We left in the middle of the morning on Saturday so that no one (that would be me) would be rushed on a Saturday morning. We had absolutely perfect traveling weather. The sun was shining, the temperatures were in the 60s - great weather for sight seeing and for travel. Go us!
Our trip started out at Oakwood Cafe over by 38th and Greengarden. Brother Jim was nice enough to meet us over there especially since the restaurant was his suggestion. I was at a stand still - I wanted a restaurant from my past that meant something to take everyone to for lunch but couldn't come up with anything. I really wanted Dominick's (on 12th by French) since I've eaten more meals there than I can count! But, it's not what it used to be so that was off the table. Oakwood it was. And believe me, the Reuben sandwiches were as good as I remembered! Just a hint if anyone is going there any time soon - split one sandwich between two people! They were HUGE! Good, but huge!
Here is an indication of how our weekend started. After the plates were cleared, Larry and I did a little "food art" on my place mat. He is the one with the artistic eye as it was his idea to make the straws stand up in the Russian dressing and ketchup! Awesome!
From Oakwood Cafe, we headed on a little sight seeing excursion on the way to Aunt Mary's. Tech Memorial, now Central Tech, was my alma mater. I had to drive by there and show the tree that 20 of us used to hide behind to smoke at lunch time. Yeah, that big tree right in front of the Vice Principal's office. Remember, I'm old. I went to school in the days of the VP barging into the girls' rest room and dragging you out to his office for a beating with the paddle. Yeah, I'm from the days of corporal punishment and I lived through it! But, I digress.
Anyway, I pointed out a few sights on the way to Aunt Mary's. I gotta tell you, Aunt Mary had to be one of the high lights of my weekend. Aunt Mary has always been like another mother to me. She is my Mom's sister, and I grew up living right above Aunt Mary in a flat. I haven't seen her since before my car accident, so this visit was awesome! Here is a picture of some Aunt Mary love!
And, in spite of the fact that I haven't been in to see her recently, she still loves me! She even saved me a taste of the Easter Cetetz. I have no idea how to spell that, but that spelling is at least phonetic. Cetetz is an Easter tradition made of eggs, milk and sugar. You cook it in a pan until it curdles, then you squeeze out all of the liquid in a cheese cloth. The following day, you take the solid ball that is left and bake it to brown it a little bit. This stuff is just awesome and it's only made once a year for Easter. I can't remember the last time I had this Slovak delicacy so I was thrilled that she saved some for me.
As a side note - you see my shirt? That was Ron's present to me for HIS birthday! He is freakin' awesome and he has started a precedent! I can't WAIT to see what he buys me next year for his birthday!!
Along with Aunt Mary, Sr. Margaret was in the house. That was a nice added surprise! Sr. Margaret is another of my Mom's sisters and it's probably been even longer since I've seen her. A nice group shot, if I do say so myself.
After the family love time, Larry, Linda, birthday boy Ron and I left to tour the city. We started on the lower east side as we went to Trawka's Market (the best extra garlic Polish sausage so I've been told! I had to bring some back to Ohio for my brother Mike. Luckily, our cooler was bigger than our luggage!) then down to the Erie Lighthouse.
I remember the grade school trips to this lighthouse as well as Dad bringing us down here to play. I gotta tell you, it all seemed so much bigger when I was so much smaller! From the lighthouse, we headed to the channel. I don't remember my north pier from my south pier any more but we were at the channel on the pier at the bottom of East Avenue sort of. With the Bayfront Highway in, it's hard to tell where I was! I can't believe how much of the city has changed!
Poor Linda didn't want her picture taken (I don't know why, she's cute as a button!) so I had to grab my shots when I could. Here is Linda enjoying a little walk on the pier.
After the channel we hit the dock (sorry I will NEVER call it Dobbins Landing) then headed for the peninsula.
I showed them all of the nooks and crannies I could remember from the peninsula. I gotta tell you, the peninsula was as beautiful, as peaceful, as surreal as I remembered it. I can't tell you how many miles I've logged on that piece of land. I can never get enough of it. Once again, it did NOT disappoint me.
I gotta tell you a funny Linda story here. We stopped at the Perry Monument. There happened to be a rest room at the monument but for some reason, the men's and women's part of it was locked but the family restroom was open. From some of the people standing in line, this was about the only restroom open on the peninsula. So, there was a line. We decided to stand by Linda in line since she looked like she was in a tough looking line for the bathroom. There were three bikers that had pulled in to the monument right in front of us and all three of them were in line. Picture this - three men all clad in leather, including chaps, all probably weighing three times what Linda does. And Linda. I was worrying about our girl there!
I shouldn't have. As the line got down to Linda and the bikers, Linda got a little feisty, turned to look at the bikers, put out her arms and told them "NO CUTS"! Holy crap, I can't remember when I laughed that hard! The guys took it in the spirit of which it was given and they backed off from her! Not that they had any intention of cutting, but they gave the girl some room after her threat. We were all laughing!
Here is Linda, finally relieved, along with Larry, checking out the monument.
After the Perry Monument, our last stop on the peninsula was over by the house boats. As if that wasn't great enough, for the first time, I saw wild turkeys! It looked like one tom and two hens. The tom was in full bloom trying to impress the ladies. Unfortunately, he lowered his feathers when we tried to get closer so this was the best shot I got. It was still a fantastic sight to see. I had no idea wild turkeys lived on the peninsula.
