Weekend Recap: July 4th Edition

Hi all! Ahhh it's good to be back in good ol' Virginia Beach. Except, I had a fabulous weekend, and it's hard not to be living it anymore! But, you can ALWAYS relive good times through blogging and pictures, so here it is-- my weekend recap (complete with pics of course!) :)

The Usual Trip

I drove home Friday to Philly-- the usual drive. Everything was fine-- Virginia Beach still has terrible traffic, the Eastern Shore continues to be the scariest place on earth, and the whole thing still takes too long, BUT as always it's all okay when I see my Philly skyline, which always puts a smile on my face. I was so mad about all the dumb holiday drivers (new biggest pet peave: TAILGATERS who almost hit me multiple times!) that I even yelled at poor Carl! more about Carl (the voice-- real name: Awleurgzdxjhgd) later though :) (yeah if you don't get that, don't ask! :Þ)

But, the usual trip ended up being great-- I shopped with my Dad for backpacking stuff, did lunch with the whole family, and even managed to hit up my favorite bagel shop on earth a great new Ice Cream shop (think Coldstone with old town charm and character) in Newtown. I even learned how to sew. hehehe. So then Sunday...

"It was all nice except the SUBMIT part!" --K :)

...was the wedding! After heading up to North Jersey, I managed to find the church and went in. It was then that I dscovered that I didn't know ANYONE except the people in the bridal party!!!! Totally weird. But, I guess that's what I get for transferring and becoming the black sheep of the family. Anyway, though, the wedding was of course sweet, and I can't believe that after 6 years D and Dave are actually married! They added totally cute touches, too-- like doing sparklers when they came out of the church instead of bubbles (hey it WAS July 4th weekend!)

Luckily there was plenty of time after the ceremony before the reception, so I was able to go to the hotel, check in, chill the cheap champagne in the sink (TOTALLY ghetto) , and even relax a little after an already long day. Then onto the reception.

Caviar, Tarts, and a Table Full of Cleveland

Okay let me just say that the Madison Hotel is GORGEOUS!!! The cocktail hour was amazing, the food was wonderful, but the Conservatory setting definitely took the cake. And at first I thought it was weird that we danced and hung out between every course , but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that was the first reception that no one left early or wondered how in the world 5 hours were going to pass. What a great time!!! This had to have been my favorite reception ever. And it was made even better when we convinced Kate to skip her bar class and come to New York with us!!! So, the Save Kate fund was established and we were on our way.

Cheap Champagne + The Conspiracy + Cathedral Ceilings= Great Laughs!!!

Yeah our hotel was a little bit ghetto, but it was nice enough, it was clean, and for some reason we had a huge room with a high ceiling. And even though we got back late already, Kate, Al, & I got right to work. Actually, we were pretty much passed out by 2:30am, but then came the phone call-- Al's way cute groomsman wanted to come over! So, poor Todd (see towards the bottom of this link for my last memory of Dave's friend Todd) drove Nick to our hotel at 3am so he could shmooze with Al for a little bit before he flew back to Chicago the next day. But, well, we had no real plan, Kate had a lot of champagne, Todd was NOT having a good time, and so it didn't really go as planned. But Nick was so cute and just the idea that he made Todd drive him over so he could see Al again was adorable! Now for him to move to Pittsburgh... :)

"We are NOT going to TGI Fridays when we are in NEW YORK CITY! That's RIDICULOUS!" --K to Lab :)
yes, we totally did The City. We didn't have too much time, though, so we ended up just staying in Manhattan for awhile-- especially because Kate had never been on 5th avenue and the boys couldn't steer themselves away from Times Square. But, we did lots of good shopping (despite my oddly indecisive mood), and we even managed to find some good food and of course have a good time. The definite highlight, though, was the fireworks show that night-- there were synchronized fireworks in 3 places along the river that night and the show seemed to go on forever! Definitely worth the wait and the crowd battling. And the train ride wasn't so bad-- especially since by that point we were reliving like every inside joke we had from college :) gotta love old friends!

I need to get some pirate's booty! ARRRRRRR (and P.S.-- Labby's a Ho! :Þ)

As you can imagine, after getting home late and then waiting for Lab to come over (he was taking Al home early and the boys were staying far away-- much easier this way), we were pretty tired. But of course we were still in a crazy mood, hence the subtitle, which of course refers to my Trader Joe's Pirate's Booty... ummm yeah... so much fun ensued. And THEN I had to share a bed with Al, who is the BIGGEST BED HOG EVER!!! (come on, you know you are! :Þ) yes, all 90 pounds of her managed somehow to monopolize the bed the entire night! I even had to take it back by force at one point so I didn't fall off! I got about 4 and a half hours of completely restless sleep. and even though we got up really late, Kate made her flight and everyone got home without a problem... except for ME! grrrr

Why Carl is Not the Most Perfect Man on Earth

Sure, he got me home, to the reception and the hotel, and found a Starbucks and train station, but on Tuesday I realized his biggest flaw: Carl does NOT know the Jersey Shore. And thanks to his mistake, my 7 hour drive turned into 10.5-- all on NO sleep. I should NOT have been driving, and when it took me 6 hours just to get to 95 South in Delaware, I just about cried. It was so frustrating! lesson: DO NOT think that there's a bridge from Cape May to Delaware! It's a ferry and if you don't make a reservation ahead of time, LIFE'S A BITCH! grrrrrr it was actually quicker to retrace my steps, join the holiday shore traffic, and go alllll the way around the coast. That may have been the worst drive ever in my life.

So anyway, I am back, I am rested, and I am ready to go back to the daily grind. Enjoy the pics!