Oaks!!

We had the best time at Oaks!! The weather was definitely NOT wonderful--rain off and on throughout the day. However, our box was under cover, so we did not get rained on. We were also close to bathrooms, food and (most importantly) liquor, and the day was pretty much perfect! The picture above is us with one of our best "couple friends," Joe and Cindy. Aren't they cute?

The picture below is Bryan's uncle, John, and his girlfriend Catherine. John definitely deserves a shout-out here because he treated us to this fabulous day at the track and dinner, too. Thanks, John--you rock!!



I wanted to be sure that we took a nice picture before we started participating in the drinking, betting and general debauchery that goes on at the track. The first one is a "classic" pose and the second is our traditional self-portrait:





We actually won some money at the track, too, which is definitely not the norm for us. We're not now millionaires or anything, but we were able to offset our food and drink and subsequent gambling expenses, so we were pretty happy. I always look at the birthdays of the horses as an indicator of whether I should bet on them (I find it's just as good an indicator as any). With this methodology, I won $$ on the horse that placed second in the Oaks--he had Heather's birthday. Given, I only made $1.60, but I'm generally happy if I win at all. Thanks, Heather!

The rain luckily held off most of the day, at least not becoming a torrential downpour until after the Oaks ran. Unfortunately, we were almost out of Churchill Downs when I realized that, in his mad dash to gather all of our belongings and get back to the car, my hubby had left my purse in the box. So he and I had to go against the 100,000 people trying to leave the track to retrieve it. It was, happily, still there, but it was POURING when we came out. John was ever so kind enough to meet us outside with ponchos so our clothing remained, overall, intact.

However, the rain did not help with the already-destined to be bad traffic situation getting on the interstate and out to Z's Oyster Bar and Steakhouse for dinner. Since it was Oaks' night, the restaurant had a policy where your credit card would be charged $50.00 per person if you were not in the restaurant within 15 minutes of your reservation. This did not make my hubby very happy as it was our credit card that secured the reservation. This picture is in fact what he looked like pretty much until we arrived at the restaurant--that smile is completely fake:



Not to fear, however, because we arrived at the restaurant EXACTLY 15 minutes late, so they did not give up our table. Which is a good thing because the dinner was DELICIOUS. We had Caesar salad, filet, au gratin potatoes and (this was the best part) Godiva chocolate creme brulee. We also enjoyed a couple of bottles of delectable Northstar Merlot. We were more than full when we left but it was completely worth gastrointestinal discomfort!!

We turned in at a modest 10:45 pm and slept soundly until almost 10:30 am Saturday morning. Jonathan had a great time at Nana's, so it could not have been more perfect! It was SO nice to have a whole day of adult-fun, but I was really happy to get my little man back yesterday morning!!