Tag Archives: Erie

Sep

2

2011

Photo Friday: Presque Isle

I went to Erie for a visit two weeks ago. I decided I would take pictures at Presque Isle on Sunday morning for my Happy Fun Time. I awoke to the sound of rain. Dave, Chuck, and I went anyway, and by the time we parked the car, the rain had stopped. But the sky was grey and unappealing and the light was horrible. Of course, once we’d given up on the picture taking, the afternoon sky cleared to a bright blue with huge fluffy clouds.

Eureka! “We’ll go back to the beach at sunset,” I proclaimed. The fluffy clouds would make for an awesome sunset, photo gold! Except for the enormous cloud that parked itself right on the horizon, mostly blocking the sun. I also hadn’t realized how badly my camera needed to be cleaned either until I saw these pictures. I didn’t even bother to Photoshop the dust spots out, because I hate Photoshop, because I’m trying to recover from perfectionism, and because you might as well share in my disappointment. Here’s the best sunset shot.

I love running on the trail at Presque Isle. On this trip, I was able to fit in two runs. The second was on my birthday, so I decided to run a tenth of a mile for each year of my life. I guess the disappointment of the earlier photo shoot made me throw the camera in the car, just in case. I usually run on the bay side, but ended up on the lake side for a short time and saw this.

When Erie pulls shit like this, it makes me wish I lived there. After my runs, I try to make time to check out the lake. I always linger a little longer when I know I won’t be back for awhile. So after I took this picture, I climbed up that slope of sand and stood and stared at the water like I always do. And I said goodbye for now like I always do. And I might have shed a tear like I always do. And I laughed at myself while walking back to the car like I always do.

Damn it, Erie. Why do you have to be so charming right as I’m about to leave?

Jun

27

2011

Fremont (OH) Is The Perfect Place To Fall In Love

I’m kidding about the title. I’m trying to catch up on my “Bachelorette” watching and since they are in the exotic travel portion of the show, I’m so sick of hearing them say “X and such is the perfect place to fall in love” I could spit.

This weekend, Dave and I went to Ohio for his nephew’s graduation party slash annual family reunion. Before I go any further, I have to point out Dave’s cookies were a huge hit.

My in-laws are wonderful people and I had fun, but it wounds me that driving 8.5 hours on Friday and 8.5 hours on Monday to spend two days with my in-laws counts as two days of “vacation” to my employer. We left the hotel this morning at 8:30AM, and didn’t get home from getting Chuck at the kennel until 6PM. We are exhausted and we have to work tomorrow. If only employers offered a few days of “visiting family leave” in addition to vacation and sick leave.

Dave’s brother lives in the country in a tiny little unincorporated “census-designated place,” whatever that is. All the hotels in the nearest city were booked by the time Dave called to make reservations which was baffling. So we stayed about 20 miles away in a slightly larger city. Even though we spent most of our time at my brother-in-law’s, we did have a chance to explore Fremont a little. The night we got in, we drove into Fremont’s downtown area in the hope of getting away from the strip mall chains near our hotel. After breakfast on Saturday, we scoped out the trail where I wanted to run on Sunday morning.

My verdict on Fremont, OH is that it’s a miniature version of my hometown (Erie, PA). I drove 440 miles to stay in Erie, only without a lake, without my family, and no Panera. Even though Fremont is about one-sixth the size of Erie, almost everywhere I went (in about a 4-5 mile radius) reminded me of a specific part of Erie. It started to get a little confusing actually.

We ended up eating at the 818 Club on Friday night. Once I saw they served fried perch, I knew what I was ordering. So the perch reminded me of Erie. As did the modest but pretty houses with manicured lawns, the run down downtown area near the river, the built up strip mall area near the thruway, the large number of bars, and the even larger number of churches. I lost count at five churches just driving the 2.5 miles from the hotel to the restaurant on Friday night. We drove by a Catholic school whose side entrance reminded me so much of the gym entrance to my grade school I got a chill.

Then there were the trains. The running trail I used was right next to railroad tracks. On Saturday, Dave and I had to wait for a train to pass through an intersection so we could cross to get to the trail. There are several intersections where you have to wait for trains in Erie too. I could hear trains at night from my bedroom in Erie and the sound is strangely soothing to me. I’ve never seen anything like that where I live now.

Saturday morning, we ate at a Bob Evans for the first time. I chose bacon for my breakfast and Dave got a good laugh over that. We managed to avoid the eight thousand calorie sausage biscuit bowl with sausage gravy, but Dave did put the “whipped butter blend spread” on his biscuits before I opened mine, smelled it, and reported that butter was the fourth ingredient.

I took almost 200 pictures over the weekend, mostly of Dave’s family. I didn’t have my camera when I explored Fremont and I’m disappointed. If we ever go back I want to get pictures of all the things that reminded me of Erie. Here is a picture I took on the way to my brother-in-law’s…GPS fail.

Dec

4

2010

This is My Hometown

Portfolio.com assessed the collective brainpower of the 200 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. My hometown, Erie, PA, came in 143rd out of 200, with a negative brainpower index. Washington, D.C was third on the list, so obviously my mobility was significant to these results.

Seriously…the brainpower index was measured by the educational attainment of residents. Less than a quarter of Erie’s residents have at least a Bachelor’s degree, compared to over half of the residents in the number one city on the list (Boulder, CO).

For context, I looked up the rankings of the three largest cities surrounding Erie–Buffalo (Dave’s hometown), Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. Buffalo is 77th, with a positive brainpower rating, Pittsburgh is 86th and also positive. Cleveland is 99th and pretty much at the break even point with a slightly negative ranking.