Jimmy B.

We're fans....I've written before about our love of Jimmy (and if I had ever tagged those posts, I could link to them now- rats) and how happy he makes Jon and me. We've passed that down to Cooper, who counts him among his favorites and knows quite a few of the songs by heart.

So, when we saw a Margaritaville restaurant down the block from our hotel in Niagara, we had to stop in for lunch. We've never been and wanted to take in the experience. The food was great and the atmosphere was family friendly and full of fun.

They employ "stilt people" to walk around and make balloon animals. She wasn't a freakish clown like in lots of places....just a regular girl on stilts making small talk and hats for kids.







Even Jon got into the festivities!


Anyhoo, we asked whether Jimmy had ever come to the restaurant and the answer was no. He has a habit of just showing up at times though and as we ate, we talked about how amazing it would be if he just happened to stop by while we were there.

And then we paid our bill and left.

The next day we checked out of our hotel and headed to our Day 4 destination. But as we drove by, we noticed a peculiar scene outside of Margaritaville.

Parrotheads.
There were about a dozen people standing outside the restaurant singing songs. So, we pulled over and I got out to assess the situation.
It was 11am.

The verdict?
Something was happening and although we weren't sure, we weren't taking any chances. We parked the car and joined the fun.

At 11:30, the restaurant opened and things seemed a bit different than the day before. We got a table and tried to look casual.



There were rumors...but we still weren't sure. So we decided to take an extended lunch.

About 2 hours later, Jon spied this guy from our seat and I ran to snap his pic.


Yup, that's Mac....Jimmy's BFF.
And then we knew!!!!
And we couldn't breathe, and our hearts were beating and we could hardly stand it.

And so we changed our plans and camped out at a table for the whole afternoon (along with some friendly Parrotheads from Toronto).

Cooper was a champ....


It took 5 milks, 2 orange sodas, a ring pop and a $7 Niagara Falls pocket knife but that kid was an angel- for 6 hours.

And it paid off!!!!

We were among 300 fans who "happened to be there" for a surprise concert.


We were beside ourselves!!


Can you see the excitement on Cooper's face??



It went from this....


To this....in a few hours, and we were a part of it all.


It's a day that we'll never forget!!

Thanks Jimmy- for making our vacation even more amazing!!