Waldameer, 50 photos HERE.
Pittsburgh, 60 photos HERE.
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Prior to Game 7 of the Semifinals, I promised myself that if Carolina could avoid disaster (blowing a 3-1 series lead) and find a way to upset the top seeded Bruins, and if I could get a ticket, I would drive to Pittsburgh for Game 1. Sometimes you just have to make crazy spur of the moment decisions. Scott Walker, already public enemy number one in Boston, scored late in the first overtime of the most nerve wracking sporting event of my life, and the resilient Canes were through yet again in improbable fashion. Twice on life support, and twice prevailing to make their third Eastern Conference Final appearance in nine years. The next morning, the Penguins put 2,000 additional tickets on sale for Game 1 at Mellon Arena. I was able to get one, and early Saturday morning I was in the car. This is the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia.
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I arrived in Pittsburgh on a rainy Saturday evening with a planned stop at Kennywood. I visited Kennywood in 2003, but had a severely swollen knee and couldn't even walk, so needless to say I didn't appreciate the park or the rides. Kennywood is one of only two amusement parks in the United States listed in the National Register of Historic Places (Rye Playland the other).
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First stop, Phantom's Revenge. The top of the second hill where the recently retracked part meets the old track is bizarre now, as if the track didn't quite line up exactly right so the cars tilt from side to side. This is a great ride but I still think it is a bit overrated by most people; it just ends really quickly.
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Skies over the park were gray, but luckily the rain would hold out for the most part.
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Crowds were light, so the only real substantial wait was for Exterminator, the indoor spinning mouse ride, since it is fairly low capacity. Still one of the better wild mouse coasters out there, and Six Flags should take note regarding how to theme one once you've put it inside a box.
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Next up, Jack Rabbit, an absolute classic. While all three Kennywood wooden coasters are relatively mild by modern standards, they are unbelievably maintained and throwbacks to an older era that is not found at many other parks in the world.
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The rides here also take advantage of the terrain at Kennywood. Jack Rabbit and Thunderbolt both drop down the hillside before even engaging a lift hill; in fact Thunderbolt's largest drop comes straight out of the station. Jack Rabbit's highlight is a double down with crazy airtime, especially considering that the cars have fixed lapbars. The coaster was built in 1921, so it is one of the oldest still operating in the world, and the trains are the same ones that were used in 1947.
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Racer is another Kennywood classic. Built in 1927, it is currently one of only three moebius loop racing roller coasters in the world. This means that the two sides are on one continuous track rather than two separate ones; trains return to the station on the opposide side from which they left.
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In some of the turnarounds, the trains are so close that riders can reach out and slap hands with one another, which is another unique feature of the Racer.
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For the first time, the sun began to come out from behind the clouds.
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Thunderbolt is the largest and highest regarded of the Kennywood woodies.
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Like Jack Rabbit, Thunderbolt uses older trains, these built in 1958. The coaster itself was originally built as the Pippin in 1924, and in 1968 was rebuilt and expanded to become Thunderbolt.
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The double helix after the lift hill (midway through the ride) features strong lateral G forces, and the cars do not have seat dividers, causing lots of sliding around.
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In addition to its rides, Kennywood is known for the Potato Patch.
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These hand cut fries are famous throughout Pittsburgh, and a must eat while visiting the park.
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New for 2009 is Ghostwood Estate, an interactive dark ride that replaced the Gold Rusher dark ride. Despite the name, there was no Ben and Jerry Horn or the Packard Saw Mill. No coffee and cherry pie was served either.
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Something that fascinated me about this ride: No track. The cars follow a wire on the ground.
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Suddenly, the sky got incredibly nasty looking. A hellacious storm was blowing right through downtown Pittsburgh.
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Fittingly, I got out of the weather by going into Noah's Ark. According to the Darkride and Funhouse Enthusiasts organization, this is the number one walkthrough attraction in America. A popular type of ride in the early 20th century, Kennywood's Noah's Ark was built in 1935 and is the last one remaining in North America. It has been refurbished twice. The entire ark rocks back and forth; meanwhile the inside is filled with funhouse tricks such as shifting floors and animated scenes.
