Bethlehem Trip-Saturday Tour, Lunch, and Sam's Family
I told Sam to make sure that I was up and around by 10am. I know, still early for me. He started stiring around 8:30am. I'm such a light sleeper it doesn't matter if a pin dropped, I would hear it. I finally got up around 9:45am.
After realizing in the middle of the night that I couldn't sleep on the right side of my face due to my eye, I finally was able to grab a decent amount of sleep. Showers were on the order next. Hon, I hate to tell you, but you definitely take longer showers than I do. :P
We decided that the family was going to walk the bridge and take pictures where the old Bethlehem Steel place was. We all got in the car and headed there. It was a beautiful day. It was warm and sunny. Sure, the ER doc told me to stay out of direct sunlight, but I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity like this. We grabbed our cameras and walked the bridge. All that's left of Bethlehem Steel is the one crane and the 4 blast furnaces. In its place a casino is being built by Sands. Yay PA for deciding it really needed the casino revenue. (The whole casino seems like a waste of time. It didn't bring much local workers in.) BTW: I'm against casinos and racinos if you haven't figured that out. Just another place where dead beat people go and waste money on alcohol, horse racing and slots.
I didn't get any pictures after all. With the fence I couldn't get a decent shot. There wasn't much there to begin with. The skelton was just starting to be put together in place.
We came back home long enough to switch cars into Sam's and him and I headed off on a tour of Bethlehem. I've come to the realization that Bethlehem and Bethlehem Township is like Millcreek township here. There's one major road, kinda like our Peach St. The rest of the city of Bethlehem minus the downtown is like a maze of side streets. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, I got to see some of the most beautiful houses. It's a very quiet place. Yes, I could see raising children there. In fact, I was looking at some of the smaller houses and thinking how nice it would be to settle down there. And being that Bethlehem and Bethlehem Township are built of side streets, they came up with the idea that if you were lost and didn't know where you were, the color of the street signs would tell you what location you were in. Green was Bethlehem and blue was Bethlehem Township. Now why couldn't Millcreek do that??
Sam and I ended up at Nancy Run Volunteer Fire House. This is where Sam volunteers his free time and attends classes on becoming a fire fighter. I got the full tour of the fire house. I even got to play with his fire helmet. Here's a pic:
We decided that since it was close to 12:30pm, that we should eat. We both headed to the local Applebees. You know, it just might be the Erie locations, because this Applebees the food was good. I downed two glasses of Mountain Dew because I knew I was in for a long night. Got done around 2:30pm-3pm, got more of tour of Bethlehem including the downtown district, and the place where MacKay practices. We then headed back to Sam's house.
The clouds came in, so Sam's father rushed to get the burgers and hotdogs on the grill. We weren't really that hungry, but we weren't sure if the cruise meeting was going to have food. An hour later, I finally ate a hotdog. His family and I all talked about the upcoming cruise and our expectations. 5:45pm, the four of us got back in the car and went off to Sam's Uncle's house.
Okay, I'm going to try and name the people there: Carmelo and Wendy the host and hostess (Sam's uncle and aunt), Shirley and Sam (Sam's parents), Hector and Margarita (Sam's uncle and aunt), Carmen (Sam's aunt), Ester (cousin), Judy (Sam's aunt), Evelyn and Daisy (cousin and partner), Candy (Sam's counsin), Sam, and myself. Okay, so I cheated a bit and got my cruise packet with our names. And we shouldn't have worried...there was plenty of food and wine to go around. It turns out that I've met Wendy before. She was at IUP because her children went there at the same time that Sam and I did.
At the meeting, we found out that a total of 30 people were going. 12 of us are going to be on the same plane and take a limo bus to and from Newark, NJ airport. The plane leaves at like 7:05am. For "international" flights they want us there 3 hours before departure. That means we have to leave Bethlehem for Newark at 2am Sunday July 20th. Who's looking forward to that?? NOT ME!!! Almost the whole party has been upgraded to a different deck than what they started out on. Sam and I are the only ones who upgraded even more for a balcony room. It's the running joke in the family now that each uncle and aunt get to stay in our stateroom for a night. Yes, Sam and I are sharing a bed. :X Our stateroom is one of the better ones on the ship. Though, we have two families that are on the same deck as we are, so we can't escape totally. After the meeting, it was time for a small family reunion.
I got to hear stories of the Alicea, Lopez, and Almodovar family. I never felt left out the entire time we were sitting there. Sam to his credit never left my side. While listening to the stories, I realized that his family is everything that mine is not. Like my brother said, "oh you mean loving, caring, normal." Hey, I was greeted with a kiss on the cheek by every member of the family that night. It was strange but in the same way, I believe it's the way a family should be. I was introduced to everyone as Sam's girlfriend. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them.
We finally left around 11:30pm. Sam's father was surprised that I didn't think his family was strange. Not at all. The complete opposite in fact.
That night as I laid in Sam's bed listening to Sam text his friend Gary, I actually wished I wasn't going home tomorrow afternoon. Sam and I spent the next hour talking about us in the past, present, and possible future. It was a definitely nice way to fall asleep to. And yes I smiled as I drifted off to sleep.
