So Day 4 begins just like the previous 3: late.
The plan today was to hit a Tampa-area beach. I forget the actual town name sadly, but we had to go through the city to get there. We pick up Adam’s friend Aaron before leaving the complex. From there, we stop at the center of the known universe (a.k.a. Wal Mart) to buy necessary goods before setting off. In our case, necessary goods including girl scout cookies (mmm…. Samoas…), a football, assorted beach toys for making sand castles (Danielle’s idea, since Real Men don’t make Sand Castles), and, or course, beer. Lots and lots of it. I get bottles of soda instead, as I still hate the taste of beer.
So off we go. The beach is about 45 minutes away, so I get to take a nap on the way there, but I can’t take a nap since Danielle and John are smoking in the car and I hate cigarette smoke.
We get to the town but we can’t park since every place has tow-away signs all over the place. We instead use the pay parking right by the beach and set up 15 feet from the water. We realize this is a public beach and that we could get in trouble for the beers but they don’t care and drink anyway. Since I have soda, I’m in the clear either way.
At the beach, we toss around the football, drink our respective drinks and enjoy the 75 degree weather we wouldn’t have if we were still in New York. I take a trek down the beach to see what’s in a building that’s down there. It’s a bathroom and a closed hamburger grill. With the nice weather I was surprised to see the grill not open. I walk back and get roped into helping Danielle make sand castles. Let me tell you: I can dig a moat like nobody’s business. It didn’t matter that my shovel was plastic and not very strong. I make the best use of all my tools. I’m awesome on many, many levels.
So after digging a moat, I take a nap. Adam, John and Aaron get back from a walk they took and we pack-it-up and go, not once getting caught by cops for drinking in public (although we did get reminded by some people that we could get ticketed for it). It should be noted that Aaron had to piss like 5 times while we were there.
To my shagrin, Danielle takes the wheel again, subbing for a drunk Adam. About halfway home, Aaron has to take another piss. Danielle doesn’t pull over on the highway or onto the grassy area on the entrence ramp, so he gotta wait it out till we get to a gas station. After getting to one, he goes in, and inexplicably, John follows (we assume he’s gotta go, too.) After they get back, Aaron says he has to go into the ladies room since a guy was dropping a duece in the guys room (and it only has one toilet). So John tried to be a dick and pound on the (men’s room) door when Aaron was in the (women’s) bathroom. So when Aaron comes out of the women’s room, John just looks at him, looks at the men’s room door… and shrugs his shoulders and goes into the women’s bathroom. Good stuff.
Dinner was at a steakhouse. Ironicly, I get the NY strip. Another one of Adam’s friends meets us there and we all get stuffed. Danielle complains that our waitress was too friendly, but I just say that it’s her job to be friendly, but she disagrees. Granted, she did sound very excited and was smiling a lot, but maybe she’s just a very happy person. Or, she’s on crack. One of the two.
And the final event of the long day, 5-man poker tournament. $10 buy in. Joe gets K9 against 33 in the final hand, 9 on the flop for the win!
Tomorrow: Busch Gardens. (Duff beer for me! Duff bear for you! I’ll have a Duff! You have one too!)