BIcycle Birthday Bash: 2010

Every year on the first day of summer, we hop on our bikes and head to the boardwalk to celebrate my friend's birthday.  This year, feeling pretty smug about my growing photography skills, I toted along my tiny pocket camera to document the tradition. Luckily, nobody was expecting much of me. Because it's impossible to take a decent picture when you wait until you're one and half beers, one pineapple downside up martini, and two bottles of wine into the evening to pull out the camera.

So, the big bicycle birthday bash of 2010 scrapbook has no pictures of bicycles. No pictures of presents. And no pictures even remotely in focus. I guess I'm not grown up enough to be a professional photographer just yet.

And since I'm still immature, I'm going to take you along for the ride anyway. Grab your helmet.

The party starts off with dinner. In a nice restaurant. On a night that happens to be half price wine night. So, of course, we have to order twice as much wine. But not before BSD knocks over his martini. And is immediately brought another one. That he doesn't need.

After dinner, we ride over to an outside bar. Where we sit around the fire pit. As I'm enjoying the view and the fresh air...

our friends order a round of Lemon Drop shooters. Our friends who are all members of the Lemon Drop shooter professional team. Lick, Down-the-hatch, Suck. Or is it the other way around? I have no idea. Because they are so quick. And I am trying to take pictures. For the birthday girl. But everyone is moving so fast. 

See? They wouldn't sit still! 

Seconds later the team captain is paying the bill. 

And I still haven't figured out how to play the game. In the end, I went with lick, sip, suck. Lip, sip, suck. Lick, sip, suck. And I took a lot of crap for it. I don't think I made the team.


Back on our bikes for a long ride down the boardwalk to a bar called Waterman's. Famous for their gift shop. Their cool chandeliers. 

And their Orange Crushes. I don't know why they're so famous. They taste like St. Joseph's baby aspirin to me. At that point, it would have been much more helpful had my cup been filled with crushed baby aspirin and soda water. 

But still holding out hope of making the team, I had one Orange Crush. I'm pretty sure everyone else had two. I couldn't keep track. Everyone kept morphing into hyperdrive. I guess you get that super power once you've been on the team for a few years.

From there, we go off in search of dessert. Like flies to a bright light, we land at Dairy Queen. See the neon Dairy Queen sign? You don't need glasses to make out those letters.

I was too busy scarfing down my extra large peanut butter cup Blizzard to take any pictures of it. Sorry. But I did manage to get some GREAT pictures at our next stop. 


Check it out. See my friends riding the Fun Slide? You can totally make out the smiles on their faces.

And here. Look at the birthday girl waving her arms in the air on the ferris wheel.

Maybe I should be a photographer when I grow up after all. I'm not going to cross that one off my list just yet. Nope. I think I have real potential.

                       What Am I Going to Be When I Grow Up? 

                                      8.    Professional Lemon Drop shooter team member
                                      9.    Spokeswoman for the responsible drinking and riding coalition 
                                    10.    Photographer