An awesome weekend

On Friday after work, a few of us went out to explore the bars of Thibodaux. We didn't find much. The first place we went to was called "The Red Goose". We walked in to an empty room except for the people sitting at the bar who proceeded to stare at us the entire time we were there. We stood at the bar for a while before the bartender came over. This was the conversation that ensued:

me: "hi, do you have any specials tonight?"
bartender: "no"
me: "do you have any beers on tap?"
bartender: "no"
me: "do you take credit cards?"
bartender: "no"

So, we each had a drink and continued our bar hopping. The next place we went to was much more lively, took credit cards, had beer on tap, etc. It was pretty fun. We were all pretty exhausted from work though so we left around 10 (before the bar we were originally going to go to even opened), and went back to the house and went to bed.

On Saturday the plan was to go to the beach as a team. We had to go grocery shopping in the morning though, which took much longer than expected, so by the time we got back it was already 12:45. We decided to go to the beach anyway, until we found out it was 2 hours away instead of 1, so we decided to go Sunday instead. We ended up just laying around outside and in the house Saturday afternoon. Around 4pm, I walked over to a couple who has their RV parked at the end of the street, and asked them if I could borrow one of their bikes they had outside of the RV. They let me use it, so I got to ride 3 or 4 miles outside of our neighborhood and explore. The land out here is really pretty, and I love and miss riding my bike, so it was a great time. When I got back, a kid in our neighborhood was throwing a barbecue, so I went to that. This kid is in 7th grade, but looks like he could be 16 or 17. He's really sweet. Apparently he wanted to throw a bbq for the volunteers, so he bought all the hot dogs himself, and other people pitched in hamburgers, baked beans, chips, and s'more stuff. It was a really great time. It was about 6 adults from the neighborhood, and the nine of us, and then about 8 neighborhood kids all sitting around a fire and eating and talking. We hung out there until it was dark, and then headed back (10 yards) to our house. Around 9 the whole team went out to a Cajun bar and "lounge" that Joe found in the paper saying it had live music. We walked in to a shotty looking cover band and an empty dance floor with a lot of older people sitting around. I was kind of nervous at first, but it turned out to be a really awesome night. The dance floor and bar filled up pretty quickly, and the band picked up and played some really great covers. We spent the night dancing and laughing and had a genuinely great time. We left the bar around 12:30 and sang at the top of our lungs the whole way home. A few times, as everyone was singing and dancing in the car, I just broke out into a huge smile because instead of all fighting and yelling (which is what happened on my old team anytime we were in the van), everyone was happy and singing, and it was the perfect ending to a great night. Actually, an even better ending was that Erin made us all quesadillas when we got home.

In the morning, we headed to the beach. It took about 2 hours to get there, but we drove through the very southern parts of Louisiana where it is mostly water and fishing boats, so that was really cool to see. We got to the beach around 12:30. The water was warm and very shallow and the sand was really fine and felt good on my toes (maybe a first in my life). The only thing was, it was extremely windy so when I laid out on my towel, I constantly had sand in my eyes and in my teeth if I opened my mouth. We had a good time though. Mike and Joe dug a hole (because, as they explained to me, that's what boys do), and i took a long walk on the beach and found some cool shells. We left the beach around 3:30 and drove home, showered, and ate dinner. Tomorrow it's back to work, but I don't even mind after such a wonderful weekend : )

here is a link to the pictures I put up from this weekend:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029557&id=10300564&l=12b42fd1cc

here is a link to the pictures I took on the way down to Thibodaux:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029508&id=10300564&l=ea5c5b86f2