Labor Day 2012

 It's kind of become a tradition for us to spend Labor Day at the track. It's very fitting to spend the unofficial last day of Summer at our favorite summer place on closing day. Despite free admission, attendance is pretty sparse early on, so it was easy for us to get two picnic tables.

 M brought along some Bitter Americans, while I sipped seltzer.

 ...I need to remember to put makeup on when I know we'll be taking pictures, hahaha.

 Oy, some concealer would have made this picture a little prettier...

Always be prepared...

 ...aka making lemonade out of lemons. Our friend Kelly who moved to Brooklyn came up this past weekend and wanted to go to the track. We were happy to take her. We went on Sunday. It was a giveaway day. We arrived before the gates even opened in order to snag a picnic table. But once we were inside, we saw that there was literally not one single picnic table that hadn't already been "claimed" by someone else. We hadn't even brought folding chairs with us, just a cooler. We were pretty much screwed.

Until...we realized that the giveaway was for stadium blankets, and with our 3 admission tickets, we could each snag one. So M guarded our encampment and Kelly and I went to the top of the stretch to wait in line with the zealots and get some blankets to sit on.

 Kelly is obviously more psyched about this than M.

 Still needing to sleep off a long night, M decides to make use of our new blankets. 

 Once he woke up from his shot nap, he realized blankets and a cooler wouldn't cut it. So he called his Aunt who was going to meet us there and asked her to bring a folding table. We went back to the gate to wait for her, and rented a few folding chairs along the way.

With a table and chairs secured, the day immediately improved. Lesson learned: always have a table and chairs stashed in your trunk when you head to the track. Just in case.

suggestions

1. Rider Up

2. The Straightaway

3. Saratoga Paddock Study

4. Final Turn

5. Horse and Goat

6. Anybody's Guess

the track

M's cigar

some bets were placed

Kelly took this awesome shot of M's reflection in my sunglasses!

Kelly waiting for the race to start.

M watching the race with is cigar.

M tries on my sunglasses as the day winds down.

a day at the races

M grabs a swig of his PBR before we head off to show Kelly how to bet.

After Kelly's quick lesson with the automated betting terminals, it was out to the track to take in the early afternoon sun.

No, you can't drag your lawn chairs up and plop them right in front of the fence, thanks.

And please, when you're watching the race...stay off the hydrant. As a favor. Please.

We had enough time before the first race to run over to the new Shake Shack location at the track and grab some lunch. This is M's burger...he finished his fries before we even got back to the table!

My burger. I decided to skip the traditional ketchup, and try it with just the shack sauce. It was delicious! But I was kicking myself because I didn't bring my purse to the track...only my camera bag. And....I forgot to pack my lactase pills in the camera bag. So no shake for me. Next time, for sure though!

M's aunt Jo showed up with some beer kozy's that he couldn't resist.

morning at the track

For M & me, the track is kind of "our thing." Since we've been together, we've gone to every opening day rain or shine. Except this year, because he was away on tour during opening day. So we were SUPER psyched when our friend Kelly said she wanted to experience a day at the track with us. She was warned that it was going to start super early. We picked her up at 8:30am, and got to the gates by 9:30. The gates didn't open until 10:30, so we had a solid hour of waiting, but we were second in line. Why is it so important to get there early? Because if you're spending the day at the picnic tables like we do, you need to get in and claim your spot before all the tables are snatched up. And they are, usually within a matter of minutes!

M snagged us a table under some trees, and we marked our territory with the gaudiest table cloth we could find at the dollar store.

Kelly shot this photo of M, returning to our table with the day's programs so that we could start the task of choosing our horses.

M studied the stats, while I decided to just pick names I liked. Kelly's strategy was to pick horses with the names she thought were stupidest.

Kelly and her breakfast bevy, firefly peach iced tea.

view from our table

Breakfast of champions! None of us had time for a proper breakfast, so we ended up snacking on M's dollar store Mike and Ikes to hold us over until lunch.