my vacation....
so, i got to take my second week of vacation the past 7 days. what a 7 days it has been!
i left thursday to head up to st. louis for coop's wedding on saturday. i was in the wedding so i had to be there for the rehersal, rehersal dinner, etc. got there on thursday and hung out with brian for a while. we did some running around and then hung out until mccallen arrived. mccallen, amanda, and i played some wii for a while. then the 4 of us went out to a bar for some dinner. i got the philly cheesesteak with fries, which was pretty good. after dinner, brian lead us to his parents house, where mccallen and i would be staying the night. there i got to meet his mother and sister (i had already met his father during the bachelor party). soon after we went to bed.
as will become a common theme, i have the opportunity to sleep in, but i still wake up at 7 or 8 o'clock. dammit body, SLEEP! i spent the morning watching olympic soccer (so i got to see amost 3 full games!). at noon, brian and i headed over to the hotel to check in. got the room key, then we headed back to his parents house. when we got there, we found out that when i had awoken mccallen at 11:30, he acutally stayed awake. i thought he went back to sleep. sorry for leaving you there! sometime during the morning i had gotten a text from whit saying that they would be in town shortly. brian at at his parents (because he had things to do), so mccallen and i decided to meet whit and stephanie for lunch. we ended up eating at red robin. it was the first time i had eaten there. it was a little expensive, but i thought it was great. from there whit and steph followed mccallen and i to brian's parents house. unfortunately, i didn't know how long it would take to get to the rehersal, so we didn't stay there long.
the rehersal was a rehersal. what more could you say about it? after the rehersal we went to some place for dinner. (sorry, don't remember the name). it was pretty good food. unfortunately, too good. i ate too much, along with drinking too much (open bar, kinda). so, i didn't drink any more for the rest of the night. didn't get sick, just borderline. it was amusing to the others', though, because i developed some entertaining hiccups. after dinner, a group of us met at the bar by whit and steph's hotel. unfortunately, i didn't drink because they had some cheap drinks. got some good pics, and had a great time there hanging out with people, though. (what are some synonyms for ........)
the next day was the big day!!! of course i woke up early. so, i decided to check out the continental breakfast. got a muffin, and some doughnuts and watched the news. found out about bernie mac's death, :-( wasn't long before brian and his father picked up michael and i. first we went bowling. brian's dad is a pro. he smoked all of us. brian did well. and mccallen and i fought for last place. after bowling we ate lunch at some sandwich place. i guess they are known for their sandwiches. after that, we had some time to kill, so we went to a nearby eatery to have some drinks. brian had a washington apple, while i was busy being entertained by some apples (more like bushels). from there we headed over to the chapel. we got dressed there and waited around until the ceremony. we tried to play some cards, but the deck that mccallen brought wasn't a full deck. it had 3 king of hearts, no 10 of clubs, 2 jack of spades, etc.
the ceremony was good. the only problem i had was that i couldn't get any pictures of it :-( honestly, though, it was good. amanda looked amazing, as did the bridesmaids. of course us guys were dashing in our tuxes. after the ceremony came the pictures. yay for pictures. except for the wedding party, mccallen and i knew no one there. it was mucho fun. but, pictures are important in a time like this.
after the ceremony came the reception. the reception was interesting. as far as wedding receptions goes, it was good. not being a person that enjoys large gatherings of people, i thought it was ok. it was really great seeing all of the people that i hadn't seen in years. with the exception of brian, amanda, whit, stephanie, and mccallen, i don't think i had seen anyone in there in 3-5 years. so, that part of the reception was outstanding!
after the reception, some people wanted to go out. it was bedtime for me. i hit the hay and stayed that way until about 7 or 8 am. apparently i missed mccallen typing his blog entry, i was that tired. got up sunday morning early and did the same as the day before. checked out the news, ate, then got my stuff together. after some fun trying to find my gps, i headed over to brian's parents house for bunch. (yes, bunch, not brunch). the food was good, but after some time hanging out it was time to go. said my goodbyes and headed to the zoo. i had to stop there to get some things for some people. needless to say, that took forever.