(Yes, that bit was glossed over a bit, but I'm not the kiss and tell kinda girl.)
After realizing in the middle of the night that I couldn't sleep on the right side of my face due to my eye, I finally was able to grab a decent amount of sleep. Showers were on the order next. Hon, I hate to tell you, but you definitely take longer showers than I do. :P
We decided that the family was going to walk the bridge and take pictures where the old Bethlehem Steel place was. We all got in the car and headed there. It was a beautiful day. It was warm and sunny. Sure, the ER doc told me to stay out of direct sunlight, but I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity like this. We grabbed our cameras and walked the bridge. All that's left of Bethlehem Steel is the one crane and the 4 blast furnaces. In its place a casino is being built by Sands. Yay PA for deciding it really needed the casino revenue. (The whole casino seems like a waste of time. It didn't bring much local workers in.) BTW: I'm against casinos and racinos if you haven't figured that out. Just another place where dead beat people go and waste money on alcohol, horse racing and slots.
I didn't get any pictures after all. With the fence I couldn't get a decent shot. There wasn't much there to begin with. The skelton was just starting to be put together in place.
We came back home long enough to switch cars into Sam's and him and I headed off on a tour of Bethlehem. I've come to the realization that Bethlehem and Bethlehem Township is like Millcreek township here. There's one major road, kinda like our Peach St. The rest of the city of Bethlehem minus the downtown is like a maze of side streets. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, I got to see some of the most beautiful houses. It's a very quiet place. Yes, I could see raising children there. In fact, I was looking at some of the smaller houses and thinking how nice it would be to settle down there. And being that Bethlehem and Bethlehem Township are built of side streets, they came up with the idea that if you were lost and didn't know where you were, the color of the street signs would tell you what location you were in. Green was Bethlehem and blue was Bethlehem Township. Now why couldn't Millcreek do that??
Sam and I ended up at Nancy Run Volunteer Fire House. This is where Sam volunteers his free time and attends classes on becoming a fire fighter. I got the full tour of the fire house. I even got to play with his fire helmet. Here's a pic:
We decided that since it was close to 12:30pm, that we should eat. We both headed to the local Applebees. You know, it just might be the Erie locations, because this Applebees the food was good. I downed two glasses of Mountain Dew because I knew I was in for a long night. Got done around 2:30pm-3pm, got more of tour of Bethlehem including the downtown district, and the place where MacKay practices. We then headed back to Sam's house.
The clouds came in, so Sam's father rushed to get the burgers and hotdogs on the grill. We weren't really that hungry, but we weren't sure if the cruise meeting was going to have food. An hour later, I finally ate a hotdog. His family and I all talked about the upcoming cruise and our expectations. 5:45pm, the four of us got back in the car and went off to Sam's Uncle's house.
Okay, I'm going to try and name the people there: Carmelo and Wendy the host and hostess (Sam's uncle and aunt), Shirley and Sam (Sam's parents), Hector and Margarita (Sam's uncle and aunt), Carmen (Sam's aunt), Ester (cousin), Judy (Sam's aunt), Evelyn and Daisy (cousin and partner), Candy (Sam's counsin), Sam, and myself. Okay, so I cheated a bit and got my cruise packet with our names. And we shouldn't have worried...there was plenty of food and wine to go around. It turns out that I've met Wendy before. She was at IUP because her children went there at the same time that Sam and I did.
At the meeting, we found out that a total of 30 people were going. 12 of us are going to be on the same plane and take a limo bus to and from Newark, NJ airport. The plane leaves at like 7:05am. For "international" flights they want us there 3 hours before departure. That means we have to leave Bethlehem for Newark at 2am Sunday July 20th. Who's looking forward to that?? NOT ME!!! Almost the whole party has been upgraded to a different deck than what they started out on. Sam and I are the only ones who upgraded even more for a balcony room. It's the running joke in the family now that each uncle and aunt get to stay in our stateroom for a night. Yes, Sam and I are sharing a bed. :X Our stateroom is one of the better ones on the ship. Though, we have two families that are on the same deck as we are, so we can't escape totally. After the meeting, it was time for a small family reunion.
I got to hear stories of the Alicea, Lopez, and Almodovar family. I never felt left out the entire time we were sitting there. Sam to his credit never left my side. While listening to the stories, I realized that his family is everything that mine is not. Like my brother said, "oh you mean loving, caring, normal." Hey, I was greeted with a kiss on the cheek by every member of the family that night. It was strange but in the same way, I believe it's the way a family should be. I was introduced to everyone as Sam's girlfriend. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them.
We finally left around 11:30pm. Sam's father was surprised that I didn't think his family was strange. Not at all. The complete opposite in fact.
That night as I laid in Sam's bed listening to Sam text his friend Gary, I actually wished I wasn't going home tomorrow afternoon. Sam and I spent the next hour talking about us in the past, present, and possible future. It was a definitely nice way to fall asleep to. And yes I smiled as I drifted off to sleep.
(Yes, that bit was glossed over a bit, but I'm not the kiss and tell kinda girl.)