According to Tripsmarter.com, over 2 million kids were turned loose for Spring Break during this past week, making these past 5 days the official juiced-up, mega-week of Spring Break.
In fact, it’s so big, it needs it’s own intro-music. *ques theme to Rocky*
(wakka wakka)
This last week brought hordes of college kids to town, who promptly set about shimmying and raising toasts with cold beers or those fruity, umbrella drinks.
Immediately following up all that shimmying, toasting and the mandatory high-fiving, they torpedoed onto the beach. Which is where they remained, fully focused on turning various shades of cocoa brown and repeating aforementioned actions.
I’ve been holding off on posting this article due to some irrational fear that as soon as we stated “all is well” here, it would cause some cosmic shift and break the spell of decent behavior. Maybe I’m just paranoid, or more likely I’ve seen one to many cheesy horror flicks. You know the kind, somewhere some young cheerleader states “it’s OK guys, there’s nothing bad going to happen” and whoosh, crazed leprechauns shoot out of the woods.
In an effort to get over my superstitions (and to keep the bosses happy) we’ll finally just go for it but if it starts raining frogs afterward, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The reality is that during these last few weeks of Spring Breakers swarming in to town, the news has remained relatively positive. The revenue influx is encouraging and the positive turn-out for the first big run of the tourist season, is offering a ray of hope for business owners affected from last year’s oil-spill sucker punch.
Granted, there’s been a few nitwits who’ve managed to make the nightly news but thankfully, it was more from stupidity then anything else. In all, considering the increase in traffic and our beaches being held hostage by a ton of college kids, it’s been relatively smooth sailing. The Panama City Beach Police Department has reported an increase in citations, mostly issued for under-age drinking or public intoxication. Which should come as no surprise to anyone when you realize some of these folks were already planning on breaking the law before they left campus.
As this mega-week dies down, and we start to gear up for another round of visitors, let’s take a moment to check out the live cams perched above Schooners.
Ahhh, look at that sand! The emerald water! Jealous yet?
Numbers Break Down from tripsmarter.com
| March 14-18, 2011 (Mon-Fri)
|
| College / University |
Enrollment |
| Adams State College |
2,308 |
| Alabama A&M University |
6,047 |
| Albright College |
1,650 |
| Alcorn State University |
3,668 |
| Arizona State University |
64,394 |
| Army, West Point |
4,000 |
| Auburn University |
24,137 |
| Austin College |
1,291 |
| Bentley College |
5,557 |
| Birmingham-Southern College |
1,500 |
| Bucknell University |
3,555 |
| Butler University |
8,367 |
| California State University, Chico |
14,500 |
| Carthage College |
2,930 |
| Claflin University |
1,800 |
| Claremont Mckenna College |
1,135 |
| Cleveland State University |
15,706 |
| Colgate University |
2,750 |
| College of Wooster |
1,827 |
| Colorado State University |
26,884 |
| Concordia University, Austin |
1,400 |
| Concordia University, Wisconsin |
5,600 |
| Connecticut College |
1,910 |
| Delta State University |
4,392 |
| Des Moines Area Community College |
27,000 |
| Drake University |
5,221 |
| Earlham College |
1,194 |
| Eastern Illinois University |
11,651 |
| Edgewood College |
2,500 |
| Fairleigh Dickinson University |
8,000 |
| Florida College |
600 |
| Florida International University |
38,614 |
| Fordham University |
16,009 |
| George Mason University |
30,332 |
| George Washington University |
24,531 |
| Georgia Southern University |
16,841 |
| Harvard University |
19,139 |
| Harvey Mudd College |
746 |
| Humboldt State University |
7,773 |
| Indiana University, Purdue |
29,854 |
| Indiana University of Bloomington |
