arieljasmine
<font color=magenta>Who says these things pass you
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2004
- Messages
- 6,098
Thursday 25 February 2010 - Day Eight
The alarm went off at 6.50 am, so we got up and dressed in our tailgating outfits and Eric had some cereal and yogurt. We set out for Port Orleans French Quarter to meet Kari for breakfast at 8.15 am. Kari was just getting her breakfast when we arrived - beignets and apple slices. Me and Eric grabbed a table with Kari whilst Andy got us some breakfast - a cheese, egg and bacon croissant and two Mickey waffles with bacon and apple sauce. We all (except Eric, of course!) stocked up on coffee too. Kari told us about the concert she had been to the previous night and told us how Jimmy Buffett had shown up there and she had some photos of him. One of the cast members came round and gave Eric two strings of beads so he was already in the carnival spirit.
After breakfast, Kari moved her stuff into our car and we set off for the Amway Arena where the tailgate was being held for the Jimmy Buffett concert that evening. Kari brought her sat nav but it still managed to get us lost and the arena was not really signposted at all. Luckily, Kari had someone she could call for directions so we found our way there eventually. I really saw another side to Florida that morning, the poverty that was evident just a few miles from Disney was a shock to me.
We paid $10 to get into the parking lot, found a space and headed off to look for Kari's friends. For those of you wondering what the heck a tailgate is, I
will try to explain though it's kinda hard to quantify. Tailgating is common in the US before concerts and sporting events. Fans get into the parking lot
as early as possible (Kari tells me they party in the streets until the police open the parking lots!) and set up bars, barbeques, games and decorations, and basically eat and drink and play until it's time for the event. Some people (like we did) go just for the tailgate. Certainly for Jimmy Buffett, most
people dress up in island casuals and one or two more "out there" outfits. People bring coolers full of alcohol and share it with not only their friends but
other Parrotheads who come to visit their little camp.
We found it a bit of an alien concept as Britishers that you would be allowed to get drunk and still get into a concert, or more particularly, a sporting
event. I'm not sure you can get into a Premier League football match if you had a Babycham a week last Tuesday, to be honest. And also the concept that people share their drinks, we just couldn't imagine it happening in Britain. That said, we were very excited to be invited to partake in such an American
institution, and realise that it's unlikely we would have had this opportunity if it wasn't for Kari. Kari has been telling me stories about tailgating for
years so I couldn't wait to see what it was all about.
We checked out the camp that Kari's friends had set up, complete with my favourite flag "Time flies when you're having rum" and met the host.
We then had a walk round the rest of the parking lot to check out other people's rigs.
We also saw the official Margaritaville trailer being set up and Eric spent a while driving the pretend boat.
We talked to several people on the way round and one guy asked if he could take our photo and he gave Eric a lei. He also gave us his card so that we could check out the photos when we got home. (I looked at the pictures and love that he has captioned the one of Eric, "This is Eric, he is from England" - I don't know why but it made me laugh!)
Back at the host rig, we were offered jello shots to kick off the drinking which were very nice. Andy had a little difficulty getting his jelly out of the
pot!
We ate some food from the buffet to line our stomachs - a hot dog, some crisps, cheese and trail mix. Mmm, that trail mix was good. I also had a beer, a mango daiquiri and a dreamsicle (orange soda, vanilla ice cream and rum) as the day wore on. I was pretty merry because I am rubbish at drinking during the day and am also a complete lightweight since I gave up drinking for nine months! So this part of the report probably isn't very linear, but it definitely
all happened!
At some point, we were back up at the Margaritaville trailer and I was asked if I would like to be the first person to have an official temporary tattoo. I,
of course, obliged and started a bit of a trend!
Someone who was driving around on a golf cart gave Eric a landshark tattoo (which, of course, we didn't put on him but I still thought it was nice). Eric
joined in with a couple of games - one was throwing a rope with a ball attached to either end on to a ladder and the other was a bean bag toss. The man at the bean bag toss said that Eric had made his day, aww.
