Hangout Day 1: Sorry for Partying!

let me rewind just a smidgen - even before day one - to share the start of the epicness that was HMF2011. its started on a cold day in february when i was perusing the foo fighters website [this happens on the reg, as i always check their upcoming tour dates]. and there it was - ff were playing at a "Hangout Music Fest" - what was this i asked? i'm pretty familiar with many of the music festivals but hadn't heard of hangout. so like any 20-something i hop on trusty google and head to www.hangoutmusicfest.com to see what the commotion was all about. low and behold this festival looked AMAZING. music fest, on the beach, tons of bands - i mean i could have just been the ff and i would been sold. so with that i gchatted my live music loving friend megan - and with that i had a partner in crime. megan told her friend briana and the festival three were formed. my friend RJ was also going to head down to the gulf for hangout so all in all i was pretty excited about the company.

the next few months moved SLOOOOW as snails, but we made it through and on may 19th i made the journey to the gulf, to experience the best weekend of my life. the trip was about 8 hours, departing clarksville at about 5ish in the am. this was not an issue as the night before i was a like a kid waiting for santa to arrive.

proof of my pure excitement

i was up and outta there - rocking out to the ff on my iphone, i could just about feel the sand between my toes. alabama is pretty much a straight shot down for me, 24-to-65-to-59, easy peasey. on 65 outside of birmingham i played a little car tag with megan and briana and finally we met and the hangout caravan began.

PLUM! and the meeting on 65south!

just when i thought 65 was going to be the death of me... we hit 59. which is HORRIBLE. its that hour long drive before the beach with stop lights and little towns and traffic, its enough to send you off your rocker. but we FINALLY made it -- and we had some AMAZING weather to look forward to :)

beautiful predicted beach weather that didn't let us down

we arrived at our home-away-from-home ... the phoenix VIII, checked in (or as megan has said, i moved in - shocker i over packed!!). our view was AMAZING but we didn't enjoy it for long as we headed out to pick up wristbands and survey the land!

our beautiful view of orange beach

so as being a student affairs professional and planning events, logistics kinda becomes your "thing" - as i've said to many, if i can execute sorority recruitment i could plan a wedding in a week. needless to say, HMF has a few logistical things they need to work out [better signage, informed volunteers, etc] but thats to be expected for a festival in its second year thats increase by 20,000 ticket holders {15,000 in 2010 ... 35,000 for 2011 - now thats impressive!} once we finally managed the lines we got our wristbands and were ready to go.

after a long day of traveling we needed some nourishment so we headed to the gulf island grill for dinner. food was pretty good and the drink was delish... and by drink i mean bucket of trouble. great way to start the afternoon/evening!

bucket of trouble - you even get to keep the bucket!

post bucket'o'trouble we headed back to the condo to enjoy the hookah [champagne flavored!] and a few classy beers [read: bud light/BLLime]. we thought our evening would end on our balcony, but little did we know! got a facebook message [LOVE social media] from a colleague/friend that was in the area for another colleagues wedding [fraternity/sorority advising makes the world REALLY small]. so we headed out to where they would be, a little ditty called Florabama [read: super classy ((ha ha)) establishment that calls the Florida/Alabama state line its home -- thanks Nick P. for introducing us!]. we had a good time and learned a little trick, don't let megan stop drinking or party pooper pants comes out [her consumption of miller lights for the rest of the trip was impressive, she really is my hero!!]. but that was just fine because we needed all the sleep we could get!! after playing "blocks" ((you know the game you play when you try to get one block of wood out because its jammed up with other blocks of wood)) with my car - some jackaster decided it was a good idea to block the row with his big dumb truck- we headed back and hit the hay with dreams of sweet sweet music in our heads.

megan & briana at florabama & all its glory!

that pretty much sums up day numero uno - but friends i'm just gettin' started!

peace love & buckets of trouble!!