An Ernest Hemingway Day

What is an Ernest Hemingway Day? It's one that turns out better than you expect or hope for and has lots of fun, adventure, and little or no unpleasantness. I guess it's the kind of day ol' Ernie would approve of and I think he would have approved of the one we had a couple of weeks or so ago. While it did not involve bullfighting, it did involve the manly American sport of football, along with much drinking and camaraderie.

Michelle has a younger brother who has two kids named Joe and Melissa. Joe has been playing football since he was in Junior High School. He has played all the way through High School and for four years of college. The particular day in question was the last game of his Senior year at Franklin and Marshall College and effectively his last football game ever. To make a long story short, they won. They won against a team, Gettysburg College, who was favored to beat them. F&M won 56-38.

Since Gettysburg had made a field goal early on in the game, that meant that Joe's team won by three touchdowns - and in the fourth quarter no less.

And that was just the start of the day's fun.

(For readers who are football fans, a detailed description of the game can be found at the F & M football site here: http://godiplomats.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/111007aac.html )

Michelle, Sue (Joe's mom), Joe, his dad, and yours truly on the field before the game. They had a nice ceremony for the seniors and their families. I kind of like the Dorothy Parker hat Michelle wore that day.

After cheering ourselves hoarse right through to the last second of the fourth quarter, we repaired to the parking area (set aside especially for team parents) and commenced partying while we awaited our "conquering hero". Since it was the last game of the season and the last game for the seniors period, the parents went all out. People had feasts catered by fancy New York City delis, whole turkeys, filet mignon, whole wheels of Brie, gourmet cupcakes from "Crumbs" (an upscale New York bakery) etc. etc. It also goes without saying that the booze was flowing pretty heavily too.

Well, among all the gourmet excess our girl Michelle brought along three big racks of Costco spareribs that she had slow cooked the night before and which we reheated on her brother's portable propane grill. They were the hit of the of the party. People we didn't know kept coming by and mooching ribs from us. When Joe arrived from the locker room he tucked into a plate and declared them delicious. His buddy "Sparks" declared them the best ribs he ever ate. Michelle was happy.

The tailgate festivities went on until well past dark with music and dancing and fire pits, and proud parents and siblings crowded around the players, shots of tequila and Captain Morgan's drunk to the victory and everyone generally enjoying themselves. Finally, however, it was time to take a break and go check into our hotel. And what a hotel!

We were booked into a place around the corner from the college called the "Lancaster Arts Hotel" (http://www.lancasterartshotel.com/). It was probably one of the best hotels we've stayed at in a long time. It occupies what was once a tobacco warehouse that has been been completely redone into an amazing contemporary hotel while retaining the original brick walls and wood floors. It is what Michelle describes as a "boutique" hotel - if you've ever watched the show on the Travel Channel with the young woman named Samantha, it's the type of place she often stays at for her show. Anyway, the bed was extremely comfortable, there was a wall-mounted flat screen TV, modernistic track lighting and many other neat touches.

However, after a short bit of recuperation at our hotel, it was time to continue the celebration. This was to be at the official student "dive" of the F&M football team: a bar called "Hildy's". This was a short walk from our hotel (from here on no cars were involved due to the anticipated alcohol consumption).

At Hildy's we met up with Joe and his buddies and some of the other parents. There we consumed serious quantities of beer by the pitcher and again did numerous shots. I felt like it was forty years ago and I was back at old Stevens Tech in Hoboken.

Next, we were informed that we were invited to a frat party hosted by Joe's fraternity (he is the chapter president) and found ourselves in a small apartment in a converted loft with about a bazillion dancing and drinking students and a live band crammed into a minimal space along with numerous kegs of beer. After a while though, us old farts were getting worn out and decided to call it a night. Joe ran blocking for us through the impenetrable crowd (always useful to have a nose tackle along) and we made our way back to the hotel.

The next day we dragged our hung over bodies out of bed and headed home to Jersey.

Like I said: an Ernest Hemingway Day.

A Good But Not Great Adventure

About a month ago, my nephew Mark called me up one Friday and asked if I wanted to go to Great Adventure the next day with him, Lucy and The World's Cutest Grandnephew. So, once again, we loaded up the car seat in the 4Runner, strapped in Little Mark, and off we went with my trusty Garmin (GPS) in hand.



Our objective was to ride as many of the insane wild roller coasters at Great Adventure as possible and in Mark's case, all of them if possible. Also, of course, we planned to take Little Mark on as many kiddy rides as we could and show him a good time.



Yeah, right. Even in October, the lines for the major coasters were 1-1/2 to 2 hours long. As a result, Mark got to ride three coasters in a whole day there, and Lucy and I got to ride one each. I will admit that the first coaster Mark chose to ride was basically batsh*t insane. It was called the "Kingda Ka" and the main feature was a section of track that shot over 400 feet straight up (were talking an actual 90 degrees to the ground) and then after a tight 180 turn in the X/Z plane, straight back down again. I chose the better part of valor and went with Lucy to the kiddy section of that particular part of the park and we showed Little Mark a good time. He even got to see some tigers (probably for the first time) in an enclosure that they had there. Lucy told him what they were called in English and Portuguese. He got to go on some kiddy rides and a cool slide that looked like and elephant's trunk. I think that section of the park had some kind of Rain forest theme.

Little Mark has a good old time on one of the kiddy rides - there were a lot of these for the little ones.

Anyway, Mark was on line for about an hour and a half for a ninety-second ride. I found Great Adventure annoying in that they do have something called a "flash pass" available that will get you a reserved time to get in ahead of the line. But guess what? It costs you another $30 or so beyond the $60 it costs to get into the park. I was not happy with this concept; especially since the Disney parks in Orlando have a similar system that is free. Once you've paid your admission to a Disney park, there are kiosks where you can reserve your entry for some time later in the day - no additional charges.

Here is the "Kingda Ka" that Mark rode on. This is the part that shoots you 400+ feet in the air.

Next, Mark and I went together on a coaster called "El Toro" that was supposed to be the fastest wooden roller coaster in the U.S. Again, we waited over an hour, while Lucy took the little dude on some more kiddy rides. It was a great coaster though. I experienced zero G's numerous times as my butt left the seat and then plopped back down again in the various drops and twists. Mark (who is a coaster connoisseur) even said it was a pretty good one.



Finally, Mark and Lucy went on the "Superman" roller coaster and ended up on line for like two hours. But I didn't mind since I got to take my lil' buddy on some kiddy rides in some kind of Bugs Bunny land that they had. We also wandered all over the park with him in his stroller and then bonded over hot dogs and french fries. Actually, the french fries were a useful distraction which kept him from wondering where the hell Mom and Dad were all this time.



Eventually, Mark and Lucy finished their ride - they enjoyed it - and were reunited with their son. We spent another couple of hours wandering the park including a thwarted attempt to get on the "Batman" coaster (a two-hour wait!) and more kiddie rides for Little Mark. The day ended with a Halloween parade of costumed "Zombies" and we headed home. Little Mark was asleep in his stroller before we even made it out the front gate of the park.



At any rate, a good time was had by all.