4th of July at Daytona Beach

It was a fine morning to spend at home during the 4th of July, but in the middle of my relaxation Julie kidnapped me and began to drive north at a blazing speed.






According to this splendid illustration I could only assume we ended up at Daytona Beach.






Coincidentally, a bunch of other people we knew were at the same beach as well, AND THEY BEGGED JULIE AND I IF THEY COULD HANG OUT WITH US!






Ray smiles for the camera fully knowing that it will probably make it into a blog.






Stacy starts to rap about her thug life in O-Town and Malek does a great job holding in the laughter.






Then a bunch of us spotted a human-sized shrimp so we crowded around it and ate like savages. The shrimp seemed to enjoy being eaten alive, so it only encouraged Ray and I to go at it even more.






Theresa throws a pitch at the fake catcher.






I wind up the ol' canon and totally threw like a man.






The fake catcher was playing a horrible game so he was told by the fake coach to hit the fake showers. Ray decided to fill in to make the fake coach proud.....






.....he also pitched to himself, which was very impressive.






After warming up with some fake baseball, players Ray and I decided to hit up the arcade and battle it out in ski-ball.






We are clearly ski-ball pros.






We're halfway through the round and apparently Ray is winning so far.






Time to get my A-game on for the remaining throws.....






.....and surprisingly I ended up winning.






Ray had nothing on me when we showed off the tickets.






And now it's Theresa VS. Julie!!!






Both of them take each roll very seriously.






Julie looks like she is determined to win all of the tickets inside the ski-ball machine.






Julie rolls one last ball before earning a final score.






Theresa rolls her last ball while Julie waits to see who has the high score.






They both tied so I guess that was nice.....but it's not as fun.






Ray and I are in charge of security at the arcade when we're not playing around.....






.....the only problem is WE'RE ALWAYS PLAYING AROUND, so we're never in charge of security!






We all crammed into a photo booth and took pictures with my camera it's because $5.00 cheaper that way.






I busted out my martial arts moves as Ray and I begin to BATTLE IT OUT once again, but this time it's a game of air hockey.






Ray shows no fear from the bustin' of my martial arts moves.






The I started some name-calling and quickly discovered that was Ray's one and only weakness.






I may look like I'm having fun but I'm terrified by small hovering discs, which is actually my one and only weakness.







Ray learns to ignore my name-calling and focuses in on the game like a freakin' laser beam.






I try my best to play defense.....






.....but apparently I am no match against Ray in this game.






It was a close game (7-6) so Ray and I shook afterwards and I gave him an extra squeeze to congratulate him on a job well done.






Afterwards, I took a quick snap with Big Bertha who was one of my fans watching from the sidelines.






Now it's time for the girls to play.






Theresa is ready to play a nice, friendly game.....






.....but Julie didn't drive all the way to Daytona Beach to play nice!






Theresa catches the puck after Julie fires it off at a blazing speed!







WWHHOOOOAAAAAAAA!!!!!






Ray was able to get a good seat at this game.






Julie seems to be amused by one of her shots and I seem to be amused by the camera flash.






Julie lost the game but Ray knows how she feels looking back on his ski-ball experience.






Theresa and Julie gave each other a "good game" hug.






I wanted to try out the Spin-N-Win to score some more tix.






CA-CHHHIINNNNNGGG!!!!!






Theresa ended up getting a cheap water gun and a mini Tootsie Roll with all of our tickets combined.






Ray was sorta excited about the Tootsie Roll.






Although I was a little infuriated that he didn't share the grub.






As we left the arcade we encountered a pirate and Julie had to fight him just like old times back in St. Augustine, so I decided to help out since I was in the mood for fightin' Irish style.






The pirate barely laid a finger on us and we were down for the count, so Ray tried to defend us but it wasn't looking so good from him either.....






.....but Ray made some compliments to the pirate about how nice his beard looked when it was trimmed and all was forgiven.







Still, we were wondering where police were during the fight, and Ray discovered that they've been trapped inside the Daytona station ever since the new stairway was built.






It was time to get into the cold beach water....






.....and then run away from the waves.






I spotted Julie way out there with my hawk vision.






Then I started to pick a fight with the ocean.....






.....but I wasn't winning at all.






At least Julie was having a good time.






I continued to gracefully play in the ocean water.






The waves began to engulf Julie after the ocean had enough with me.






I tried my best to swim back to shore before another wave rolled on through.....






.....but I ended up tasting some more salt water since I wasn't quick enough.






The ocean and I have gone through some tough times together, but I still give it a thumbs up.






Julie is still out there taking all the hits from the crashing waves.






Ray watches me go out into the water and can't wait to see me get washed up along the shore again.






You can barely see me but I'm a-comin'!






Ray thinks that must have hurt.






He also thinks the water is a tidbit chilly.






I made it out of the ocean water alive so Stacy and I celebrate by taking a crazy pic.






It was time for another group shot for whatever reason.






It was nice to hang out at the site for a while.....






.....and watch Jeremy and Stacy scarf down the watermelon slices.






A few people decided to play a board game.....






.....while Julie and I pretended like we sculpted a few dolphins in the sand.






Nighttime came and the games were still going on.....






......and I met up with an old friend.






THEN THE FIREWORKS BEGAN TO SHOOT OUT AT THE PIER!!!!!




























































Julie and I are always amazed at fireworks.






But now it was time to drive back to O-Town because Julie wanted to unkidnapp me since the day was over. We were still amazed from the fireworks show and our jaws were locked down in this position the whole way back. Good times.