NIOSA

Last night I was ableto to go NIOSA with Shelly and I had a blast! It was such a great time. I have been here for almost three years and I have never been able to take advantage of NIOSA. I was warned about the crowds and how bad they would be, but I figured that is part of the expereince. I loved all the food I ate. I ate tons of food and am feeling it today so a workout is on order. The whole expereince was great! We walked around a little bit before actually doing anything and came by the Arneson River Theater. There was this really cute group on stage performing. These older women really neeed to stay out of the tanning bed though. It was a little scary looking at them. They seem to be big on crowd participation and the last song they were doing was, well, I don't know the title because I never know the title of anything, but it made for a great last song. So anyway, the were asking for people to come out of the crowd and line up along the river to do a little Rockettes style dancing. I thought it would be really fun to do so I pulled Shelly out there and we started dancing with the rest of the drunkards. Obviously, we had not been drinking so we did not have the liquid encouragement, but it was so much fun! Afterwards we continued out jaunt down the roads and through the crowds to find more good food and live entertainment. We stopped and watched the cutest cloggers in the German area of the festival. It was a group from New Braunfels and they looked like they were having the time of their lives, the they left the stage and the truth came out. There were looks of exhaustion and tiredness, but underneath it all I bet they were all smiles. We then traversed out way through the crowds again and came across the Scentchips shop. Scentships are really good smelling wax chips that can last 4-5 years (depending on how often they are used) and can be really addicting. Well, I got Shelly hooked. I just wanted to stop in and see what new scents they had and just get a little pick-me-up for the rest of the evening. Shelly ended up buying a couple of sachets and a warmer. I am such a bad influence. I can get people to spend money so quickly. It was fun and now Scentchips has a new customer. Fun stuff. We continued through the streets then went over to Hemisphere park where the party was continuing. we walked through the party area over to the fountains that surround the Hemisphere and I was severly disappointed. The fountains were not on. Think about it, people are coming from all over the place to join in the festivities and one of the things that make the area shine are the fountains. I know we are under water restrictions right now, but wouldn't you want people coming from all over to see something that beautiful and get the whole effect of the fountains? I love the fountains at the park. They are a respite from the rest of world. They really soothe you and makef you feel better and less stressed. I was disappointed that the fountains were empty. That was the end of my NIOSA experience. I was so happy to finally sit down and take a break and boy did I sleep great! If you ever have the chance to go to NIOSA make sure you go early enough and really take it all in. It's a great thing to do, just leave the kiddos at home.