It has been a long time since I have had a proper, full-length vacation. I came into this vacation knowing that the rest of September and October will be extremely busy at work, so I knew I wanted to enjoy myself as much as possible.
For the past ten days, I have been enjoying a myriad of things keeping me busy, and all-in-all, I am coming out of my vacation very refreshed and ready for the fall. Here is how I made the last week and a half awesome:
Friday
My vacation started as well as anyone could ask: an easy Friday at work that ended early thanks to the holiday weekend. Leaving work at 4pm, I set off to relax for a while, but ended up taking a quick spin around the Fulton County Fair instead. The fair was the same as always: big, loud, and crowded. And still one of my favorites.
Saturday
I woke up bright and early to get a head-start on my final official bike ride of my Summer of Biking season. There are still a few more moderate bike rides in my future, but for the most part my 20-mile rides are at an end for the year. I will be hiking throughout fall, winter, and spring to stay active. The rest of Saturday was filled with video games.
Sunday
The Sunday usual: laundry at my parents'. Sunday night was a treat, however: Fuel played a free show at Hollywood Casino in Toledo. This was an excellent night for live music. About a thousand people crammed in front of the stage in The H Lounge for an acoustic show full of Fuel's greatest hits. Highlights included "Sunburn," "Shimmer," "Last Time," and of course "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)." This was the perfect quickie-concert: an hour of solid rock less than fifteen minutes from home.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
This was the big one. I departed mid-Monday afternoon for Kalahari Resort in Sandusky and spent the next three days enjoying warm water, humid air, and delicious food. I cannot express how amazing the entire trip turned out to be, despite a few rough patches. The first night was an onslaught of swimming, gaming, food, and friends. I met one of Kristin's friends, had some fantastic Sandusky pizza, and took in all of the Kalahari waterpark - something I was never able to do at CodeMash.
Tuesday was a day full of new slides (I'm genuinely proud of Laura and Kristin for getting on the bigger slides), including my new favorite, a four-person "bowl" ride that Colleen introduced to me.
The trip was rounded out with shopping at the Sandusky Mall and an early, peaceful drive home (thanks to Cedar Point being closed during the week). Oh yeah, and I ate too much. Way too much.
Thursday
By Thursday my vacation was feeling quite long, and I kept myself busy to extend the week even more. I spent all of Thursday on my laptop overhauling my personal website, BrandonBruno.com, to refocus the content and provide a clean new layout that will help highlight some upcoming features.
Friday
Cranking out a whole website in one day is not easy, so some of the tasks bled into Friday, but by Friday at noon I was live with the new site (minus a few additional tweaks that lasted into the weekend). Friday night was nostalgic as could be: I ventured to an Otsego High School football game that was full of (what else?) more food. The game was delayed by storms, so the night ended early.
Saturday
I did not intend to spend all day at the Black Swamp Arts Festival, but that is almost exactly what happened. The festival grew significantly from last year, with more crafts booths than anything else. It was nice to see downtown BG filled with so many good-spirited people, great music, and awesome weather.
I briefly stopped by the Haskins Village Festival as well, but sadly this was nearly a mistake. The festival was as small as one might expect, but there was little to do (or worth doing) when Black Swamp was five miles down the road.
Sunday
The final day of my vacation was marked by relaxation. While I certainly relaxed, I still managed to get a lot done. I began the day with an extensive walk through Side Cut to practice my photography, visited my parents, finished one of my major web projects for the year (more on that soon), watched some football, and planned the rest of my week. I have spent the last two weeks practicing a new weekly routine, and this week I begin a new schedule that will round out 2012 quite nicely.
All in all, this has been a very relaxing vacation - exactly what I needed going into the busy fall season.
B3 out.
No comments:
Post a Comment