Well meaning friends have a boat. Well meaning friends shared. Those folks are keepers, taking my pitiful self for a joy ride across the lake, up the river and even boated to dinner.
Grinned like a fool the whole ride. Being close to the water is like being in the woods. It’s tough to be in a bad mood. To be able to zip along and hop the waves, starring at the stars with the moon lighting the way at the end, damn near impossible.
A sucker for a good custom car show, despite the corvette theme (not a fan), the Erie Basin Marina obliged.
Fun to daydream.
only here for fun!” It’s hard to think of a two year old football stadium as hallowed ground, but the new Giants Stadium was pretty much that last weekend. My younger sister and I took in night number #2 of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band‘s stand at the veritable concrete bowl and had the expected fantabulous time with a great, great show. It’s fun to see your favorites in their natural surroundings
We were invited/privileged/astonished to watch a tailgate party come together with military like precision in the parking lot beforehand. The grill came out and with what seems a rapid fire succession of carnivore laden delights hit the flames. It made me think of Anthony Bourdain‘s line about how “sides are for suckers, you need that real estate.”
Sausages whose names probably ended in wurst led the hit parade. When the inferno below hit the grill, I was informed that the 6 inch by 19 inch foil collective was bacon. Okay, if you say so, sir.
Good sense says to look away, but you just can’t. The sight of corn on the cob following that made me laugh, like checking your vegetable karma before things got serious. A few of us stopped as we had to get a decent space for the show.
My sister has become a junkie for being on the floor during a Springsteen show. That’s funny because she sort of resented hearing the River through the second floor of our childhood home, but osmosis won her over. Given the picture above, it’s not hard to see why you’d want to be in the midst of mostly kindred spirits. I’m slowly losing my tastes for huge stadium shows because things get cartoony, like bands overreaching to fill the big space.
I didn’t get that sense, perhaps being maybe 30 yards from the stage helps. I have to imagine the folks on the upper decks were basically watching the video screens, but it was an amiable mess of a good time.
Enjoyed myself immensely as always, thanks Bruce (and Kate), but as a palate cleanser here you go. With Bruce holding down Jersey, we balanced the weekend by heading to the northern most portion of the isle.
You can almost forget you are in NY at that point.
I was invited to a fine festival on Sunday
Aside from the fun, personality and genuine flair of the amazing Webers and the tremendous party they threw (take that, Martha Stewart), I learned a few things. Like that the end of the Robert Moses Parkway is quite pretty. That would be the picture at the top, and it’s been a bit since I was able to gaze at Lake Ontario. I’ve never visited Porter by the Lake park before and it was great. While all weddings receptions should imitate the Webers and throw the etiquette books to the wind and instead celebate the couple, finding somplace new was quite great, right along with the open cookie bar and tater tots on the dinner buffet.
While the occasion has already been written about by people smarter than me, it felt really good to discover a new place and have such a a blast doing it.
Good times.
Now this ski resort knows how to make bucks in the warm weather. I rode something like this at a resort in Collingwood, Ontario a bunch of years ago. I think my Dad and I had a race as they had two lanes, but this looks more fun and a longer ride. The coaster located Mieders, Austria, starts at the top of a mountain, reachable by a cable car.
I want to do this.
To see what the non-riders see, check this out:
Does anybody want to go…..faster?
http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1268261748577RA34
Silly, web fun, but silly is underrated at the moment
P.S. I’m big in Germany, too
Nice escape yesterday. Some of my family took up residence in Ridgeway, Ontario (right near Sherkston) for the past week and I took the day to come play yesterday. Aside from a nasty mosquito issue near the house, the beach was pretty close to perfect. It was a lot of fun to fall in the water, splash wars and even fit myself into a kayak and get back out with bruising my dignity too much, even got enough sun that my farmer’s tan from events at work may have disappeared a little bit.
Got to kayak, even sail a little. It was a most satisfactory way to deflower my new passport card. Cherry on the cake of the day was the Duty Free having plenty of Sleeman’s Draught in stock.
Mike's Pub 