Jeff's parents' townhouse is about 10 minutes away from the beach, which you can spot from the balcony. The entire weekend was pretty much what I expected when hanging out with Jeff and Mike: kick back, drink heavily at the townhouse, and just enjoy ourselves. So during the day we would mostly hang out on the balcony listening to music and enjoy a cigar here and there.
While the guys would be hanging out at the house during the day, the girls would go down to the beach or to Laguna do to some shopping. Jeff isn't much for the beach anyway, and the point of the trip was to hang out with my buddies. I already got my beach fixing in a few weeks ago in Mexico. Plus, the weather in Dana Point hovered between 67-73 during the day, which was actually a little colder than one would expect (I thought the weather was great!). So anyway, I was totally happy just hanging out at the pad and doing stuff like playing Madden on the PS3.
I should mention that when I visited Jeff in Newport Beach, this is pretty much what we did all day long. We'd make ourselves several drinks and play Madden. :) Our style of play isn't head-to-head tho'; it's cooperative. On offense, Jeff calls nothing but passing plays and takes control of the quarterback while I take the running back and we have one play: I get open and he throws me the ball. There could be 3 defenders on me and we'd still throw the ball my way. It usually leads to 4-5 interceptions a game haha. And on defense, I call the plays and we do our best to not allow 50-yard touchdowns and such, heh.
On Saturday night the girls wanted to go out to Laguna and check out some of the nightlife they saw when they were there during the day. Jeff and his girlfriend Ashley decided to stay in since it was already 11pm by the time we made it out there (the bars close at ~1:30 for some reason). Mike and I joined the ladies and we hit up several bars in Laguna: The Saloon, Hennessy's Tavern, and some other place I can't remember the name of probably 'cause I was too drunk by that point. :)
Most of the bars in Laguna are near Ocean Avenue which is right next to the beach and the girls had the "bright" idea to go play on the beach at like 2am in the morning. I honestly don't know how they didn't get sucked in by the massive tides...but knowing me, I probably would've jumped in to save them had they got in any trouble lol.
Sunday was the 4th of July and we had a killer BBQ. Actually, for the entire weekend all we did was barbeque and for some reason I was the chef of the house. I grilled burgers, dogs, steaks, brats, chicken breasts, skewers, you name it. And in the morning I'd also make ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches or omeletes.
But being the chef had one major disadvantage: it was an easy opportunity to set me up for an Icing. On one of the days right before I was about to go fire up the grill, Jeff set a Smirnoff Ice inside for me to nonchalantly stumble across when I opened it. ICED! Ahhhh, the humilation. We would continue to Ice each other at opportunte times throughout the entire vacation.
I honestly can't believe that Smirnoff Ice used to be one of my drinks of choice when I first started drinking liquor when I was 17. I guess that was all before I had discovered the greatness of beer. Drinking games were a plenty this weekend (you already saw beer pong above) but the funnest new craze is Fingers!
Fingers is a simple game where all you need is a cup. Everyone playing puts their finger on the cup and then everyone takes turns guessing how many fingers will be on the cup when it's their turn. For example, say it's my turn, so I'll say "1, 2, 3...2!" Right after 3 everyone can either leave their finger on the cup or lift it off. If the number I guess is the equal to the fingers on the cup, then I'm out of the game. That's a good thing because whoever's last has to drink the cup! So simple yet so addicting!
Most of the bars in Laguna are near Ocean Avenue which is right next to the beach and the girls had the "bright" idea to go play on the beach at like 2am in the morning. I honestly don't know how they didn't get sucked in by the massive tides...but knowing me, I probably would've jumped in to save them had they got in any trouble lol.
Sunday was the 4th of July and we had a killer BBQ. Actually, for the entire weekend all we did was barbeque and for some reason I was the chef of the house. I grilled burgers, dogs, steaks, brats, chicken breasts, skewers, you name it. And in the morning I'd also make ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches or omeletes.
