July 4, 1999
Independence Day

Written on July 7th, but placed on the webpage in its rightful space because I don’t have the patience to put the entire weekend in one singular entry. I hope you can forgive me. I had a busy but fun weekend and I would like to tell all about it. Please read on to find out more.

I woke up this morning and didn’t remember why I was sleeping in the family room. It took me a second to remember that Stuart was visiting and he was sleeping in my room instead of me. The foldout couch bed that I was sleeping on is not very comfortable and the cats were jumping all over the place last night. They were so excited that something different was happening that they had to run around all night to keep me awake.

I realized that I needed to find something for Stu and I to do today before we went to the fireworks so my mom and I brainstormed. In the end we decided that I trip to Wakulla Springs would be a good way to spend some time. I thought the park would be really busy since it was hot and it was a holiday, but I was wrong about that. We went and took the Glass Bottom Boat tour around the spring. Our guide was a very eccentric man who made the tour a big show. When he “called the fish” he sang a loud and long song to do along with dumping food in the water so the fish would congregate around the boat. I remember “calling the fish” from the last time I went to Wakulla, but I don’t remember anyone singing quite so emphatically. Stu got a kick out of the redneck slang and crazy Southern accents. As a matter of fact, I kept slipping some of the bad redneck grammar into my language after we went on the boat tour. Stu said that it rubbed off on me, but sometime I think it is always there and I am just trying to cover it up the rest of the time.

The park was not crowded at all when we sat down to eat lunch after the boat ride. Since I thought there would be so many people there I didn’t plan for us to swim at all. I was surprised to see that the swimming area wasn’t even as busy as when we were there last summer for our cookout. By the time we left more people had arrived for barbecues. I guess Wakulla Springs is a popular place to gather for a picnic on a holiday.

It started to rain while we were eating dinner at my house. Jennifer called to say that she and Ryan weren’t planning to go to the fireworks because of the rain. The weather didn’t ruin our plans, however. Stu and I waited until around 7 PM to leave for Tom Brown Park, the rain had stopped for good then, and we sat ourselves down on the grass around 8 PM. We were a long way from the stage where Tim McGraw was going to perform, but neither of us was disappointed. Even though we aren’t country fans at all the concert was pretty good. Faith Hill, McGraw’s wife, was there also and she sang a duet with her husband at the end. The fireworks were pretty good. I haven’t been to a show at Tom Brown in a long time and this was probably the biggest that has ever been held there. I just hope that Stu wasn’t bored to death today! Like I said, Tallahassee isn’t a very interesting place.

Stuart is leaving in the morning. I have really enjoyed having him here for the weekend. He mentioned a trip to Orlando in three weeks, so maybe I will get to see him again then. I hope so. I don’t have that many more weekends before I go back to Gainesville for the fall so I have to make the most of them.