In 2006 the fourth of July fell on a Tuesday, which meant four day weekend! Wooooo! Meredith and I kicked off the festivities by heading out to my parent's house in NJ.
Saturday, July 1st
We didn't get to my parent's place until later on in the evening. We kicked it with my fam for a bit and then everyone went to bed! I wasn't tired, so I called Tim, Scott, Reminay and Erika. I got there around 1am and we decided to hop into Tim's boat (the SS Farley!) and take 'er for a spin on Lake Hopatcong (The largest lake in NJ is in my hometown).
We ended up taking the across the lake and docking at an awesomely shitty bar called the Tidal Wave (which, if you're a long time reader, you'll remember as the bar where 2001's Midget Madness took place!). Yeah, that's right - there's a lake in my town that has bars that you can go to BY BOAT!
This is the only picture I took inside the bar. (The locals in this part of New Jersey are easily spooked by magic devices like digital cameras, so you gotta be careful).
Here's Meredith the next morning totally not believing me telling her that by going to bed early she missed the opportunity to travel to a bar by boat. Hahaha.
The place was packed with some BIG ASS people. But I guess that's to be expected at a restaurant that serves motherfucking funnel cake for breakfast. (Holy shit, how insane is that?)
Go! Tubing is really fun - but it's sort of scary because you can't do anything to steer which leaves you completely at the mercy of the boat driver, in this case, Tim. It's an unspoken rule that it's the driver's job to make the rider eat shit.
Typically, the driver will start things off mellow, but the longer a rider manages to hold on, the worse the driver will make the ride. Here's Scott about to get whipped over the wake at 30 MPH.
A few minutes later, Scott rolled over onto his back (because when you're on your stomach and you get bounced really hard it totally hurts your back) and his ride ended, oh, about .5 seconds after this photo was taken.
Later that afternoon, we all piled into the Jentzen family minivan and got a lift all the way around the lake back to our car. Here's Meredith, Erika, Liam (in the back with his kindergarten graduation hat on!) and Abby.
The next morning, we got up bright and early and drove down to my parent's little shore house in Beach Haven West. After dropping off our bags, we grabbed some towels and headed to the beach on Long Beach Island.
Meredith and my mom showing off their flyswatters. Coastal NJ in the summer is plagued with greenhead flies. They bite during the day and it hurts like HELL.
Armed and dangerous. Usually, I try my hardest to be a "live and let live" kind of guy. But I draw the line at sentients that seek what entomologists call a "blood meal."
Later that evening, Meredith and I took the train back to NYC and made it over to Sarah's apartment just in time to go up on the roof and catch the beginning of the fireworks!
Grant had also spent his weekend at the beach and was showing off a pretty, pretty nasty sunburn, which he was pretty excited about because it gave him a chance to flex his calves...
...pictures like this. Hahahaha. OMG, man Ellen Stagg really is a broseph trapped in the body of a buxom blonde. I love how she's even using two fingers to pretend she's "spreading the pink." Girl's hardcore RAW.