But being the chef had one major disadvantage: it was an easy opportunity to set me up for an Icing. On one of the days right before I was about to go fire up the grill, Jeff set a Smirnoff Ice inside for me to nonchalantly stumble across when I opened it. ICED! Ahhhh, the humilation. We would continue to Ice each other at opportunte times throughout the entire vacation.
I honestly can't believe that Smirnoff Ice used to be one of my drinks of choice when I first started drinking liquor when I was 17. I guess that was all before I had discovered the greatness of beer. Drinking games were a plenty this weekend (you already saw beer pong above) but the funnest new craze is Fingers!
Fingers is a simple game where all you need is a cup. Everyone playing puts their finger on the cup and then everyone takes turns guessing how many fingers will be on the cup when it's their turn. For example, say it's my turn, so I'll say "1, 2, 3...2!" Right after 3 everyone can either leave their finger on the cup or lift it off. If the number I guess is the equal to the fingers on the cup, then I'm out of the game. That's a good thing because whoever's last has to drink the cup! So simple yet so addicting!On the 4th, Jeff, Mike, and I all had costumes. Mike and Jeff wore patriotic shirts, but mine was a little different. We had kept my costume a secret up until the trip and Jeff thought it'd be hilarious if there was a villian at our party (only Jeff would devise something like this). So for the 4th, I dressed up as a Japanese Kamikaze Pilot from World War II. The outfit was actually pretty epic. I also made paper airplanes to bombard at people when I entered shouting "I'm here to ruin your 4th of July bitches!" LOL. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the costume...only Jeff has one on his phone and CJ has the other on her camera, which I haven't seen yet. What I do have is the little toy plane I bought as part of the ensemble:
The fireworks show at night could be seen from our balcony and it was very entertaining. They also had music playing on the radio that was synced with the show, so that was pretty cool. Although our theme song for the entire song was Team America's "America Fuck Ya". :D
Sunday night we also went out but this time went somewhere closer in Dana Point: another Hennessy's Tavern (I think they might be like the Maloney's of California?). Anyway, Hennessy's was a good look and they had 2-for-1 drink specials all night. And surprise surprise, wouldn't you know that the Fingers game followed us to the bar haha!
Another great thing Hennessy's had - besides plenty of dancing - was the Lobster Crane Game! It cost $2 to play and if you could snatch a lobster they would cook it for you on the spot. Needless to say, we were ultimate failures and ended up pouring $12 into the machine, we just kept thinking to ourselves that we could win a lobster!
The weekend was a huge success and easily the best 4th of July I've had so far. The car ride home was even entertaining 'cause right around sunset we were able to perform a hilarious shadow puppet show for Ashley sitting in the front seat. :)
Sunday night we also went out but this time went somewhere closer in Dana Point: another Hennessy's Tavern (I think they might be like the Maloney's of California?). Anyway, Hennessy's was a good look and they had 2-for-1 drink specials all night. And surprise surprise, wouldn't you know that the Fingers game followed us to the bar haha!Another great thing Hennessy's had - besides plenty of dancing - was the Lobster Crane Game! It cost $2 to play and if you could snatch a lobster they would cook it for you on the spot. Needless to say, we were ultimate failures and ended up pouring $12 into the machine, we just kept thinking to ourselves that we could win a lobster!After the night ended, Mike and Jeff decided to build a fort to sleep in. ROFL! This thing was pretty badass since you had to actually pass crawl through if you wanted to get from one side of the house to the other. And it was so well constructed that it conducted a lot of heat and Mike actually got warm while sleeping in it.
The weekend was a huge success and easily the best 4th of July I've had so far. The car ride home was even entertaining 'cause right around sunset we were able to perform a hilarious shadow puppet show for Ashley sitting in the front seat. :) And finally, the best quote from the trip from Lindsey: "Andy is like Disneyland, except instead of being the happiest place on Earth, he's the happiest person on Earth." :P
