4th of July Weekend in Clear Lake, Iowa

 

4th of July Weekend in Clear Lake, Iowa
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for July 4, 2022

We've been expanding our Pickleball careers by taking on new challengers.  This week was Sue and Lisa who gave us a good run for the money.  Fun times.

I was hanging out at the casino on Friday night when someone walked by, handing me a concert ticket, and said "Have Fun!"  So I wandered outside, entered the concert area and joined the crowd to see what was going to happen.

Third Eye Blind was the headliner and I arrived right before they took the stage.  I've always believed I've lived a Semi-Charmed kind of Life so their music speaks to me in a special way.  

This guy came up to me at the show and asked if he could take a picture with me.  I said "Absolutely".  I gave his buddy my phone and he snapped this shot.  Then they left.  Glad I could help.

On Saturday we drove down to Clear Lake, Iowa to connect with my buddy, Krazy Kory, and his daughter Harli.  We were ready to have some Carnival Fun.

Kory started off the festivities by trying to win a stuffed animal.  He was unsuccessful which is too bad because I believe those things are pretty valuable.

We wandered down to the seawall to get a picture in front of the lake.  We like Clear Lake.

Kory said they rode the red, yellow, and blue ride the night before.  He described it as pretty terrifying primarily because you never quite know if you can trust that they've been bolted together appropriately.  Falling from that height would probably hurt quite a bit.

We wanted to test ride security ourselves so jumped aboard the YoYo swings.  Those chains would be hard not to fasten, so we figured we'd be pretty secure.

I kept bracing myself to be released and flung off into the distance, but it didn't happen.  I just ended up dizzy for awhile.

The Ferris Wheel is my favorite because I can take pictures high up in the air.  I love roof shots.

There's a new distillery in town with a roof-top bar which was a lot of fun.  More Roof Shots!

Eventually we headed to the Surf Ballroom to see one of all time favorite performers, Sir Mix-A-Lot.  He has so many great songs!  Like Baby Got Back!  And that's pretty much it.

Sir actually made fun of the fact that people accuse him of being a One Hit Wonder.  But here it is some 30 years later and he's still selling concert tickets to people who want to hear him sing that hit.  It was a pretty short show, but he did make it enjoyable singing several other old school songs of his along with some covers of other popular performers from the era.  It ended up being a really fun show.

We woke up early on Sunday to hit the golf course.  We decided to hit some golf balls on top of it also.