Finley Family: Chick-a-fil

Last Wednesday was the big grand opening for the Goose Creek chick-fil-a, or as my sweet grandmother calls it, chick-a-fil. Whenever a new one opens, the first 100 people in line get coupons for 52 free value meals. That's a lot of chicken! Ben and Christy have been to an opening before and invited us along for this one. Stephen got to the restaurant around 7 am and got his number. He was number 99. Ben got there shortly after and got number 100. Phew.

The rules were you couldn't leave the parking lot of the Chick-fil-a, except to go into the restaurant and use the restroom. There were lots of chick-fil-a employees there monitoring everything and if you left they cut off your bracelet with your number on it. I drove over at lunch time and found Stephen and Ben with their tents already set up. Ben had to himself a huge, deluxe tent that we dubbed the "tenthouse suite." In the parking space next to him were three college aged kids sharing a tiny one person tent. It was a very funny sight.

The weather was awesome and we spent most of the day just laying around reading. In the late afternoon is when the fun began. We started playing games and participating in all of the activities. I ended up on a different team than Stephen for a water contest where you had to carry water with a sponge from a bucket to a gallon jug relay style. It was really close but my team won and we got a Chick-fil-a mug and some candy.

Around sundown a DJ came and we danced in the parking lot. Along with the electric slide and other group dances, we had a dance and hoola-hoop contests. It was a lot of fun and we met a lot of really nice people. I was surprised how many families were there with kids. At one point in the night there was a giant game of freeze tag. It was great watching all the little kids chase Stephen around. Chick-fil-a fed everyone breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and even had an ice cream party later in the night. At first I was a little nervous to sleep in the parking lot. I was worried strange people could walk up to the tents. However, there were police officers there and when people not in the contest tried to walk up he stopped them and wouldn't let them on the property. We went to bed in our tents around 11:30 and were awaken at 5am by a trumpet. I had to go straight to work but Stephen stayed for the opening at 6am and claimed his prize : ) We had so much fun and would definitely do it again!