The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party

Anne & I headed up to Jax for the annual Florida vs. Georgia football game, for what is officially known as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.  I didn’t have any shrimp.  I don’t know if I was supposed to, but that’s what I always picture when I hear about this party, probably because you dip shrimp in cocktail sauce.  So, I guess I just assumed I’d be eating shrimp.  But we had burgers.

We tailgaited with several of our friends who we don’t really get to see very often, so that was nice.  And, most of them were Gator friends (still are as far as I know) which made it even more enjoyable.

It was exciting to get the chance to go.  A friend of our’s (thanks Derek) secured some tickets for us (thanks Derek’s mom) and O.J. provided us with a parking pass & all the food (thanks O.J.).  Come to think of it, we didn’t really pay for anything except gas.  If anyone wants to chip in to pay for our gas, just e-mail me.

Highlights:

• We got to hang out with friends.
• The weather - It was very good football weather - cool & overcast.
• Family - We got to hang with Nana (Anne’s mom) & see Matthew play in person.
• Watching the entire Georgia team run onto the field after their first touchdown - Maybe not classy, but definitely classic and one of the things that led to the win.  Excellent move for Coach Richt.  What some other SEC coaches had to say about it.  And more at the funcave.
• Tebow on the Ground - He got sacked 6 times in the game.  Up to that point he’d been sacked 5 times all season.
• Matthew played awesome.  Finally started connecting with his receivers on long passes.  The rest of the season should be a lot of fun to watch.
• Gator fans near our seats.  We had several opportunities to laugh at them.
• The walk back to our car.  It was very quiet and there weren’t very many cars left in the parking lot when we got back there.

Here are some images from our day.  None are of the game, because we left the camera in the car.

I hate taking my eyes off the road.

My “glass is half empty” wife is worried about he weather at the game.

This picture and the next 2 took place over about an hour period of time.  They couldn’t figure this tent out.  In fact, this is when they actually started to make something.  It sat in pieces all over the ground while they thought about it for about 45 minutes.  Every once in a while someone would pick up a pole and look at it, then set it back down.

Once they got it up, it started raining & it wasn’t big enough to fit everyone…

so they decided to spend another 30 minutes trying to make their own tent out of the grey tarp.

O.J. & Rachel

John Mark & Anne

Anne & Me. - Notice the tarp tent is complete, but it’s stopped raining at this point.

The group.

We all made O.J. kiss our feet.