Labor Day Weekend

When we figured out that I would be helping Cameron move into his apartment the weekend of August 17, Doug and I talked about having me stay in Indiana afterward so he could meet me there for Labor Day weekend.  I loved the idea, because there is nothing more fun than Labor Day in Bloomington. We had visited it nine years in a row with our family before Covid and had so many fond memories of going to soccer games, tailgating at the football game, and visiting the art fair. 

After Brett called and said that he was going to go away with Karen for the weekend to propose, we changed our plans. We knew that Cameron would be busy with multiple Student Athletic Board events, and it just didn’t seem to make sense. Both of us were bummed, but we decided to pick a different weekend to go to Bloomington.  We then came up with different activities to enjoy in Florida during the holiday weekend.  Our plans changed once again when we found out on Thursday that Doug would probably have to work all weekend.  Plus, my sciatica had really started bothering me, so it made the most sense to stay closer to Ocala.

Doug was off early enough on Friday for us to have lunch at Jaws and take a walk at Sholom Park.  We then made it to the movie theater just in time to catch the new Alien movie. Cal had highly recommended it as he knew that Doug loved the original. It was better than I would have thought and extremely scary, just like the first one.  Afterward, we ordered pizza and breadsticks for dinner and enjoyed a nice evening at home watching the US Open.  Doug was also finally able to finish his Florida brewery puzzle.

Saturday, was a lot of fun. We talked to Cal on his drive back from Michigan with Maggie. He recommended a new drink called Honey Deuce that everyone was raving about from the U.S. Open. We decided to buy the ingredients for that to make after the IU football game. While we waited for the game to start, we talked to Brett and Karen and heard more about their engagement and their trip to the Biltmore. We were very excited to hear all of their plans.

Doug and Phil met up in the early afternoon to try the new German beer at Hiatus Brewing Company. Afterward, we all watched the IU game, hoping to catch a glimpse of Cameron on the field. He had been picked to participate in an on field challenge at the end of the first quarter. We didn’t see him, but we did hear from him multiple times and saw some great pictures on our camera roll.  When the game was over, Meg called to tell us how excited she was that she shot a 48 at Maxwelton with Grandma and Grandpa. It was the first time she had played golf in years and the first time that she had broken 50.

Today after church, our adventures took us to to Gainesville where we first visited Kanapaha botanical Garden. We found a new area to explore, and Doug saw the most fascinating woodpecker in the pine trees. Lunch was at Relish where we absolutely enjoyed our burgers.  We ended the afternoon at Swamp Head Brewery trying a few of their new beers, including a beet beer that tasted like dirt. Thankfully, the rest were a lot better. I was happy to see that they still had the Tom Petty namesake beer “Among the Wildflowers”, and we brought a six pack home for another time. Tonight we were back at home watching more IU men’s soccer and the U.S. Open.

Our Labor Day weekend was different from those that we had enjoyed in the past with our family. On Thursday, I was a little bit sad thinking about that. After talking to all of them and hearing about their wonderful weekends, I started to realize just how incredibly lucky we all really were. Whether we were all together in Bloomington, or were calling each other from places of adventure, each one of us had had a lot of fun and we still found ways to include each other.