Backdrop: I'm getting ready to take my first trip across the Atlantic and putz around Europe for an entire month! I'm so crazy excited and nervous at the same time! And I don't think it's still even hit me despite it being 20 some days away!!! Anyway I knew I needed to get back on this "Travel Blog" (aka one post I've made so far, some blog huh?) before I went so that I can try and keep up and just track everything! Its going to be hectic! Anyway forgive my memory when trying to update these couple of trips I've had in the last year and a half!
Cleveland/Columbus
So leading up to October in 2013 I somehow came of with the grand idea to road trip to Columbus to see my friend Dave Dussel and see a concert with him. Phoenix was playing and we somehow realized we were both pretty into them and decided I could drive out and crash at his place for the weekend. Well once that was established by buying concert tickets a month or two in advance the trip only got better! We realized the Blue Jackets home opener was the day after the Phoenix concert and decided to buy tickets to that as well, and then my friend Lauren McQuaid caught wind of my adventure and invited me to hit up Cleveland where she lives the night before heading to Columbus. It turned out to be a little tour of Ohio if you will.
So I set off for Cleveland and instead of taking the routine turnpike route and paying a small toll I decided to take back roads and save a few bucks knowing I'll be spending too much in the next three days anyway... Well this took a little longer than expected. A casual hour and a half drive turned into around a 3 hour drive and I got there just as Lauren was ready to head out and start the fun festivities
As I remember we first went off to a bar to meet up with some of laurels friends that happened to be down by the Indians baseball field. It was a great place to pregame because we decided to see a concert at The House of Blues Cleveland that had a band I knew a few songs of. It was funny because Lauren didn't know who they were what so ever and we both ended up buying t shirts haha Anyway the pregame was fun getting drinks on special and seeing fireworks from the Indians stadium before heading over to see Atlas Genius at the House of Blues. Lauren and I were a mess dancing with strangers while her boyfriend at the time stayed back and made sure he could drive us home at the end of the night! Good call. At the end we headed back to Laurens apartment as she dozed off in the car. I ended up sleeping in this really cool loft that she had where I had to climb a spiral staircase to get to haha. It was a really sweet apartment to say the least. Come morning I grabbed some coffee and shipped off to Columbus to spend a couple days with Dave.
So onward to Columbus. I arrived at Daves sometime in the afternoon and we get some grub before walking to the concert to see Phoenix. Columbus is a really cool city to me because the Arena District or area is all kind of on its own in the heart of the city and really relaxed. It just seems like a really nice place to live. So we walked about 20min from Dave's apartment to the concert and started getting a couple drinks while preparing for the show. Bud Light Platinum. There was our first mistake hahaha Then came the Fireball. Needless to say we had a awesome time watching Phoenix from the top balcony to down on the floor at times just trying to get different views and enjoy it as much as possible. After that excitement we walked a block or so to some local bars and took in Columbus night life a bit. I have to say at this point Dave and I were feeling it pretty darn much to the point we actually got separated and lost each other haha. Dave headed home and I only got in touch with him by phone when he was half way there in a park. I knew where I needed to go somehow and started off in that direction. Sadly by the time I got there Dave had fallen asleep and I was locked out, lucky me. So I paced around his apartment complex for probably a good hour trying to figure out what in the heck I was going to do, I didn't even have my car keys on me to sleep in my car! Eventually I hopped a 6 foot wooden fence into his back "yard". A like 10x10 foot area with a small patio and a tiny patch of grass there. Don't ask me how I pulled that off but somehow managed. At that point his sliding glass door wasn't open either and I passed out on a lawn chair on his patio hahaha. Next day Dave's room mate finds me and just expects I locked myself out and unlocked the door, I moved inside to the futon and passed back out. Sometime int he afternoon Dave and I try to regather the whole night and come up short in a few areas but we were both alive haha and had a hockey game to go see!! So we ran back down to the arena district and grabbed some beers at R-Bar, a hockey themed joint right by the arena. It was a pretty cool place to see all the hockey memorabilia they had there and get us more excited for the game. Then we headed in, it was my first time at Nationwide Arena so I got to cross it off my list of arenas to visit and picked up my customary t shirt and official puck that I do at each arena I visit. Little did I know I would resist Nationwide at least twice more in the coming year haha. The Blue Jackets played the Flames and it was a close game but the Flames ended up pulling it off in the end. A little disappointment but the atmosphere was great and when the Bj's scored they always set off their large cannon that was a bit to the right of us. I have to tell you even to this day that thing freaks me out, I know its coming but the huge crack of sound it makes I think I always flinch a little hahah Luckily this night we knew better than to get into more shenanigans and took it easier. The following day I was pretty reluctant to leave because Dave and I were having a pretty good time watching tv and recovering from the days beforehand and decided to go see Gravity in IMAX 3D. That movie was INTENSE!
Anyway, after that I loaded up with some Timmy's (coffee) to fuel me and shoved off back to the Burgh. Dave was actually heading back too to hangout with family and go to a Pirates game so we had a fun time driving along and passing one another on the route home. Sadly Dave moved back to Pittsburgh last year so I don't have a place to crash out there if I want to take more weekend trips but it's so close that you can drive there and back in a day if need be, can't wait to go again and see some more hockey!
No comments:
Post a Comment