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The rain was still coming down hard, so I tried another indoor ride, Garfield's Nightmare. This is one of the last remaining 'Old Mill' rides in the world. It was built in 1901 and rethemed in 2004 to Garfield. While I think Garfield is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen (<a href="http://www.lasagnacat.com/]HERE[/url] is a hilarious website with live action versions of Garfield comic strips), the ride was a lot more interesting this time than it was in 2003 as the Old Mill with very few scenes.
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The rain stopped quickly, having lasted just long enough to clear out most of the crowds. The result was a very nice night under the lights at Kennywood.
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The lighting packages on the rides herald back to the earlier days of amusement parks just as the rides themselves do.
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Kennywood has perhaps more so than any other park in the country managed to stay modern without losing its past and traditional feel.
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I didn't get to stay after dark last time I was here, and it is definitely important to do I feel.
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The park really takes on new life when the lights come on.
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I had a great evening at Kennywood; definitely got my $19 worth, which is the charge to enter the park after 5 PM.
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Sunday had me heading north for Erie, PA. On the way I saw signs for Conneaut Lake and decided to make a detour.
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This park has come back from the dead repeatedly. Supposedly it will be reopening again this year, but without the Blue Streak, this classic wooden coaster. Hopefully some day it will run again.
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The real destination of the day was Waldameer, a small old park on Lake Erie that has something that feels very out of place in it: A brand new large wooden roller coaster. Ravine Flyer II was named Best New Ride in the World in 2008 by Amusement Today.
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This ride has been a very long time coming; nearly 10 years I do believe. The sticking point was this crossing over the highway. After a lot of reworkings and a lot of battling, it is here.
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And it is fantastic. When I arrived at the park, there were about 15 cars in the parking lot. The place was totally dead all day; so much so that there was no waiting for the front seat on Ravine Flyer II because empty seats needed to be filled up. Within an hour of arriving I had been on every ride I wanted to hit.
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Comet is the park's other wooden roller coaster. It is a family sized coaster nestled in the trees and in great condition.
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There are a variety of flat rides in the park. The ferris wheel has great views of Ravine Flyer II and Lake Erie, which is right beside the park.
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The top of the lift on this coaster has a killer view to say the least.
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The speed hills over the road are two of the best parts of the ride. This is a wild and violent coaster, very much like a smaller version of The Voyage. It will be interesting to see how well the park is able to maintain it, but for now it is a fantastic ride.
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In addition to Ravine Flyer II, this park is on the map for two of its older dark rides. The Whacky Shack was rated 5th best dark ride in America by DAFE, and it is clearly cared for greatly. It reminded me of the Knoebels Haunted Mansion.
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Pirate's Cove was named 3rd best walkthrough attraction. Hopefully Waldameer is able to keep these classic attractions up and running for a long time.
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The other adult sized coaster in the park is Steel Dragon, a fun but standard spinning coaster.
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With so few crowds, there was not much to do but just ride Ravine Flyer II over and over again.
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Across the street from the park is the Tom Ridge Environmental Center, which is essentially a visitor's center for the Presque Isle State Park on the peninsula.
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Attached to the center is an observation tower which happens to have a great view of Ravine Flyer's turnaround.
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This coaster definitely would have a spot in my top 10 favorite rides. It is relentless from beginning to end.
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Which so much time to spend, I was able to go out on the peninsula through the state park and out onto the beach. It is a pretty cool place that you definitely shouldn't miss if you are in the area to go to Waldameer.
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I could only take so much of Ravine Flyer, so I left to head back to Pittsburgh a couple of hours before closing time. It was also becoming clear that it would not be dark enough for night rides before the park closed. I was able to get my Tim Hortons stop in that I missed in Buffalo a few months back.
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Now, for the main event. Monday arrives, and opening day of the Eastern Conference Finals. Having never been to Pittsburgh, I needed to make a full day of it. The Duquesne Incline looked like a good starting point.
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The top of the hill has pretty great views. Pittsburgh is a fascinating city with the mountains and rivers surrounding it. There are so many ways to come into the city with numerous bridges and tunnels, and a couple of inclines. Large version of panorama HERE.
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Hurricanes fans are used to unfair and incorrect stereotypes about the team, the city, and the fans, but Pittsburgh get its fair share as well. While it used to be a dirty steel town, now it is very beautiful and there are a lot of parks and greenways.
