The Queen City

Recently, I made a trip to Charlotte, NC to visit some friends from school. My friend Sarah is currently working for Elevate Magazine in Charlotte. Elevate happens to host events nearly every weekend, so Sarah requested that I join her for one.

I decided I’d go for the Mardi Gras booze cruise on Lake Norman. Which wasn’t a difficult decision, needless to say.

At any rate, the event consisted of a pre-party at The French Quarter in uptown Charlotte where we met up with Beau, a good friend of mine from Auburn, whom I hadn’t seen in nearly five years. Then a ride on the drunk/party bus to the lake, where we then hopped on a yacht complete with DJ, bar, jumbalaya, and all the attractive singles you could ask for (which Charlotte is famous for, apparently).

After the drunk bus brought us back to our cars Sarah, Beau and I hit up the bars (Grand Central to be exact), where I probably had one too many cocktails and embarassed myself on the dance floor.

Upon leaving the bar the hunger pangs that come along with a long night of alcohol consumption kicked in so we scoured the city in search of fatty food. Much to our dismay there weren’t many places open. We stopped at a Jimmy John’s and were broken-hearted to find it had closed soon before our arrival. BUT, we did find something very interesting. A backpack in the middle of the road. Beau fetched it and we took a look inside. Much to our surprise it was a bag o’ porn. I mean really, who leaves a backpack full of porn in the middle of the road? We left it where we found it. Honest.

If I remember correctly we found a Jack in the Box. I ate a burrito, well at least the tortilla. (haha, Sarah!)

It must have been close to 3:30 a.m. when we finished our “midnight” snack. By that time we were all a bit too tired to drive home. We thought it would be a good idea to check into a hotel for the night. We must have made Beau walk into at least three hotels and ask for rates. I’m sure he got quite the inquisitive look as he was donned in 10 strings of beads and had his jack and coke in hand. The hotel idea proved an unsuccessful venture so we sucked it up and drove the 30 minutes to Sarah’s house in Rock Hill and immediately fell asleep.

All in all it was a great time, one of the best. Charlotte most definitely tops my list of favorite cities, well perhaps still second to Boston.

Can’t wait for my next visit!