On a walk around that Eric and Andy did whilst I was nattering to Kari they met some folks from New York who gave Andy a bottle of habenero sauce which they had made specially for the event and had labels made for. They had inflatable flamingos at their rig which Eric liked playing with.
I remember meeting a very drunk woman who had written on her hand "Pace yourself, remember you are married, drink American spirits" which was her nod to Sarah Palin's writing Lift American spirits amongst other things on her palm as crib notes whilst making a speech.
Kari partook in something called a 'shotski' where several shots are lined up on a ski and several people line up to all drink a shot simultaneously.
There was a band playing too later on in the afternoon, I seem to remember.
Before we left, I forced down a peanut butter cookie in an ill-disguised attempt to sober up somewhat!
We left the tailgate at 3.30 pm (some of us a little worse for wear!) and drove to Blue Spring State park, arriving about 4.30 pm. At this time of year you
can see manatees in the wild as the water temperature is so warm, so this was definitely something we wanted to do, especially as we don't usually visit at this time of year. I couldn't believe how many manatees we saw and there were so many babies too. I thought we would look for ages and maybe catch a glimpse of one but there were loads,it was an amazing sight to see. We walked the whole trail to the source of the spring, it was very pretty and peaceful. Except when Eric had a screaming ab dab but he soon calmed down with some grapes.
We left the park around 6 pm and drove back to the POFQ to drop Kari at her car. We exchanged candies and gifts and then said goodnight. We got back to the
villa about 7.30 pm. We gave Eric a couple of bowls of cereal and a yogurt before putting him to bed.
Andy went over to the food court to get us some tea, and came back with a KFC mash bowl for me and a double cheeseburger with fries for himself. I made us both a cup of tea whilst Andy was out, so we had those too. Then the usual bathtimes and Andy finished the night with Bud Lite and I had cherry coke as I thought my alcohol intake had been quite enough for one day! Bed at 11.30 pm.
Laur's xx
The alarm went off at 6.50 am, so we got up and dressed in our tailgating outfits and Eric had some cereal and yogurt. We set out for Port Orleans French Quarter to meet Kari for breakfast at 8.15 am. Kari was just getting her breakfast when we arrived - beignets and apple slices. Me and Eric grabbed a table with Kari whilst Andy got us some breakfast - a cheese, egg and bacon croissant and two Mickey waffles with bacon and apple sauce. We all (except Eric, of course!) stocked up on coffee too. Kari told us about the concert she had been to the previous night and told us how Jimmy Buffett had shown up there and she had some photos of him. One of the cast members came round and gave Eric two strings of beads so he was already in the carnival spirit.
After breakfast, Kari moved her stuff into our car and we set off for the Amway Arena where the tailgate was being held for the Jimmy Buffett concert that evening. Kari brought her sat nav but it still managed to get us lost and the arena was not really signposted at all. Luckily, Kari had someone she could call for directions so we found our way there eventually. I really saw another side to Florida that morning, the poverty that was evident just a few miles from Disney was a shock to me.
We paid $10 to get into the parking lot, found a space and headed off to look for Kari's friends. For those of you wondering what the heck a tailgate is, I
will try to explain though it's kinda hard to quantify. Tailgating is common in the US before concerts and sporting events. Fans get into the parking lot
as early as possible (Kari tells me they party in the streets until the police open the parking lots!) and set up bars, barbeques, games and decorations, and basically eat and drink and play until it's time for the event. Some people (like we did) go just for the tailgate. Certainly for Jimmy Buffett, most
people dress up in island casuals and one or two more "out there" outfits. People bring coolers full of alcohol and share it with not only their friends but
other Parrotheads who come to visit their little camp.
