Epic Weekend.

It was like The Hangover meets Iowa but with a lot more class and less blacking out. We did it up well. We made a plan and we stuck to it. It was epic. Hell, it was legen- wait for it- dary.
Let’s start at the very beginning….21 years ago the a baby girl was welcomed into the world….wait too far? Well the story does revolve around her birthday! My best friend Alison’s birthday was in the middle of July. Not just any 21st birthday. She had never ever had a drink of alcohol before in her live. I swear on Carver’s life. So of course I had to plan something HUGE. Like 120+ jello shots huge. Every color of the rainbow huge. Yeah, I’m the jello shot girl. 

On the day before her birthday Lindsey, Carly, Ali and I met in Iowa City to meet up with a few of Ali’s other friends so we could go out at midnight and Ali could have her first legal drink in a bar. Since it was a Monday night in the middle of summer, downtown was dead. We chose Sports Column because there was more than 5 people inside.

First drinks of the night

Ali’s first drink was a Sex on the Beach. She hated it. She hated Diet Coke and vanilla doc and bud light also. And every other drink she took after that. =( She took little baby sips of every single sweet girly drink we could possibly think of that we thought she would like and she hated them all except UV Blue and lemonade. The bartenders at Brother’s looked depressed and stumped. And like they wanted to slap her. She even hated a dreamsicle shot which is the best tasting shot I’ve ever had. Finally after 2 hours and 20 sips of 20 drinks she said to me, 

She didn’t drink this shot

“I don’t think I like alcohol. I don’t think I’m going to be a drinker”

I texted Callie this the next day and told her as soon as she told me this I knew we could know longer be best friends (she later made up for this and I took it back) Callie responded: Well you tried your best.

So Iowa City was not as much fun as we had hoped. Lindsey and I considered canceling our weekend plans if she wasn’t going to do any drinking at all but Ali insisted we proceed. Ugh she’s so hard to say no to.

THE WEEKEND

Watching the ponies!

Friday Ali, Callie and Jenna met Lindsey, and I at Prairie Meadows for a little gambling. Afterwards we picked up some Olive Garden To Go and spent the evening at my apartment hanging out and playing drinking games. Aleah joined us when she was done working in Ames too! We played flippy cup, baseball, beer pong and card games. We had plenty of jello shots to try to tackle and we did our best to make a dent!

Saturday I woke the girls up with french toast and turkey bacon. Yum! Then we got ready to head to the mall and packed up all of our stuff we needed for the hotel also. But not before some morning jello shots! I made them in orange peels which was not easy but well worth the effort!

That’s a lot of crap for one night

It took us 20 minutes to get all of our belongings (mostly booze) to fit into one car because I refused to accept defeat. After lunch and shopping we checked into our amazing hotel that Ali found for us for a great deal! The Renaissance Savory was just two blocks from downtown and was old on the outside but modern on the inside. The other guests were in tuxedos as we wheeled in our duffle bags and cases of busch light. Little did they know my cooler on wheels was full of jello shots! We felt just a little out of place. 

Restaurant mirror shot

Our room was pretty darn fabulous! We had two bathrooms which helped since five girls had to get ready. We blasted the tunes and pulled out the jello shots while we got ready for the night. Even Ali couldn’t turn down the delicious jello shots! Once we got ready we planned to go to Fong’s for pizza but they were very busy, the bartender was rude, we were on a  schedule and really hungry so we decided not to wait for a table. We walked down a block and finally decided on Court Ave Brewery for dinner. On the way we passed a bar we all thought looked fun because it reminded us of MacLaren’s Pub from How I Met Your Mother and decided we had to stop there that night. We spilt pizza for dinner and everyone but Ali had beer, she had a soda. After dinner it was still early so I suggested we hit up the bar we passed which was called Forth Down for one drink before we headed back to the hotel to switch shoes and head out for the night.

One drink. Good joke right?

Dirty girl scouts!

Scott the bartender was awesome. He suggested Ali try a Smirnoff with grenadine and she actually liked it! Ali drank for free since we were celebrating her birthday and since it was early and the bar had 4 patrons besides he was telling us about the area and we were having a great time. Someone at work said I sound have Ali try a dirty girl scout shot that tastes like a thin mint so that was our first of many shots of the night. Several shots and drinks later we finally left to head to the hotel to get some of our jello shots and drink some free alcohol for a little bit…although I don’t think Ali had paid for a single drink of her own that night. 

Getting a little crazy...

 We did our best to act poised through the lobby and our friend Bree met us at our room to down some serious jello shots. We packed a Victoria’s Secret bag with some jello shots and headed back to the bar. We made our moms proud and shared the shots with new friends. Shots her, shots there and it was hitting everyone but Ali very quickly…. BUT THEN while visiting the restroom which had stairs leading to the toilet Ali says 

The room is spinning!

“Riss when I close my eyes the room is spinning"

Goooooooooal!!!!!!!!

Boom got her drunk! We did it! We did it! We did it! Yes! Yes! Yes! 

We love Des Moines!

We stayed for several more drinks because we were loving that bar. When we finally decided to leave we took Scott’s advice to go to Liar’s Club to dance but stopped at Big Red’s Irish Pub and Pong. Lindsey and Callie played and game but said there were no rules which made the game really weird. Jenna, Ali and I were not feeling Red’s so we went to explore downtown Des Moines and find Liar’s Club. 

Liar’s Club was was awesome. It was crowed and loud but not overcrowded and overwhelming. The perfect place to drink and dance. Ali was in heaven. All this girl wanted to do was dance and we had finally found her the perfect place to do that. Callie and Lindsey met up with us after their beer pong game and we were ready to dance all night long! Or at least until 2am when the club closed. 

Best photo of the night. 

We all made it back to the hotel safe and drunk and ate some snacks, drank some water and went to sleep. Then next morning we woke up in pretty good shape and decided to do it all again before school started. Cue tomorrow. 

~Marissa