Let's start with last weekend, I had a long overdue vaca with two of my best friends from college, Nicole and Tiffany. Both my sorority sisters and I just love them. With both of them, we have one of those friendships where you always seem to pick right up where you left off. Nicole lives in Prattville, Ala., and I haven't seen her since Christmas. Tiffany lives in Mobile, Ala., and I hadn't seen her face since Christmas ... 2010. A reunion was way overdue.
Needless to say, we had an amazing time.
Here's a brief overview of the goings ons. I flew from Jacksonville to Charlotte to Mobile. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was a really ridiculous route but apparently that was the only one that was availble. I had a great flight - that was welcomed because it was the first time I've ever flown alone. I haven't flown much and when I was younger, I had only flown with my dad.
Since then, I've taken a few trips (a couple that were long) with Josh. It's all very paternalistic when I think about it, I guess. I've only flown with my husband and my father (my mom doesn't fly). But they are the two people I trust the most. This time I was going it alone, which thanks to some happy pills, went off without a hitch.
Eitherwhoo, so Tiffany picked me up at the airport. Then took me to her house where I FINALLY got to meet her sweet daughter, Charlotte. She's nearly a year old and such a doll baby. Harris (Tiff's hubs) made some awesome chicken and we settled in for the night. So awesome to see them again. I spent many a night with those two in college. It was great to reminisce.
On Friday, Tiff and I left Harris and baby girl to head down to Gulf Shores for the big music fest (Backing up - we went to the Hangout Festival ... headlined by none other than my all time favorite artist, Dave Matthews. Not sure if you remembered that.)
We had lunch, picked up groceries and met up with our roomies for the weekend - Jamie and Carrie. Once we were all checked into the condo, we had to get into the big ol' fluster clucker of getting shuttle passes and all that jazz. It mostly felt like we were caught up in a revolving door ... a revolving door in stifling heat. None of the fest's personnel seemed to know where to send us to pick up the passes. We spent almost an hour pinging from place to place asking folks where the "will call" tent was .... aggravating. But whatev.
Nicole came down later. And, really, it was just like old times. We had some cocktails then zipped along to the concert. And at this point, I was glad for the shuttle passes though we had to jump through hoops to get them. We were staying three miles from the festival site and none of us were going to be in any shape to cover six miles to and from. So shuttles - yes please.
That night, we caught Wilco and Jack White. I really didn't know much about Jack White before I went, other than he was in the White Stripes ... but wow. He was unreal. Crazy talented.
Me and Nicole ... and the staple ferris wheel in the back. Notice my beer? That's a $7 Bud Light, my friends.
The show was actually on the beach. Well there were two stages on opposite ends of the beach. The other stages were on asphalt and located out to the sides. Four stages in all. It wasn't that big of a trek between the two ... but there were SO many people --- like a wall of people, that made movement difficult. See?
Tiffany transverses the crowd. I swear everyone we encountered was the same person. It was like a sea of doppelgangers ... all dressed like they fell straight out of a Forever 21 ad.
Friday night was really the only "bad" turn we had during the entire weekend. Somewhere along the way when we were moving around - trying to avoid getting whacked by the hoola hoop girl - I lost my sandal. Just one. I loved those shoes. So cute. But the sands swallowed one up. I tried to find it, digging around and suspiciously eyeing everyone's feet but I gave up. It was gone. I figured I might as well toss the other too. What would the point be in holding onto it? Then I had to walk back to the shuttle bare footed (of course, I wasn't alone with a bunch of 18-year-old wanna be hippies).
After the concert Friday night, we went back to the condo and hit the hay. Seriously we were in bed before midnight. Score.
On to Saturday. We ate some fruit for breakfast and headed down to the oceanfront pool at the condo. I floated around the pool and we drank lots of water. Hydration. Yes, it's good. Then we got ready to head back to the festival site. We caught Dispatch ... one of my favorite bands from college. They were GREAT. Loved every bit of it. As did the other folks watching it with us.
The shot from behind us as we faced the main stage
Another photo from the wire
We headed back to the condo to regroup (and cool off for a bit). Then made our way to prepare for Red Hot Chili Peppers. I have always liked the band but I wasn't what I would describe as being a "fan." Although I do know a lot of their songs, just from the radio. But oh my. They were outstanding. High energy and just a blast. Loved them.
