The R.A.N III Experience

Troy, MI: The Vacation

 (Over 100 new photos in the Troy Vacation photo album! – here)

I’ve been back from Troy for 4 days now and I think I’m still recovering a little.  That was by far the fastest 10 day vacation I have ever experienced and I wish I was still at home.  I was pretty much non-stop busy with seeing people, doing stuff, and partying that I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation!  It all started on Thursday July 17th…

Megan C. picked me up from Smith Terminal at Metro Detroit Airport at about 3:30 PM (EST) and we immediately decided it was appropriate to go to the bar.  We stopped off at my house to drop off my stuff and then headed out to Joe Kools with Kelly on the way also.  We consumed a few adult beverages and I enjoyed some south western egg rolls for about an hour or so when I decided I needed to get home and prepare for the party. 

People started showing up as early as 8, considering it was a Thursday I didn’t expect a ton of people to come over and get wild.  I finally got to see all my favorite people, too many to name but you know who you are.  The night was great, I had the laptop pumping music through the living room Vegas speakers and the booze was flowing.  Brent AKA Ricky brought over a fifth of Crown Royal which was a killer that night (see pictures).  The party extended until about 3 maybe and everyone pretty much left. 

The next day was spent relaxing and packing for going up north to Caseville, MI where Megan has another house, er, I mean cottage.   I actually got to see Aaron this day for a few minutes for the last time in a while as he just got a job at Nike Soccer in Chicago, very nice.  Megan, Kelly, and Erin (Meg’s friend, and/or cousin?) came by to pick me up at around 7 and we hit the road.  The drive up to Caseville always seems to take forever, but we are good at amusing ourselves and at least we didn’t get pulled over this time.  We got up to the cottage around, oh I don’t know 9:30 or so?  At this point we pretty much threw our stuff up in the bedrooms and went outside to campfire it up and drink some beer.  This turned into a very sloppy night, I am not even going there.

The next morning we were going out on the boat.  Unfortunately, as Mr. C was cleaning it out he realized the battery was dead.   He had to take the battery out to to get recharged so what did we do while we waited?  Uhm, drink beer and BBQ hot dogs, obvi.  Finally, the boat battery returned and we packed up the coolers and headed out to Lake Huron.  Boating is always a blast with Mr. C, he is the man for sure!  We all went swimming in the lake, it was surprisingly warm, something like 67 degrees, good for peeing in.  The lake was a little rough this day and it was overcast so we ended up not staying out too long as we wanted to get home and start the mexican dinner cooking.  Not too much happened Saturday night, everyone pussied out on me so I stayed up by myself (well, Kelly stayed up for a little while but she promptly passed out). 

We returned from Caseville sometime around 3 PM on Sunday and what do you know?  Just in time to unpack, relax, and shower before Club Driveway.  We had to do it, it was the first night Dave and I could party and it was probably going to be the only night Adrianne would get crazy as she was leaving on Tuesday and Monday we were going to A.K.’s for dinner.  It was a stellar showing of VIP guests all night long at C.D. 

Monday evening the whole family gathered at Aunt Katie’s for dinner (mmm Chicken Shack).  It was great to see all my aunts/uncle, cousins, and grandma, 8 months is a long time!  All the ”younger” kids are looking older everytime I go home, crap that must mean I’m looking older too! 

Tuesday through Thursday are mainly a blur, I know there were a lot of bars in those days but nothing too crazy to report.  On Friday, however, Mark and I went to the Tigers vs. Chi Sox baseball game at Comerica.  It was so awesome to be at a Tigers game with my boy.  Also at the game were Megan, Abby, Laura, and Solei who all came to me and Mark (as girls tend to do).  Mark ended up going to hang out with his girlfriends uncle and dad who were also at the game which left me alone with the ladies per usual.  The game was very entertaining however Todd Jones blew it in the last inning and allowed Chicago to tie the game and ultimately win it. 

Saturday was the BBQ at Justin’s house.  His parents were going up north, er, nevermind to a hotel, to allow us to have the house to ourselves and get crazy.  Justin BBQ’d crazy amounts of hot dogs, burgers, and chicken to a near perfect cook time.  Kelly made 2 deserts: 1 chocolate cake for Renee’s birthday (Justin’s girlfriend) and 1 tiramisu cheese cake for me, which was AMAZING.  We partied well into the night at Big J’s, I was there till 3 AM and I know some people were still going at 5.  Just about everyone I wanted to see was at the BBQ at some point in the night to say bye to me, it was a fabulous time. 

All in all, a great vacation.  I thought 10 days would be enough time to see everyone, God was I wrong.  I need to be home for like a month to get to see all the people I want to see.  Hopefully the next time I’m home won’t be 8 months from now…