On Sunday Julie and I headed to Cincinnati on our ‘mini honeymoon’ for the Mets – Reds game at Great American Ballpark. We got to the stadium early and hung out at The Machine Room which overlooks the outfield for the Reds batting practice. We had great seats about 4 rows back from the field on the third base side. The Reds ended up winning on a home run in the bottom of the 11th.
*Side Note:
Hurley from LOST sat a couple of rows in front of us:
This past weekend several gentlemen gathered in New York for my bachelor party. With everyone arriving at various times and coming from various points throughout the nation the airline gods for once shined upon us. James and I started the trip at the Waldorf Astoria drinking Manhattans and mingling with the Pharmaceutical Industry sans James Cameron. We ended the trip four days later watching an awkward teenager continually fall in a dramatic manner on the ice rink at Rockefeller Center. The basic plan was as follows:
Rendezvous on Thursday night, grab some drinks, then on Friday get to Blondies in enough time to snag a table for the remainder of the day and hold our ground until Josh and Luke arrived later in the evening. We then headed to a couple of bars before ending up at McAleer’s Pub for the Ohio State – UC Santa Barbara game and an epic arm wrestling match. On Saturday Rob and Dom arrived and we made our way to the Brooklyn Brewery (turns out our cab driver knew his way around Brooklyn as well as I do, which is to say he didn’t). Jim managed to score a table and some free wooden beer tickets from some ‘contacts’. By far the high point of the brewery, outside of the beer, would have to be seeing Chester B. Arthur and this guy. After the Brewery we marched on to Barcade for some vintage video game action before continuing on our Judgment Night-like march through Brooklyn. There were doubts but we did arrive at Peter Luger Steak House on time and James used his persuasive skills to get us seated. After dinner we headed to McSorley’s Old Ale House and used our chocalate golden coins as currency. Our night began to wind down at Spitzer’s Corner before eventually heading back to the hotel/german bar next door.
Mc Aleer’s Pub:
It took us a couple of tries to find the basketball game but when we did it was at McAleer’s. As you can see in the photograph there was a dispute that could only be settled by gentlemen. I’m pretty sure Josh let me win but then again Luke’s facial expression during my fist pump lets me believe it was a legitimate victory. The truth is probably somewhere in between.
Brooklyn Brewery:
Hanging out at the Brooklyn Brewery very well might have been the highlight of the trip for me. We had a large table which was key, the beer was great and most of it was free due to Jim’s contact who got us the table. The setup was much different than any of us expected, a large warehouse like room with picnik tables. We decided to skip the tour to make room for Barcade and make the most of our table while we had it.
Barcade and Walking Brooklyn:
Getting to Barcade and walking to Peter Luger’s was interesting enough. The walk included some of the props seen below. Barcade also has a great beer selection and we might have ordered some of the best pizza on the planet from Carmine’s Pizza. The games were probably better than the beer selection and that’s saying alot. I had some cast ale that Josh insisted on and it was great.
Peter Luger Steak House:
As Jim would say, James ‘out lawyered them’ and managed to get us into Peter Luger’s when there were some doubts about our reservation. In a word it was amazing. We probably ordered too much food but that would serve Josh and Nick well in the morning. The shrimp was the largest I’ve ever seen. Probably one of the most impressive feats of the weekend was Rob carring a bag of prime meat around New York for the next 5 hours.
McSorley’s Old Ale House:
McSorley’s being one of the older bars in the country is my kind of place. We scored a table in the back room via our Peter Luger chocolate coins and held our own for a good portion of the evening. I made sure to take care of Mikey as he ‘likes the sweets’. There were no speeches and the whole place was pretty cordial except for the girl who was holding a clinic on how to drink six beers simultaneously.
Spitzer’s Corner:
On both Thursday and Saturday night we ended up at Spitzer’s Corner since it was close to our hotel and had an extensive beer list. If I recall correctly we had the same waitress both nights but she cared much less for our humor the second time around.
Misc:
In summary, I’d say we all had a good time. Clearly we weren’t shooting for your average bachelor party hence the walking tour of Brooklyn and the near uncanniness of being in so many bars during March Madness without televisions. As all trips to New York go we saw some baffling things which will never make sense and we overheard some intense conversations/domestic disputes.
Thanks to everyone who attended.
Side Note:
* The complete set of photographs are here.
**There is no reason for there to be such a thing as ‘seafood sausage’.
This past weekend I ventured into the heart of Snowmageddon for the Capitals – Penguins game on Sunday morning. This trip was planned this past spring with no intenion of there being anything near 2 feet of snow on the ground. Early in the week we started to get word that the weather was going to be bad and then like clockwork my Saturday morning flight was canceled on Wednesday afternoon. I looked into a couple different options, Train from Chicago to DC which sold out and earlier flights were already booked or canceled. I ended up booking a train from Penn Station in New York to Washington on Saturday morning (6:45am). Then I got a flight to New York for Friday night. I got in around 10pm and proceeded with the following schedule:
10pm – Blondies
Midnight – McAleer’s Pub (ie the Krull bar)
1am – The Dead Poet
3am – The Dublin House
4am – The Green Kitchen
5am – Back to Jim’s Apartment to Shower
6am – Penn Station
7am – The Northeast Regional heading to Washington
11:30am – Union Station
To say the above was challenging is the understatement of the decade but this was just the beginning of a Epic Journey. Once we got into Washington Jim and I made our way to the Metro system and took the train out to Depont Circle where we came upon this seen:
The Escalator of Doom was not running and was covered in snow. To say this was a large escalator is an understatement. This has to be at least one of the largest and steepest escalators in the Western hemisphere. It’s 188 feet of pure burning pain but who’s counting. Needless to say it took every once of will power and agility to summit. Once we got to the top we were greeted with our first taste of Snowmageddon. From this point we began our march to the hotel down the middle of the snow covered streets.
As fate would have we actually had a relatively easy journey into the city. Meanwhile after a failed attempt to get their truck out Josh and Tom began their journey from Alexandria, VA to Washington on foot. On the Road:
All told I’m think they walked over 6 miles and there were only minor incidents of cannibalism. I think when Jim and I made it in to Washington the ball was clearly in their court. Would I have walked 6 miles in two feet of snow on the open road to see the Caps – Pens game? There is no way to ever know but they did.
The game was about as intense as a regular season game could be. The Pens gave up a 4-1 lead to fall in overtime when a questionable high sticking was called. At least they walked away with a point. Below are my pictures from the the rest of our expedition in the Nation’s capital:
*Side Notes:
*My Snowmageddon pictures are here.
** Caps – Pens pictures are here.
