Now is the time that I recount the adventure of Eryn's bachelor party.
A family friend of Eryn's has a house on these crazy man-made lakes up near Bakersfield. These lakes are designed specifically for waterskiing, wakeboarding, and the like, so they are about half a mile long and an eighth of a mile across, and only about 6-7 feet deep. Really weird bodies of water, but perfect for skiing. The plan was to drive up for a long weekend of skiing, gaming, and generally hanging out.
Most of the guys (Iwan, Gabe, Justin, Mike, Eryn, and Bob) drove up on Thursday night, arriving late, but I'm sure not late enough to enjoy a few adult beverages. Norm and I elected to drive up Friday morning, and it was an easy drive. I like my time with Norm, as we are the same breed of geek, and have very interesting conversations about the nature of things. Politics, free will, traffic patterns.
We arrived by lunchtime at the "house", which was really just a couple of trailer sized buildings next to the lake. Sounds a little sketchy, but it was actually pretty homey. Suzanne had laid out some lunch, and Craig was driving the ski boat as some of the guys were wake boarding. Craig and Suzanne taking wonderful care of us was a constant theme of the weekend. On the way up, we must have passed Iwan, who had only spent the night before going home to spend some time with his family.
The afternoon was filled with wakeboarding and tubing, beer, games, and plenty of hanging out. Cornhole, a bean-bag-toss type game was introduced, and many pitched battles were fought. After 100 degree heat, the relatively cool evening was welcome relief. Gabe brought up some lobster tails, which went down nicely next to the steak and shrimp provided by our hosts. Games were played, drinks were drunk, and Gabe and Justin brought out the fishing rods and bait. Turns out there were catfish in the lake, and we each had a turn catching 'em. The recipe for success was pretty simple: stinky catfish bait (chicken livers with blood, I think), and wait about 3 minutes and pull in the fish. Catfish are ugly motherfuckers, I'll give them that.
Late in the evening (like, 2am late), I was hitting my grouchy time and ready to head to bed. As Norm and I arrived late, our sleeping situation wasn't really squared away yet. The options appeared to be a sleeping bag on the floor with a bunch of other guys, or a nice bed in a quiet room in one of the trailers. It became clear pretty quickly that we both wanted the bed (obviously), and neither one of us appeared ready to acquiesce. Gabe and Justin were all fired up on holding a fishing contest to see who got the bed, to which we finally agreed. While Norm and I sat on the ends of our respective docks, the onlookers cheered and heckled and wallowed in the tension created by such high stakes. It was a long few minutes, but in the end, I got the first bite and started reeling it in. Norm got a bite even before I got my fish on the dock, so it was a close battle. Only feeling slightly guilty, I headed to bed. (Norm reported sleeping just fine in the other room (though he was probably just being polite), but it seemed like it all worked out).
The next morning was a little more subdued. People were hung over (a little) and sore (a lot), so we mostly chatted on the porch and enjoyed the sunny weather. There had been some talk about a slack-line being available, and Craig found it and handed it to me, and we got that set up. A slackline is kind of like a tightrope -- a two-inch-wide piece of strap that is winched between two trees. You can make it as tight or as loose as you want, but no matter how tight you get it, it still wobbles and bounces. I spent the next hour or two practicing that, and it was insanely addictive. At first, I'd stand on one end and hold on to an overhead branch for support. As soon as I'd let go, there would be uncontrollable wobbling, and I'd lose balance. But with some persistence, I was soon able to take a step or two before falling.
I was shocked at how much of a workout it was. For the rest of the morning, I'd give a couple tries, sit on the porch to rest and chat, and then try again. Eventually, though, I was able to walk across the entire distance, probably 25-30 feet. I was very proud of myself. I'm pretty interested in learning more about slacklining.
The afternoon was more wakeboarding and hanging out. Norm had to leave, and Iwan returned to take his place. Bob was in charge of entertainment for Saturday night, and had reservations for dinner and there was some talk of visiting some of Bakersfield's finest entertainment for discerning gentlemen, but as the afternoon wore on, and after how much fun we had the previous night, we decided that maybe it would be more fun to stay in. And so we did. More dinner, drinking, games, and catfishing, and off to bed.
The next morning was spent cleaning up and thanking our gracious hosts, and then the drive home. A great weekend all the way around, and a hopefully a nice send-off for Eryn, who left the
following day for London for the foreseeable future.
These pictures are unsorted and raw, but fun to see.