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These things never fail to terrify.
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For lunch I was recommended Fat Heads, which has good food and drink, and I was surprised to see a local brewery from near Raleigh featured.
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Heading into town, construction is well under way on the Consol Energy Center, where the Penguins will begin play in 2010. It should be an amazing venue.
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Across the river sits PNC Park...
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And Heinz Field.
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Such a fantastic setting. There is a lot to do in the city as well, with all of the sports venues in proximity to downtown as well as a number of museums and plenty of great restaurants and bars. Full size panorama HERE.
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There was a good side and a bad side to being a Hurricanes fan in Pittsburgh walking around the entire day in a Sergei Samsonov jersey. The good side happened during the day time as I walked around the city. Everyone I met was incredibly nice, and I had a lot of long hockey conversations during the day. Unfortunately, the experience after the game was quite different that night.
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I think I made my way through every bit of downtown that there was to see during the day.
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Signs of the playoffs were found everywhere.
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Pittsburgh has a light rail network that becomes a subway when it enters the downtown area. There are four stops downtown, and it is free to ride within downtown.
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Well now who is this that I found? It's too bad they had to be wearing the wrong colors.
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We had dinner at Primanti Brothers, which is the local food that Pittsburgh is known for.
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There are a variety of meats that you can get in your sandwich, but no matter what you order, it comes between Italian bread with cole slaw, tomato, and french fries on the sandwich.
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Over at Mellon Arena, they were getting ready for their second straight Conference Final. Outside a big screen is set up where fans without tickets can watch the game. From what I can figure out, this was the source of great trouble for me after the game. From what I understand based on what Pens fans tell me, there would have been large hordes of drunken college age people heading back toward Duquesne University after the game.
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There were a number of other Canes fans who had also made the trip.
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And now, Mellon Arena. The battle for Pittsburgh to get a new arena (being built across the street) was long and nearly resulted in the team leaving town. It's easy to see why they fought so hard for one. In addition to being the oldest venue in the league, Mellon Arena is by far the worst, and I would bet that it is the worst venue in major league sports. This is the standing room section; if you get a ticket here you'd better be at least six feet tall, otherwise you will not be seeing the game.
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Carolina on the ice for warm-ups.
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This picture is taken from my seat; the special Carolina seat as I like to think of it, as it was literally one seat somewhat quarantined by itself. Behind me there was a staircase, to my left there was an aisle, and to my right was this column.
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What you see here is the extent of my view, because an overhang prevented anything higher from being seen. I could see the ice and the scoreboard, though, so that is all that matters.
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Out come the teams.
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This was to be a rough game. We lost 3-2 and lost Erik Cole and Tuomo Ruutu to injuries. It could have very easily gone the other way, though, but I am now 0-2-1 at away games.
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Pens fans are passionate, but this place didn't approach anything close to the frenzy of the RBC Center. I also was surprised to see a LOT of people pouring out of the building in the final two minutes.
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Terrible as it is, Mellon is still the most unique arena in the league. It is famous in my mind for being a part of the hilarious 1995 Jean-Claude Van Damme thriller "Sudden Death", where a terrorist holds the Vice President hostage during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. While the Mellon roof no longer retracts, it did in that movie at which point a helicopter crashed onto the ice. awesomefied.
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One extremely cool thing they had at Mellon: A free WiFi network that had live broadcast cameras and replays available from multiple angles. I pulled up one of the live broadcast cams and it was less than a second behind live action.
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A disappointing night for Mo and the team, but still a very entertaining hockey game.
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After the game I was subjected to treatment far worse than anything I even came close to encountering in Buffalo or Washington, but no punches were ever thrown, so I guess it is all good. I don't understand why everyone seemed so angry after the game, considering that they won. Maybe the fact that they still live in Pittsburgh?
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Despite the loss, a great trip. Now, a parting shot from Leesburg, Virginia, where I finally found the currywurst that I have been searching for since Germany a year ago. The Doner Bistro will be a likely stop anytime I am in the Washington, DC area. Next stop, Detroit or Chicago? Probably not, but hopefully Stanley Cup Final hockey can once again return to Raleigh.