the other things that Disney does with it. The show must have lasted like 15 minutes in total, and went full force almost the whole time. I was very impressed. I don’t know if they do that for every race, or just because of the holiday weekend, but I really enjoyed it. All in all, it was a great time.
Sunday, Bionca worked so I was home alone, and took the time to do some laundry, play DDO (which I hadn’t in a while), and buy some groceries. We woke up late since we had gotten in at 2 am or so. It was nice to relax with all of the walking that we did the previous two days. I was pretty pooped.
I think that that was about as great of a weekend as I can expect. Thanks to everyone that made it so!
Here’s some of the pictures that I took.
One Comment on “Independence Day Weekend”
You can track this conversation through its atom feed.
It was so great to see you guys and hang out this weekend!!!!!
Posted on July 10, 2008 at 2:21 pm.