Wanderlust

Well, it would be a mass understatement to say that this area likes St. Patrick's Day. The entire weekend and day of are hugely celebrated here, in lavish excess.

Jules was able to escape Mechanicsburg for the weekend, and we tried to fit some fun in. At dinner that night at Patte's, the place was packed with green-garbed folks complete with a bagpipe band that wandered through the dining areas. Is it called a band? Anyway, a group of Irish musicians, you know what I mean. The food was great - I ordered a sandwich that was an entire french loaf of bread smeared with scampi sauce and toasted, then filled with meat and cheese and onions and peppers. Seriously, a loaf of french bread. No, I did not eat it all.

After dinner was dessert, the Chippendales were in town! It was in a great ballroom in a nice resort that also had a huge danceclub and low key glass walled bar. The show is a racket! Not complaining, but just be forewarned - you need more than single ones for this show. You need $10s to sit on a chair on the stage for 5 seconds of flesh in your face. Hey, might be worth it to some, but not this cheap Chaz. Optional, yes, but it took the majority of the showtime because they kept repeating it. Of course there were many women willing to give away their cash. And yeah, it was entertaining... for the first 20 minutes maybe. And the raffle was fixed too, which we saw with our very own eyes from 5 feet away. Okay, enough of that - we went to the bar afterward and saw a couple of them there that just got mobbed. What a life for a man. A straight man, at least. And I didn't notice the finger pointing in this picture - I'm sure it's a 'Not supposed to take a free picture of us, missy!'. Ha. And no... Cujo did not go with us. teehee.

Scranton's St. Patrick's Day Parade is the fourth largest in the nation and had 100,000+ attendees with 9,000 participants, and lasts 4 HOURS. Yes, four h-o-u-r-s. In the damp cold.

There's a vast range of people - from families to bar flies, and most of them are drinking. Lots of them are smoking. It's like going out, but instead of starting around 8 or 9PM, you start at 8 or 9AM. Which of course leads to drunks, fights, arrests, and the occasional horizontal person with friends and police peering down at them. There were police with someone in the back of their car, or walking towards one with someone in handcuffs. They seem to go by the credo of Michael Scott on The Office who said, 'Ain't no party like a Scranton party, cuz a Scranton party never stops' and they have shirts that say so. I just can't compete anymore, unfortunately! My recovery time has doubled in the past few years, hehe. I haven't been in a state for a while where smoking is still allowed in restaurants - and the ask the smoking or non question. Given the number of smokers here, I wonder how long it'll take for that to pass into law. Back to the parade... It's in the downtown area which has that great old architecture of the east coast. Big dogs are prevalent here - saw a huge one at Pattes and saw huge ones as spectators of the parade, as well as in the parade. I'm talking big - like St. Bernards, newfoundlands, and wolfhounds. Not sure why, but they seem to like big dogs here. The bars in the area were packed at 10AM, and had lines to pay the $10 cover to get in. Sure hope beer was cheap then, but I doubt it. Others chose to bring their own and drink (somewhat) discretely on the street. It took about two hours for us to see Hillary, which was one of my main drives to go. She was walking behind a trailer bed holding mass media and was surrounded by security. She wandered from one side of the street to the other, shaking hands and signing autographs. I have to say, she is much prettier in person. The entries ranged from beer companies to high school clubs to Cujo's union to Irish clubs to politicians, pretty much ran the gamut. After we saw Senator Clinton, we ducked into a store, which led to a mall, where we wandered for a while to warm up. When we exited, the parade was still. going. on. Die hards, I tell ya.

Well, it's been a little over a week since we got here, and we're all settling nicely. This city is pretty big - they say 300,000 in the greater WB/Scranton area - but it feels similar to home in that it's set down in a valley and has a river running through it. People seem friendly, chivalrous and heavily accented. In fact, we were told we had accents the other night, which was a first!

We made it down the road to Pocono Downs. Even though the live racing doesn't start until April 1, they still have simulcast and a casino. The cool thing was a poker machine with a huge flat screen with the image of a dealer - like a virtual dealer - life size, with seats for six. Hadn't seen that before. Not sure who picked what the dealer looked like, but only one of the ten machines had a male dealer, hehe. Anyway, we got a drink and wandered around, looking for that perfect machine or perfect horse to bet on, but nothing leapt out, so we then decided to take our budget of $20 each gambling money and go out for dinner instead, ha! Not sure if that's a sign of age, frugality or hunger. At least we got something from the money. Beer and full bellies are always better than nothing.

The campaign is starting to heat up here, and Hillary came to Scranton to speak - in her speech she mentioned loving a white pizza at a specific restaurant - so we went! It was a great little place, really classy appearance with a homey attitude. Everyone was greeted warmly at the door, most of them by name and with a hug. Cool little place. Oh, and yeah, the pizza was great too. Kinda like a calzone, but much flakier and more flavor. And buttery. Mmmm. So yeah, I got food out of a political speech. Go figure. Not a surprise if you know me at all.

There is an AHL team here - the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins who is the farm team for Pittsburgh. Thanks to them, I saw my first hat trick! Complete with fan's hats all over the ice, it was very cool. They have these great jerseys right now - I'm assuming it's for St Paddys - that are totally Irish with Celtic font for their names and clovers on the front and arm. It looked like they change up their jerseys for holidays, I saw a Christmas themed one last night as well. The turn out was pretty good for a Wednesday night, I was surprised.

Diesel is $4.29 right now! Just thought I'd throw that in. In case we can't afford to ever leave here.

