A Day At The Races!

Calder Race Course was a blast! If you've never experienced a horse race, you should certainly give it a shot. You won't regret it.
Alex and I made the trip with a couple friends of our's, Shawn and Katelyn. When we got there we were in awe at the amount of people there...mostly senior citizens. We bought a little track magazine to check out the names of the horses in all the different races. We decided to wait until the third race to place any bets...so we could get a feel for it. We found an interesting looking man standing alone and decided to ask him for tips. This was a man that knew what he was doing...he had that shifty look about him. He gave us come complicated explanations about odds and blah blah blah...but in the end he said, "Just bet on the names...if you like a name, go for it...bet your hunches...people that know all about horses are broke!"
And so we did as we were told.

The tellers (is that what they're called??? you know, the people that take your money, haha) were the best people in the whole place. We kept going back to the same two. An old man who kept scolding us for knowing nothing about races and a sweet older woman who would laugh at everything we said. At one point, Shawn pulled out his wallet to hand the man some cash, to which the man said, "NEVER pull out your wallet here! Just carry some cash in your pocket!!" Yeah...

When the third race was approaching we headed over to place our bets. I still wasn't comfortable with the whole betting deal...but Alex, at the last minute, decided to put two whooole dollars on Max Alone. And guess what? He won! Wooo!!! It was very exciting. We made sure to get right next to the track so we could see all the action up close. I think we won something like $8.50. Big money!

At this point we decided to see what else Calder Race Course had to offer. We went out back and they had the greatest BBQ for $1 I've ever seen. Chicken, corn, watermelon...all for $1! They also had some lady making wax hands for free. Katelyn had one made. Basically you stick your hand in some ice so that it can go numb (this is the painful part of the procedure) you then stick your hand in a vat of boiling wax... The result is a pretty cool (and creepy) wax hand. Ta-Da!

We bet on one more race before leaving. Alex and I lost (boo) but Shawn and Katelyn won (yay). So everybody went home a winner that day...

Basically it's the best way I've ever spent Labor Day in my entire life.

OH! And after we left Alex finally took me to Arbetter's! Yayyy! I hadn't been there in so long I almost forgot what the marvelous, greasy, cheese fries tasted like. Thanks, babe!


(click on the image above to make it larger and see it in all its glory)