hours later and i was finally home. i spent some time cleaning and watching the olympics before going to bed. on monday, my friend from montana arrived with his wife. after resting a bit, we headed over to fat mo's from some good burgers. to work off the burgers, we headed over to a park nearby and played some disc golf (frisbee golf). amazingly i was able to finish the course this time. i wasn't able to last time because of my shouder. nathan won by a long shot. after disc golf, we freshened up at my place before heading to my mom's. so, she finally got to meet nate's wife. we hung out a little, and picked up the air matress for nate and gina before heading over to my sister's. sister had to leave as soon as we got there, but we hung around till she got home with the kids. now, nate and gina got to meet 2 of my nephews. we got the golf clubs from my sister and bro-in-law and the parking pass from my sister before heading to nashville for dinner. after some bit of walking around, we finnally found the place we wanted to eat: rippy's. it's a bar-b-que place by the sommet center (where the predators play hockey). the food was ok, but overpriced. from nashville, we headed back to my place and watched olympics while play scattergories. i whooped them, but that's what you expect when they hadn't played much before (or at all).
we got up early the next morning to go play real golf. unfortunately, we got there right before a scramble was starting. so we were kinda rushed the entire time to keep ahead of them. having never played golf before, nate and gina did awesome. didn't have good form, but nate was only 4 strokes behind me. they more of rolled their balls than got them airborne. the reason i did so bad was because of my putting (which will come into play later as well). i could get on the green in 2 (in some cases), then take 4 or 5 putts to put it in. bastardo.
after golf, we went to hobbytown usa to look at their games and puzzles. i got a new game called fluxx. it's a card game where the rules change with each play of the card. you have to complete a goal to win. tough game, better with more players. after hobbytown we had lunch at olive garden. it was pretty good. from there, we went back to my sister's to drop off the stuff. then we headed back to my place to let the food settle. after a couple hours, we headed to opry mills to play some mini golf. there's a place there that has 3 courses for $9.50 a person. they have two regular 18 hole courses and one 9 hole challenge (pro) course. the regular courses were good, but challenging. the challenge course was VERY challenging. it has on the scorecard that it's not made to score hole-in-ones, but you have to set up your next shot carefully. this is where my putting killed me. there were 3 holes in partcular. one hole had 3 levels going down, with 1 foot gaps in between each. i got over all of them and next to the hold (which was about 30 feet away) in one stroke. it took me 4 or 5 more to make a 4-6 foot putt. rediculous. another hole had a gap, 3 paths (one to the hole, 2 not) then the hole. i made a good path and landed next to the hole. this was the only shot i made throughout the game. got a double eagle on it (shot 2 in a par 5). the last hole had 4 levels, 3 gaps, going up. yes you had to ramp them. i made all three ramps in one shot, got next to the hole, then took another 2 shots to make it. there was one hole where there was a giant hill, a 1 foot gap, then another 40 feet until the hole (around a corner). gina made this in one VERY lucky shot. if i hadn't seen it, i wouldn't have believed it. good job gina!
after minigolf (yes, that was the third time we played golf in 2 days!), we went to the bass pro shop. it was huge. they didn't have the best selection in each department, but they make up for it in the fact that they have so many departments. it was an interesting experience. from there we left to eat at T.G.I. Fridays. it was ok, but over priced (is that a theme?). then we went home and hung out watching the olympics before going to bed. nate and gina got up early (like 5 o'clock) and left to beat rush hour traffic in nashville.
so, i would say that is has been a great vacation. i got to see everyone i could have wanted to see in a vacation and got to do a lot of great things. thank you everyone for such a great time.
and again, congrats coop. oops, i guess we can't say that anymore. i guess i'll just have to say: congrats flound and FW!!!!