Turns out right next to us, there is a great wooded little area complete with a trail and a river. Private property, yes, it might be - it sits in the middle of a commerical area with businesses surrounding it, but hey - we found it, we like it, so we go. It actually reminds me of western Washington, thick with trees and brush, green sprawling moss and rushing water. Charlie loves it and runs around climbing up the cliffs and down to the water, balancing precariously on the unsettled land before launching off it again.

It’s funny when you drive east, you will inevitably have to use toll roads. There isn’t always a comparable option. Cujo has his right wing theory on toll roads, mine is just that it’s inconvenient. Yes, you do have the luxury of gas or food every 30 miles, but you pay for that ‘luxury’. And if you want to get off and back on, or even if you don’t - it takes more time with all the extra stop and gos. Okay, enough bitching.

The town of Wilkes-Barre is bigger than I expected, and it’s basically attached to Scranton. The Scranton from The Office. Anyway, Wilkes-Barre – I thought it was Wilkes-BAR, but two locals I’ve asked say it is pronounced Wilkes-BARE, and the news calls it Wilkes-BERRY. Eh... Potato... Potahto. Some really pretty country on the drive to here, and lots of tunnels through mountains.

We stopped and wandered around the Strip in Pittsburgh. Although a tad chilly and overcast, there were still vendors out and folks milling around the outdoor market area. I wouldn’t go back to Primantis to eat, despite rave reviews. I didn’t know their cheesesteak was a sandwich with a meat patty with coleslaw and fries on it, no cheese. Ignorant, I expected a cheese steak with shaved steak and cheese, ya know? So did the guy next to me, who asked “Is this the cheese steak?” to which the waitress responded with an exasperated “YES” and walked away disgusted, shaking her head. Food wasn’t good, and staff was not friendly. But the market area was great – lots of stuff on the street and in the stores that was not typical, like those German Anise cookie/pastry things and a huge selection of meats and cheese and pastas.

We got to stop in the Harrisburg area on our way and caught up with Jules. Thanks to her and the girls for providing a crash pad! We had a great meal and played a game that I never won. Hehe. Only had to break up the dogs a couple times, they did pretty good for the most part.

I think celebration is in order – we finally found a geocache! Well, yes… another geocacher did point it out first, but I think that’s just a small pesky detail of our hunt. We dropped a bug, signed our names proudly, and (of course) snapped a picture to save the moment. The guy with us was planning on spending the entire day driving around the area and finding as many caches as possible; we had only one goal – to find this specific one. And had given ourselves hours to do so. Hehe. Good thing it didn’t take hours, otherwise I have a feeling it would’ve been death for my geocaching hobby. Again. At least for another month.

There are great trails in and around the Starved Rock State Park. Warning though – declines + terrain during winter = falling. I think I slid about 20 feet on this one, thankfully came to a halt before the huge rocky ravine. Yes, that is my butt mark. I like sledding and all, but wasn’t planning on it so abruptly and painfully, and I didn’t have a sled. Cujo and Charlie stayed upright, yeah yeah, walking experts or whatever.

So, you know the show American Idol? Well, I don’t really watch it, but in this area of Illinois it’s pretty popular. Most of the small towns have the contest on a smaller scale. We went to the ‘Rockstar” competition for the Ottawa area naively – totally expected a handful of people singing karaoke style – thought it would be something to do and somewhere to have a drink and be entertained. We were FLOORED! It was packed – standing room only in a huge lodge – I’m guessing 200 people to watch, eat dinner and vote, the contestants were GREAT, and the process was professional with judges and feedback. If it was like karaoke at all, it was karaoke on steroids. I want to go back and watch next week’s theme is 80s – my favorite! I suppose instead, I will watch from afar.

Guy Fieri is my hero. He’s the host of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network. He is that lucky schmuck that goes around the country and eats all the good low key places. He is also the one who introduced me to Paradise Pup in Chicago. Healthy is not how it’s described, but oh man it’s good. They have char burgers with this cheddar spread – it’s like a paste or a spread – and tastes much better than that sounds. They put it on fries, too. The burgers are juicy and the bun is grilled, and the onions are too. Sooooo good. Trust Guy. Yeah, we went back for seconds, so what?

The Museum of Science and Industry was a beautiful building, and held a submarine and a 727. However, the 727 wasn’t accessible and the submarine tour cost extra. I suppose I lacked a little planning as my expectations were much higher than reality. It always irks me when there are extra add-ons. Like those damn grocery store ‘rewards’ cards you have to sign up for. Just give me best price without me giving you my phone number. Anyway, we saw the outsides of the plane and sub. And we saw a baby chick peck out of it’s shell. There was also a little movie/exhibit about the power of 10 that was neato – moved out into the deep black at a power of 10 in 10 seconds, then back in. Gave you that – whoa I am but a speck of dust – feeling.

Millennium Park is really an incredible area of Chicago. It’s huge, and it houses a slew of art, architecture and events. The Cloud Gate held our attention for quite a while - wandering around it, in it, looking at all the angles of ourselves and the skyline in the abstract blob of mercury. Check out the reflection behind us. There is an exhibit called the Museum of Modern Ice during February, and it’s basically that – colorful art in ice slabs. There is also a fountain area which displays heads of Chicago residents on a big tower. Adjacent is the Chicago Cultural Center which had exhibits ranging from artist’s neurosis to maps/geography. Those were really, really interesting and really, really odd. In a good way, of course.