I used the last of my hotel points from all the travel on my previous job and scored us a couple of free rooms at the Hampton Inn on Old Oliver Road. I gotta give a shout out to not only the Hampton Inn but to Kevin at the front desk. This guy was just the bomb in the entire process. He got us checked in, gave us directions and recommendations and just was so pleasant. I would totally recommend this hotel if you ever need one in Erie.
We checked in to our hotel and relaxed a bit then headed out to the new Presque Isle Downs and Casino over on Route 97. Let me tell you, first of all, spring for the $3 to valet park your car! If you know me, you know I can rarely find my car in a parking lot. With lots this huge, it was worth paying someone $3 to park it for me. One word of warning though, next time you get your car from a valet, make sure he's not a lot shorter than you are and he didn't need to pull the seat up all the way to work your clutch. Owie.
Into the casino - it was big, it was bright, it was loud. I really don't know how to critique a casino since I can count on one hand how many times I've been to a casino. But I can critique their restaurant!
If you find yourself at the Presque Isle Downs and Casino, stick to the fancy schmancy steak restaurant or the buffet on the first floor. Do NOT go to the second floor restaurant! Or, stop at McDonald's on your way to the casino! I'm telling you, it was that bad. First of all, our table was about 10 feet from a stage. Who would seat diners 10 feet from a stage when the band was getting ready to play?
The band was called the M80s. I'm guessing they are called M80s because they are as loud as about 100 of them. Damn, it was painful. Ok, to be honest, their play list was all from the 80s. That should have been a good thing since I was a young adult buying all the music in the 80s. Perhaps it's just that I'm older now and I was trying to eat dinner with this auditory assault happening just 10 feet away from me.
Forget the band, let's talk about the food. It was terrible. Ron ordered a fish and chips dinner that he couldn't even eat. He complained about the fact that the breading on the fish was so salty, he couldn't even eat it. The server came back to tell him that there was nothing they could do about it since the fish came pre-breaded so it wasn't anything THEY did to it. That hit a nerve with Ron and he said he'd rather eat nothing, even if this was his birthday eve dinner. That just blew.
So, I had a huge steak, I offered to share my dinner with Ron. That would have been a better offer if my dinner was much better. I've even made better steaks and steaks are not my specialty. The kicker was my baked potato. When someone hands you a little cup of white stuff for your baked potato, don't assume it's sour cream. My little cup was filled with mayonnaise. Have you ever slathered mayonnaise on your baked potato? Let me tell you, it was gross.
Our server tried to commiserate with us on how terrible their serving staff was. Then the bill came. Four adults, two bills. I think she just threw a dart and said that item will be on bill # 1 and that item will be on bill # 2, regardless of who ordered what. With the noise of the band, it was next to impossible to explain the problem with the bill, so I had to write it all out for her. Eventually, she got it right.
Leaving the terrible dinner behind us, we hit the casino. I gotta tell you, I had a ball. I had some money that I had every intention of leaving at the casino. If you go with the attitude that you WILL lose money, it's less painful when you do.
The four of us kind of split up and I went off to find a machine with pretty lights. I won some, I lost some. Ron finally caught back up with me and told me he's been hitting good on some dollar slots. DOLLAR slots??? Was he freakin' crazy?? I thought I was going wild with quarter slots!
But what the heck. I took the rest of my money and hit the dollar slots with Ron. I gotta tell you, he knew what he was talking about. He found a bank of four tables, all the same game, and he said he was hitting on them. No one was at these tables, so Ron and I took over.
When all was said and done, I turned $5 from Jim into $19.25. (I spent his quarter but I did give him his $19.00.) Of my own money, I put $80 in the slots and walked away with $114! That means I came out to the good! I was so happy with that! Larry and Linda were not so lucky but they weren't in the poor house, either. Each of them left a few dollars at the casino, but we all bought a whole lot of fun.
Birthday boy Ron was our big winner, putting $80 in the slots and coming home with $174! Now that was a great birthday present!
We left the casino in search of a pizza shop. I've been telling Ron about Erie pepperoni balls for years. I'm telling you, you can't find these things anywhere else! This was our time to finally try them.
I pulled out of the casino and headed north on Route 97 and sure enough, there was Barbato's Pizza! I have to give a huge shout out to the staff at this Barbato's! I explained that we came all the way from the Cleveland area and I've been telling my friends all about pepperoni balls! We just HAD to have some!
I ordered a dozen to go and they even threw in a handful over a dozen for us. Bonus love! We took our booty back to the hotel, grabbed our sodas and sat in the lounge of the hotel and macked on some fantastic, fresh out of the oven, pepperoni balls. We even shared with our new friend, Kevin, from the front desk. It was a great end to a fantastic day.
That was our Saturday of our big weekend in Erie. Hang on for part II of our story, our trip home!
Erie, I've missed you. Thank you for a great day and more great memories.
2 comments:
Pepperoni Balls!!!!! OMG ... I would literally KILL for some of Barbados' pepperoni balls. Haven't had one in almost 40 years! I'm getting hungry just thinking about them!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Happy Birthday Ron!!! Welcome to the far side of 50!!!!!!
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