We went to get onto the shuttles again but this time ... there was a sea of people trying to get on it at the same time. I mean thousands of sweaty, smelly, sunburned and drunk 20-somethings trying to get on the buses too.
Funny sidebar: Whilst we were standing in line ... I heard one of the funniest stories of the weekend. I was eavesdropping on a conversation taking place between two girls behind me. One says to the other, "You should have seen this chick who was standing by us. She got butt a$$ naked and was running around. The police kept chasing her but she was bobbing and weaving." Which I can only imagine isn't a good look for anyone. Still, I think that was hilarious. For you Family Guy devotees, it reminded me of the naked deaf guy. Sadly, Josh doesn't know who I'm talking about.
Back to the line - after about 20 mins. of waiting, Tiff and Nicole have had enough and decided to walk to Tiffany's cousin's (Judd and his wife, Dove's) beach house. Turns out, it was the best idea ever. Not only did they live right around the corner, they were so nice. They gave us water, beer then had one of their friends, another couple drive us back to the condo. They even gifted us a roll of toilet paper (we were out at the condo - we had made the unfortunate discovery earlier). I asked Tiff - "who are these people? Are they angels?"
Between the TP, the beer and the ride - they are friggin saints in my book.
We made it in and, again, were asleep before 1 a.m. - pretty good. Then it was Sunday. The biggest day. The Dave Matthews day. We started by sleeping in a bit then heading out to get a nice lunch (up til then we were eating at the condo - lots of turkey sandwiches). The girls and I had yummy sea food then it was time to head back to the festival to see Michael Franti and Spearhead.
Me and Tiff and the ferris wheel
Me and Nicole at the ferris wheel ... we're standing in line to get tap water here. OR you could by a small Dasani for $3. Oy.
First off, the singer looked as though he couldn't stand up very well and didn't sing into the microphone. I was singing all of their songs and I could hear myself but not the person with massive speakers. Really?
It's a shame because look at all the people who came to see them. Most of them were wasted face and didn't care but I did. And I had talked them up all weekend. Big disappointment.
Photo courtesy of the AP wire
I was disappointed. But I was still so excited about Dave I wasn't down long. We made a FAST trip back to the condo and changed. Then arrived two-plus hours before Dave's concert. We dug in - literally - and waited. We actually linked up with some hilarious folks from Mississippi. And we all allied to keep our seats safe.
We found Jaime and Carrie too.
Nicole, Tiff and me.
We waited until 8:20 (he was supposed to start at 8 p.m. but it's DAVE MATTHEWS and he can do whatever he wants as far as I'm concerned). Then he came out. AND opened with Big Eyed Fish - fitting considering we were by the ocean. Oh he was so good. They were all good. We danced and sang - didn't miss a word. It was perfect. *sigh* Anyway. It didn't last nearly long enough and before we knew it ... we were back in the car - we opted out of the shuttles that night. And we sang ourselves all the way home.
Monday morning it was back to reality. I had to get everything together and make it to the airport. I bid Nicole farewell and Tiff dropped me off. I was sad to see them go but SUPER excited to see Josh. I had another couple of fantab flights. I sat with this engineer from Virginia Tech on the flight from Mobile to Charlotte. He was nice. And apparently, he went to the Flaming Lips concert. They covered the entire Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" album. Apparently on the song "Money" they threw out $10,000 to the crowd. Yeah. Hate I missed that. But they played right before Dave played Sunday so we couldn't have gotten our stellar seats. I would take digging-in for Dave any day.
Great time you had! I went with my friend Joy and had a stellar time as well! Her and I are HUGE HUGE HUGE RHCP fans and we thought getting there 4 hours early would be enough time to get up front...Well, needless to say, we only managed to get to about the 12th row (that's fine. We had almost front row seats in Atlanta when they placed this year..I digress..) because everyone had the same idea and people had been there since 11:00 a.m.!! UGHH!! if only I had known....
ReplyDeleteAnyway, glad you had fun! It really got on my nerves that all the 18 year old hippies dressed like they were going to Coachella or something. lol
Haha - I know right? I'm like you're not fooling anyone kid - you're 18 and shop at Forever 21. You are on a beach in Alabama get the eff over yourself. Haha!
ReplyDelete