38,990 |
| Iowa State University |
26,160 |
| Jackson State University |
8,351 |
| Jacksonville State University |
9,000 |
| John Hopkins University |
15,000 |
| Keene State College |
6,400 |
| Lafayette College |
2,403 |
| Lakeland College |
3,999 |
| Lewis and Clark Community College |
2,403 |
| Liberty University |
3,999 |
| Lewis and Clark Community College |
20,252 |
| Liberty University |
14,438 |
| Lipscomb University |
2,744 |
| Longwood University |
4,479 |
| Madison Area Technical School |
20,461 |
| Manhattan College |
3,000 |
| Marquette University |
11,548 |
| Meharry Medical College |
723 |
| Montana State University |
12,250 |
| Mount Holyoke College |
2,100 |
| Naval Academy |
4,400 |
| New York University |
40,870 |
| Northern Illinois University |
25,313 |
| Northwest College |
1,800 |
| Ocean County College |
9,351 |
| Pitzer College |
950 |
| Pomona College |
1,548 |
| Princeton University |
6,898 |
| Purdue University |
39,228 |
| Quinnipiac University |
7,400 |
| Rider University |
5,790 |
| Rutgers University at New Jersey |
34,392 |
| Rutgers University at New Jersey, Camden |
51,480 |
| Rutgers University at New Jersey, Newark |
10,246 |
| Sam Houston State University |
16,416 |
| Samford University |
4,400 |
| Savannah State University |
3,169 |
| Scripps College |
899 |
| Southern Illinois University Carbondale |
20,983 |
| Southern Illinois University Edwardsville |
13,449 |
| Southern Methodist University |
10,901 |
| St. Louis University |
11,823 |
| Stephen F. Austin State University |
10,822 |
| Syracuse University |
19,082 |
| Texas A&M |
46,540 |
| Texas A&M, Corpus Christi |
8,355 |
| Texas State University |
28,132 |
| Texas Tech University |
28,260 |
| University of Alabama, Birmingham |
16,246 |
| University of Alabama, Huntsville |
7,100 |
| University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa |
25,580 |
| University of Central Oklahoma |
15,753 |
| University of Georgia |
33,831 |
| University of Hartford |
6,225 |
| University of Houston |
35,344 |
| University of Idaho |
11,251 |
| University of Iowa |
30,409 |
| University of Kentucky |
27,209 |
| University of Lethbridge |
8,001 |
| University of Massachusetts |
60,000 |
| University of Miami |
15,449 |
| University of Minnesota |
50,402 |
| University of Mississippi |
17,323 |
| University of Montevallo |
3,000 |
| University of Nevada |
31,000 |
| University of New Hampshire |
13,547 |
| University of New Haven |
4,480 |
| University of New Mexico |
24,092 |
| University of North Florida |
15,619 |
| University of North Texas |
34,268 |
| University of Northern Colorado |
12,981 |
| University of Northern Iowa |
14,207 |
| University of Notre Dame |
11,603 |
| University of Oklahoma |
29,721 |
| University of San Francisco |
8,447 |
| University of South Alabama |
14,003 |
| University of South Florida |
34,036 |
| University of Southern California |
33,389 |
| University of Tennessee |
26,400 |
| University of Texas, Austin |
49,696 |
| University of Texas, Dallas |
14,480 |
| University of Texas, Pan American |
17,048 |
| University of Texas, San Antonio |
28,534 |
| University of Texas, Tyler |
6,150 |
| University of Tulsa |
4,165 |
| University of West Florida |
10,358 |
| University of Wisconsin, La Crosse |
10,052 |
| University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee |
28,356 |
| University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh |
12,409 |
| University of Wisconsin, Parkside |
4,999 |
| University of Wisconsin, Platteville |
6,431 |
| University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point |
8,552 |
| University of Wisconsin, Stout |
8,416 |
| University of Wyoming |
13,301 |
| Valdosta State University |
23,750 |
| Virginia Commonwealth University |
11,280 |
| Washington State University |
31,907 |
| Weber State University |
18,300 |
| Western Illinois University |
13,600 |
| Wilson College |
868 |
| TOTAL |
2,112,478 |
PCBDaily 