Happy 4th!
My brother arrived last week for another summer of fun-filled working and general hanging out here with me. Sadly, I've been so completely drowning in work that yesterday afternoon was the first time I have been able to actually do anything fun with him. For nearly a week, I saw him at breakfast, had him drop me off at work, saw him at dinner, and saw him again when he popped his head in my room to say good-night. And I feel terribly about it. So I was glad yesterday afternoon to be able to take half of a day off to hang out with him.
We made it our goal to see some fireworks for the Fourth of July and despite there being fireworks all over the place around here, it took us the entire afternoon to figure out what to do. Finally we settled on going to a pro soccer game at the local Big Stadium where they claim to have the best fireworks display in the state. Never having seen a live soccer game before (or even one on TV in its entirety), I wasn't sure what to expect. At the very least, we ended up with some good stories to laugh about.
I was silly enough to pay attention to what was written on the soccer team's website about avoiding traffic delays and we arrived at the game 1.5 hours early. There were very few people there when we arrived, but we did get to see some of the pre-game entertainment. In the parking lot were crazy men on motorcycles doing stunts.
Those motorcycles turn out to be quite loud. We watched for a little while and then headed in to our seats. We still had well over an hour to kill, so we walked slowly around the nearly empty stadium (twice!) to see the sights and finally went in search of some dinner. Once in our seats and fed, we proceeded to watch the team warm up. You cannot tell in this picture how bright and sunny it was at this point, but trust me. It was a beautiful afternoon.
But once the game started, the skies opened up and the predicted "scattered showers" dumped down upon us. I think that some meteorologists have a different definition of 'scattered showers' than I do. This particular experience was not dissimilar to someone standing above you with a large bucket of water that never empties. The game went on for about 15 minutes in the pouring rain before the powers that be finally delayed the game and suggested we seek shelter on the inside concourse.
45 minutes (and one crowded lap around the stadium) later, the game resumed. Still in the rain, but this time with added occasional lightning. Maybe it was supposed to be ExtremeSoccer, and we just didn't get the memo. Anyhow, at halftime we were entertained with one of the funniest things I have seen in a very long time: Mascot Soccer. Mascots from local universities, sports teams, Chick-fil-A, and even the local aquarium competed in a little 10-minute game.
Great hijinx ensued. The two Chick-fil-A cows got into a little tiff, there was a 8+ mascot pileup at one point (which I attribute to a distint lack of peripheral vision in those huge costumes)... But I think that the Octopus mascot (the light purple guy with extraneous arms around waist level, in case you cannot tell) was by far my favorite. The poor guy had quite the turning radius and I think was somewhat soccer-challenged as a result.
The real soccer game finally ended late in the evening (we won!) and we eagerly awaited our original purpose: the fireworks. Eight (or at least it felt like 8) patriotic songs later, we got our wish.
So, in closing, I hope everyone out there had a happy, entertaining, and dry 4th of July this year. :) Ours was good, just not terribly dry.
We made it our goal to see some fireworks for the Fourth of July and despite there being fireworks all over the place around here, it took us the entire afternoon to figure out what to do. Finally we settled on going to a pro soccer game at the local Big Stadium where they claim to have the best fireworks display in the state. Never having seen a live soccer game before (or even one on TV in its entirety), I wasn't sure what to expect. At the very least, we ended up with some good stories to laugh about.
I was silly enough to pay attention to what was written on the soccer team's website about avoiding traffic delays and we arrived at the game 1.5 hours early. There were very few people there when we arrived, but we did get to see some of the pre-game entertainment. In the parking lot were crazy men on motorcycles doing stunts.
Those motorcycles turn out to be quite loud. We watched for a little while and then headed in to our seats. We still had well over an hour to kill, so we walked slowly around the nearly empty stadium (twice!) to see the sights and finally went in search of some dinner. Once in our seats and fed, we proceeded to watch the team warm up. You cannot tell in this picture how bright and sunny it was at this point, but trust me. It was a beautiful afternoon.
But once the game started, the skies opened up and the predicted "scattered showers" dumped down upon us. I think that some meteorologists have a different definition of 'scattered showers' than I do. This particular experience was not dissimilar to someone standing above you with a large bucket of water that never empties. The game went on for about 15 minutes in the pouring rain before the powers that be finally delayed the game and suggested we seek shelter on the inside concourse.45 minutes (and one crowded lap around the stadium) later, the game resumed. Still in the rain, but this time with added occasional lightning. Maybe it was supposed to be ExtremeSoccer, and we just didn't get the memo. Anyhow, at halftime we were entertained with one of the funniest things I have seen in a very long time: Mascot Soccer. Mascots from local universities, sports teams, Chick-fil-A, and even the local aquarium competed in a little 10-minute game.
Great hijinx ensued. The two Chick-fil-A cows got into a little tiff, there was a 8+ mascot pileup at one point (which I attribute to a distint lack of peripheral vision in those huge costumes)... But I think that the Octopus mascot (the light purple guy with extraneous arms around waist level, in case you cannot tell) was by far my favorite. The poor guy had quite the turning radius and I think was somewhat soccer-challenged as a result.
The real soccer game finally ended late in the evening (we won!) and we eagerly awaited our original purpose: the fireworks. Eight (or at least it felt like 8) patriotic songs later, we got our wish.
So, in closing, I hope everyone out there had a happy, entertaining, and dry 4th of July this year. :) Ours was good, just not terribly dry.
posted by Meredith | 3:46 PM
2 Comments:
I love the pictures! I think the mascot soccer sounds fun.
referring back to earlier discussions about y-chomosomes, i must ask how many of the people on the motorcycles were women. i'm betting NONE! these pictures are all way cool though--i have the jealousy.
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