The Harley Bike week brings in a range of bikers: from near homeless, toothless drunks with mile-long beards to white collar drunks who own primary Harley's, secondary Harley's and emergency stand-in Harley's.
The Harley rainbow shines to the tunes of Santana, Skynard, and Steely Dan, closing the breadth of the gamut with Jimmy Buffet.
The Atlantic Bike week brings a much younger, thinner, and more active crowd. Imported bikes dominated the scene; these bikers were big and scary just like the Harley variety, but they spared no expense when it came to partying at night. This crew really took advantage of every hour of Bike Week, and seemed to have perfected the fine art of "functional alcoholism".
The parking lot was a hub of activity 24 hours-a-day and looked like a new (gangsta) car lot. Every car was brand new, just washed, and had the shiniest rims I had ever seen. I saw lowered Suburbans and jacked up Impalas. It was spectacular.
All day and all night the hum of a motor harmonized with our own music and conversations. Fox learned the word "bike" and the differences between a Harley and a Ninja. He made friends with so many over-sized, burley men dressed in leather; he is going to think that that is what angels look like. Every time we were in the elevator or at the pool, some huge man with a bottle of the most expensive bottle of liquor would chat with Fox and I, and end up making silly faces and noises to amuse Fox. He is absolutely going to have a positive impression of leather clad bikers.
The beach was beautiful and the weather was nice. Most of the week it was so windy that Fox wasn't able to spend too much time on the beach without being sandblasted. He doesn't yet have the sense to cover his eyes when the wind blows, so it was traumatizing at first. Covering his face and ears with a beach towel didn't help his perception of the experience..
Fox and I spent most of our time at the baby water park which consisted of two baby pools with fountains, a "lazy river", and an ice cold regular pool. There were tons of kids to look at, and the place was fenced in so even if he bolted, he would never make it to the bike lot. My biggest fear was that Fox would touch one of those bikes and they would start falling like dominoes. Then he would have to redeem himself by wearing platforms and dancing on a bar while singing that tequilla song.
Fox loved splashing around in the shallow pools and playing with all of the unattended toys other kids brought. It is amazing how worn out he was after playing in the pool in the sun. It was also amazing that despite the fact that there wasn't an exterior window in our bedroom Fox still managed to wake up before 7am every day. Heather's mom and sister-in-law were kind enough to stay in the condo while Fox napped a couple of times so Heather and I were able to spend some time together at the beach. Heather is expecting a baby in July and it might be ages before we are able to lay around on the beach together again! It is really tough having a little baby or toddler on vacation. I'm not sure how enjoyable it is for a child to be in that environment. I could imagine that the sun, the bikes, the excitement, and the weather could be disruptive and confusing for a child, but hopefully the experiences will provide some happy childhood memory to recollect.
After the trip Fox and I spent a few nights in Asheville with mom and dad. We went to a graduation party and saw a bunch of folks I grew up with and spent some time with my other best friend, Sonja who is also preggo. We hiked around our friend's house in Fairview, and we saw a huge black snake that Jason picked up. I will post the picture I took as soon as I upload it.
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love that big black booty!
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