Aqua Palooza Meets the Redneck Yacht Club

This weekend, I traveled back to Virginia for the second annual Aqua Palooza at Fairview Beach on the Potomac. It... was... awesome.

I flew out of Denver at 1am on Friday morning. I was in a middle seat- lucky me- and it was kind of a long night as I think I only slept for about an hour and a half all night total. Brief layover in Atlanta, and then I got into DC around 9am. What a night!

When I got into town, my friend Rich met me at the airport and we headed down south to Fredericksburg, my old stompin grounds, pre-Denver. We spent the day just hanging out, really. We did lunch at this super cool new renovated restaurant, cruised around in his Wrangler with the top down and the 90 degree sun beating down, and then went to the Rappahannock River to chill for a while. We hopped from rock to rock until we reached a large rock patch in the middle of the river (not hard, since the water level is way down this year) and laid out in the sun. Very nice, very relaxing. Then we went to dinner and drinks with my best, Kelly, and her husband DJ and her daughter Kaelyn and the boyfriend.

Saturday the entire day was spend at Fairview Beach. No lie, there must have been a thousand boats out there, and three times that many people. A giant barge was built out on the river where the bands played all day. Taylor Swift opened at one, followed by Southern Rain, and then three or four other local bands. It was awesome. So we laid out in the sun all day, drank a lot of beer, and listened to great country and southern rock music. It was perfect.

Then we did dinner at the Pirate's Den down the beach and ate a ton of seafood. It was so freakin good... everything was Old Bay-licious, which I love, and I ate lots of hushpuppies too. Then, Sea Ray sponsored the fireworks show which was like no other fireworks show I have ever seen. The fireworks were set off on a separate barge and they were unbelievable. After that, we went back over to the Pirate's Den to party at the outside bar. There was live music there, too, and a bonfire and beach volleyball and all sorts of craziness going on. Seriously, it was one of the most perfect days I've had.

Sunday we spent recovering from the day of insanity and eventually I had to head back to DC to catch a flight back to Denver. I did, however, manage to connect with my friends Holly and Thomas- Holly is my Alpha Phi sister and great great grandbig, so I miss her so much. She's one of my bestest. Anyway, I got to chat with them for a few minutes and then their soon two year old son, Cameron, woke up from his nap and I got to see him for a few minutes. He now says "hi" on the phone when I call, and he is running and playing and laughing... and TALL. He has most definitely gotten Thomas's height. What a precious little man. It's always tough to leave Fredericksubrg, and from time to time I do wonder whether I should be trying to go back to the east coast. For now, though, I love my job. And I love my place here. And I love the people I work with, and I'm comfortable. So I'll be staying put. It's just hard to be so far away. I never would have imagined I'd go this far.

Anyways, check out the pics. The first few are of the Rappahannock River, and oen of me and Rich laying on a rock in the river. One of me and Kelly at Cheeseburger in Paradise, in which I look like ass. Bear in mind I had been laying out on the river all day, AND did not sleep the night before on the plane. So I look half dead. Anyway, the rest of the pictures are of the boats at Aqua Palooza. Honestly, there was so much going on I wasn't able to capture it in full, but very cool nonetheless. And a picture of Rich with Koda, my favorite German Shepherd ever. Feel free to check out www.aquapalooza.com for 2007 pictures soon!