We found it a bit of an alien concept as Britishers that you would be allowed to get drunk and still get into a concert, or more particularly, a sporting
event. I'm not sure you can get into a Premier League football match if you had a Babycham a week last Tuesday, to be honest. And also the concept that people share their drinks, we just couldn't imagine it happening in Britain. That said, we were very excited to be invited to partake in such an American
institution, and realise that it's unlikely we would have had this opportunity if it wasn't for Kari. Kari has been telling me stories about tailgating for
years so I couldn't wait to see what it was all about.
We checked out the camp that Kari's friends had set up, complete with my favourite flag "Time flies when you're having rum" and met the host.
We then had a walk round the rest of the parking lot to check out other people's rigs.
We also saw the official Margaritaville trailer being set up and Eric spent a while driving the pretend boat.
We talked to several people on the way round and one guy asked if he could take our photo and he gave Eric a lei. He also gave us his card so that we could check out the photos when we got home. (I looked at the pictures and love that he has captioned the one of Eric, "This is Eric, he is from England" - I don't know why but it made me laugh!)
Back at the host rig, we were offered jello shots to kick off the drinking which were very nice. Andy had a little difficulty getting his jelly out of the
pot!
We ate some food from the buffet to line our stomachs - a hot dog, some crisps, cheese and trail mix. Mmm, that trail mix was good. I also had a beer, a mango daiquiri and a dreamsicle (orange soda, vanilla ice cream and rum) as the day wore on. I was pretty merry because I am rubbish at drinking during the day and am also a complete lightweight since I gave up drinking for nine months! So this part of the report probably isn't very linear, but it definitely
all happened!
At some point, we were back up at the Margaritaville trailer and I was asked if I would like to be the first person to have an official temporary tattoo. I,
of course, obliged and started a bit of a trend!
Someone who was driving around on a golf cart gave Eric a landshark tattoo (which, of course, we didn't put on him but I still thought it was nice). Eric
joined in with a couple of games - one was throwing a rope with a ball attached to either end on to a ladder and the other was a bean bag toss. The man at the bean bag toss said that Eric had made his day, aww.
On a walk around that Eric and Andy did whilst I was nattering to Kari they met some folks from New York who gave Andy a bottle of habenero sauce which they had made specially for the event and had labels made for. They had inflatable flamingos at their rig which Eric liked playing with.
I remember meeting a very drunk woman who had written on her hand "Pace yourself, remember you are married, drink American spirits" which was her nod to Sarah Palin's writing Lift American spirits amongst other things on her palm as crib notes whilst making a speech.
Kari partook in something called a 'shotski' where several shots are lined up on a ski and several people line up to all drink a shot simultaneously.
There was a band playing too later on in the afternoon, I seem to remember.
Before we left, I forced down a peanut butter cookie in an ill-disguised attempt to sober up somewhat!
We left the tailgate at 3.30 pm (some of us a little worse for wear!) and drove to Blue Spring State park, arriving about 4.30 pm. At this time of year you
can see manatees in the wild as the water temperature is so warm, so this was definitely something we wanted to do, especially as we don't usually visit at this time of year. I couldn't believe how many manatees we saw and there were so many babies too. I thought we would look for ages and maybe catch a glimpse of one but there were loads,it was an amazing sight to see. We walked the whole trail to the source of the spring, it was very pretty and peaceful. Except when Eric had a screaming ab dab but he soon calmed down with some grapes.
We left the park around 6 pm and drove back to the POFQ to drop Kari at her car. We exchanged candies and gifts and then said goodnight. We got back to the
villa about 7.30 pm. We gave Eric a couple of bowls of cereal and a yogurt before putting him to bed.
Andy went over to the food court to get us some tea, and came back with a KFC mash bowl for me and a double cheeseburger with fries for himself. I made us both a cup of tea whilst Andy was out, so we had those too. Then the usual bathtimes and Andy finished the night with Bud Lite and I had cherry coke as I thought my alcohol intake had been quite enough for one day! Bed at 11.30 pm.
Laur's xx
a different but very cool day