A family friend of Eryn's has a house on these crazy man-made lakes up near Bakersfield. These lakes are designed specifically for waterskiing, wakeboarding, and the like, so they are about half a mile long and an eighth of a mile across, and only about 6-7 feet deep. Really weird bodies of water, but perfect for skiing. The plan was to drive up for a long weekend of skiing, gaming, and generally hanging out.
Most of the guys (Iwan, Gabe, Justin, Mike, Eryn, and Bob) drove up on Thursday night, arriving late, but I'm sure not late enough to enjoy a few adult beverages. Norm and I elected to drive up Friday morning, and it was an easy drive. I like my time with Norm, as we are the same breed of geek, and have very interesting conversations about the nature of things. Politics, free will, traffic patterns.
We arrived by lunchtime at the "house", which was really just a couple of trailer sized buildings next to the lake. Sounds a little sketchy, but it was actually pretty homey. Suzanne had laid out some lunch, and Craig was driving the ski boat as some of the guys were wake boarding. Craig and Suzanne taking wonderful care of us was a constant theme of the weekend. On the way up, we must have passed Iwan, who had only spent the night before going home to spend some time with his family.
The afternoon was filled with wakeboarding and tubing, beer, games, and plenty of hanging out. Cornhole, a bean-bag-toss type game was introduced, and many pitched battles were fought. After 100 degree heat, the relatively cool evening was welcome relief. Gabe brought up some lobster tails, which went down nicely next to the steak and shrimp provided by our hosts. Games were played, drinks were drunk, and Gabe and Justin brought out the fishing rods and bait. Turns out there were catfish in the lake, and we each had a turn catching 'em. The recipe for success was pretty simple: stinky catfish bait (chicken livers with blood, I think), and wait about 3 minutes and pull in the fish. Catfish are ugly motherfuckers, I'll give them that.
Late in the evening (like, 2am late), I was hitting my grouchy time and ready to head to bed. As Norm and I arrived late, our sleeping situation wasn't really squared away yet. The options appeared to be a sleeping bag on the floor with a bunch of other guys, or a nice bed in a quiet room in one of the trailers. It became clear pretty quickly that we both wanted the bed (obviously), and neither one of us appeared ready to acquiesce. Gabe and Justin were all fired up on holding a fishing contest to see who got the bed, to which we finally agreed. While Norm and I sat on the ends of our respective docks, the onlookers cheered and heckled and wallowed in the tension created by such high stakes. It was a long few minutes, but in the end, I got the first bite and started reeling it in. Norm got a bite even before I got my fish on the dock, so it was a close battle. Only feeling slightly guilty, I headed to bed. (Norm reported sleeping just fine in the other room (though he was probably just being polite), but it seemed like it all worked out).
The next morning was a little more subdued. People were hung over (a little) and sore (a lot), so we mostly chatted on the porch and enjoyed the sunny weather. There had been some talk about a slack-line being available, and Craig found it and handed it to me, and we got that set up. A slackline is kind of like a tightrope -- a two-inch-wide piece of strap that is winched between two trees. You can make it as tight or as loose as you want, but no matter how tight you get it, it still wobbles and bounces. I spent the next hour or two practicing that, and it was insanely addictive. At first, I'd stand on one end and hold on to an overhead branch for support. As soon as I'd let go, there would be uncontrollable wobbling, and I'd lose balance. But with some persistence, I was soon able to take a step or two before falling.
I was shocked at how much of a workout it was. For the rest of the morning, I'd give a couple tries, sit on the porch to rest and chat, and then try again. Eventually, though, I was able to walk across the entire distance, probably 25-30 feet. I was very proud of myself. I'm pretty interested in learning more about slacklining.
The afternoon was more wakeboarding and hanging out. Norm had to leave, and Iwan returned to take his place. Bob was in charge of entertainment for Saturday night, and had reservations for dinner and there was some talk of visiting some of Bakersfield's finest entertainment for discerning gentlemen, but as the afternoon wore on, and after how much fun we had the previous night, we decided that maybe it would be more fun to stay in. And so we did. More dinner, drinking, games, and catfishing, and off to bed.
The next morning was spent cleaning up and thanking our gracious hosts, and then the drive home. A great weekend all the way around, and a hopefully a nice send-off for Eryn, who left the
following day for London for the foreseeable future.
These pictures are unsorted and raw, but fun to see.
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| Eryn Bachelor Party Pictures |
1 comment:
Good times! Thanks for posting pictures. The only really unfortunately part of the trip is having to explain that a bachelor party in bakersfield actually was a lot of fun.
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