Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Turning Lemons Into . . . Beer?

We traveled the short distance to Sleepy Hollow State Park for our 2nd annual Adult Camping Trip last weekend.

Lucky for us, we picked the weekend A TSUNAMI hit mid-Michigan. This tsunami was so special it not only brought us heavy winds and copious amounts of rain, but it also brought boatloads of blood starved mosquitos. I'm convinced they were part mosquito part vampire bat, actually.

Friday evening was pleasant - hot dogs fried in bacon grease, Mexican Train dominos and a few beers around the fire. But then, as darkness hit, so did the Hurritornadunami.

Our tent stayed fairly dry - we used our beach towels - yes I just said beach towels. Isn't it hilarious how we thought we'd have a lovely sunny day and rent a pontoon to cruise the waters and need beach towels to dry off after taking a pleasant dip in the lake? HILARIOUS. Instead of using our beach towels the way they were meant to be used, we used them to soak up the water coming in through the seams of our tent. Around 9 am there was a small break in the storms and we took the chance to GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE.

So, what do you do when you're rained out of your camping trip? You go on an impromptu Old Town Lansing bar crawl at 10 am, that's what you do.

Bar #1: Art's Bar and Grill

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Our bartender was awesome, I bought a 32 oz. of Blue Light for $3, Andy bought a 12 inch pizza and a pitcher of Blue for $12, and Kara's 3 double vodka soda waters were a whopping $9.60. Art's Bar, I think I love you.

Bar #2: The Unicorn Tavern

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$1.50 pints of PBR, need I say more? Actually, yes, because this place was sweet. As we strolled in we noticed a middle age man napping at the bar with his shoes off and feet up. Awesome. Then the old man owner fed "his birds" outside and made sure everyone in our group saw his birds and then he went in back to take a nap. Double Awesome.

Bar #3: The Chrome Cat

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This bar looked a bit nicer but a sign on the door said they had cheap pitchers of beer so we bit. It was actually a nice new place with delicious food.

Bar #4: Sir Pizza Cafe

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Nothing special, but we saw the sign of "Beer & Wine" from afar so we had to check it out.

Bar #5: The Corner Bar

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Judging by the sign, I thought this place would be way dirtier and awesome than it turned out to be. Oh well, we had our final beer and then went back to the campsite, since the rain had stopped.

We actually had another nice evening around the campfire but just like the previous night, Mr. Tsunami returned around nightfall. And this time he brought his friends, Mr. Thunder and Mrs. Lightning. As soon as the rain broke in the morning, we again took the opportunity to GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE. Upon returning home we promptly passed out on warm, soft, dry couches - let me repeat that - WARM SOFT AND DRY - did you know sleeping situations could consist of those three adjectives? WEIRD.

So thank you Adult Camping 2009, for giving me a better appreciation of the simple things in life - adequate shelter and beer.

1 comment:

Christina said...

Juli, if I didn't have kids, I think I would be stalking you and your friends to be "let in" to your group. It looks like you have so much fun!!! Great story.