The Rob’s Family Visits Evansville

As you may have heard on the radio sometime last week, this weekend was a pretty special one for me.  I celebrated my 30^th birthday, and my family flew in from Philadelphia to see me.  My family doesn’t get a chance to come out here very often, and I usually only get to see them three times a year.  After a three-hour delay, they finally landed in Evansville around 8:30 Friday night.  It was a long day for them.  We had dinner and met up with some friends at Old Chicago and called it a somewhat early night around midnight.  What followed was a nonstop Evansville tour de force of how to have a good time around town!  Here are some of the highlights of what we accomplished over the short time my family was here.  (All photos: The Hirschbuhl Family)  Also, feel free to listen to my audio-synopsis of my family's visit right here:

SATURDAY:

7:30AM – We hit the ground running Saturday morning by having breakfast at the Cross-Eyed Cricket with the Mayor of Evansville, the honorable Lloyd Winnecke!  Lloyd (he insists I don’t call him “Mr. Winnecke”) has been offering for nearly a year to take my mother to breakfast if she ever comes to town.  In fact, I think this may have been a big reason as to why my mom finally came out to see me (just kidding, Mom)!  Lloyd was so much fun to hang out with and my family absolutely LOVED him.  The fact that he would take the time out of his schedule to meet with me and my family says a lot about our Mayor’s character.  I’ve always been fond of Mayor Winnecke, but his hospitality, generosity, and charm really put him over the top.  Lloyd, if by chance you’re reading this, thank you so much for doing this…  You made my family’s day!

10:00AM – I had a broadcast at Henderson Chevy at 10:00.  My family decided to join me during the broadcast and even brought a cake that we scarfed down with some of the car salesmen.  This was the first time my family had ever seen me work, so it was a really fun experience!

2:00PM – With a break in our schedule, we decided to go catch a flick at Showplace East.  We settled upon Now You See Me, and we were all very pleasantly surprised with how good the movie was.  There were six of us who went to see it, and we all agreed it was a great movie!

4:00PM – After hearing so much about it on and off the air, nobody in my family besides me has ever been to Spudz-n-Stuff!  Of course, everybody enjoyed the tasty taters.  My family also gave me some birthday gifts around this time.  My parents surprised me with, among other things, a Philadelphia Philly Phanatic Pillow Pet, and I absolutely love it!  And I know what everyone is asking themselves, and the answer is YES…  I also got video games!

7:00PM – An unquestionable highlight of my family’s trip was Mesker Park Zoo’s Zoo Brew!  I had never been to the Zoo Brew, in fact I’ve never even been to the Zoo before, so we didn’t really know what to expect…  But we seriously had the BEST time.  The concept is very simple: The Zoo is closed to the public.  You’re given a miniature mug upon entry.  There are 20-something drink stations scattered about the Zoo, and basically you just drink and hang out with your friends and the animals!  Everybody in our group had an unbelievably good time!

SUNDAY:

10:00AM – Sunday was reserved for one thing and one thing only…  Holiday World & Splashin’ Safarri!  No one in my family besides me was familiar with Holiday World, and it was hard to explain just how huge and awesome Holiday World is!  My entire family and I acted like kids again and had an absolutely amazing time!  Not to mention the weather was poor, and we had to deal with pretty much NO LINES!  I even got a chance to ride the Mammoth!  We also rode the Voyage FOUR times!  We spent all day here, came home and had dinner at Cheddar’s, and called it a night.

MONDAY:

2:00PM – We had lunch at Jake’s Wayback Burgers before heading out for two rounds of mini-golf at Walther’s Golf & Fun.  My mom did really well, sinking FIVE hole-in-ones (holes-in-one?).  I was proud to simply get TWO!  After that we met up with some of my closest friends at another Evansville staple, Hacienda.  I got the whole “Feliz Cumplianos” treatment, complete with song, dance, and oversized sombrero!

7:00PM – After dinner we went back to my apartment and watched The Voice.  This was nice because it was a show we all watch and are passionate about, but never get to watch together.  After The Voice we took a movie off of my movie rack and watched one of all-time favorites, Stand By Me.  We watched that and everybody agreed it was a fantastic flick.  We crashed after the movie.

TUESDAY:

10:00AM – We didn’t have an opportunity to do very much Tuesday because everybody had to leave pretty early.  Their flight was scheduled for around 12:30PM.  I took everybody to the radio station to say hi to some people I work with like Kat and Ryan.  Then I got them back to the Evansville Airport and we said our goodbyes, completely worn out from going crazy nonstop for four days.  It was very hard to see everybody off…  And I already desperately miss my mommy, but I considered it a true gift that we were able to do so much while they were here.