Fright Nights: Kennywood with Ghouls

Two things I love in life: amusement parks and Halloween. Put them together and it's an "Allison Special." Kennywood's Fright Nights, for the second year in a row, proved to be an excellent time. We rode coasters (the Jack Rabbit - double dips in the dark!, the Racer - my car won!, the Exterminator - even more fun in the dark!, and the Phantom's Revenge - terrifyingly awesome!). We ate Potato Patch fries and corn dogs and fried oreos and soft pretzels. We only went through one haunted house, Dark Shadows, but it was totally awesome because it was more based in environmental frights and being incredibly disorienting. I got a really good scare coming out of the Exterminator, which ended with me yelling a very bad word and running quickly away (like the scaredy cat that I truly am proud to be). We stayed in the park until the cold started to set in and we couldn't ignore our numbing fingers and toes any longer. Here are a few pictures from our Fright Night.

Happy (Belated!) Birthday, Blog!

Holy crap! The heat has definitely infected my brain, because I totally missed EverythingBetterPGH's birthday! I am not one to forget an anniversary (seriously, I celebrate the weirdest things every year because I can't forget the dates), so I feel kind of bad about this. Sorry, blog.

Let's celebrate!

I can't believe I've been doing this for a year now. It's been a very strange year for me personally. Only a handful of posts were published before my mom passed away, which means this blog exists in the shadow of that life-altering event. This was one of the hardest years of my life. For a long time there, nothing was going right. Every morning I woke up and wondered what horrible thing would happen that day. That's dramatic, I know. But seriously: In the span of a few weeks the following things happened to me: got in a bike accident with another biker and totally messed up my knee, was nearly assaulted (i.e., hit with an umbrella) when someone tried to steal my cellphone at a trolley stop in BETHEL PARK, and was the unfortunate person sitting next to the guy in the theater whose ladyfriend gave him a handy during Crazy Stupid Love.

I digress.

In order to survive the past year, I've had to live with a very "full throttle" attitude toward getting through the day to the next day to the next day until the day when I would stop being sad. I still don't know if I'm there yet, but I'm starting to really appreciate the present, which means I'm starting to slow down a bit. Living in the moment, and all other such sayings.

When I look back at these things I've written about or taken pictures of throughout the past year, I'm so so so glad I made myself keep this blog going. I have this awesome collection of memories now, and I can look at them and realize that through all the sad stuff, there was a heck of a lot of fun. In celebration of EverythingBetterPGH's first birthday, here are ten of those fun moments, ones that I would go back and relive in a heartbeat.

(In no particular order.)

Why Not? Biking Pittsburgh at Night with Flock of Cycles

Paddling Pittsburgh: Kayaking the Allegheny and the Ohio

Kennywood's Open (For Terror and Fun)

PGH's Best Night of the Year: The Bloomfield Halloween Parade

Halloween Miracle #2: STEELERS BEAT THE PATRIOTS

The Only Fear You Have to Overcome is Getting the Nerve to Do It

Malkamania: Penguins 8, Tampa Bay 1

Winter Camping Feels Like Spring to Me

Sitting in the Splash Zone: A Saturday Night on the South Side

My Idea of Vacation: The GAP and C&O - Days 3 & 4

Tonight, at midnight, I'm going to go see The Dark Knight Rises. I promised myself I would keep this blog going until I could write a post about seeing the movie that I watched being filmed on my streets.

I can't wait to write that post. And so many more after that.

Thank you for reading!

Happy Valentine's Day: 14 Things I Love (re: Pittsburgh)

With just about four hours to go until Valentine's Day is over, and the really awesome holiday begins (check back tomorrow!), I thought I'd share 14 things I love about Pittsburgh, or have loved throughout the past year.

1. I love this man who lives on Penn Ave. I hope he stays there forever, but, if not, I'll enjoy him for as long as I can.

2. I love everything about this quote. It's a child describing how watching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood makes him feel.

3. I love how many different views of Pittsburgh there are, and how many I've been able to see since I've been back.

4. I love all the color. All of it.

5. I love my creative friends, without whom I would be lost.

6. I love that in this mural in East Liberty that there are crazy-looking wolves running around unleashed! East Liberty is scary! (Not really, but in this version, look out!)

7. I love Panther Hollow. Such a good place when you need to get away.

8. I love that we have a dino in our airport. For real, this makes me excited every time I come home.

9. I absolutely love that this photo exists.

10. I love how worn the stairs in the Carnegie Library in Oakland are. So much use by so many generations of Pittsburgh.

11. I love this quilt. Simply amazing.

12. I love the Bloomfield Halloween Parade. And I loved that this kid broke a board in front of where I was standing this year. How many days till Bloomfield Halloween Parade 2012??

13. I've really loved spending time with my dad.

14. And I loved saying goodbye to 2011, and saying hello to 2012 by taking a quick dip in the Mon, bright and early on New Year's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day.

The Twelve Days of a Pittsburgh Christmas: 2012 Kennywood Season Pass

On the third day of a Pittsburgh Christmas, I'd love a 2012 Kennywood Season Pass.

Soon, the trail between the South Side and Kennywood will be finished. And then, with a season pass in my pocket, I'll be at Kennywood on all the days.

Kennywood's Open (For Terror and Fun)

Here is an equation: Halloween + Kennywood = Awesome.

Every October, Kennywood transforms from a bright and sunny amusement park into a spooky and spectacular haunted playground. Ghouls, zombies, and other terrifying beings traipse throughout the park, waiting for the perfect moment to scare the crap out of you. Pavilions and green spaces are turned into haunted houses. Walking through the smoke-filled tunnel to enter the park gets you ready to enter what seems like another world. You recognize Kennywood, but there's something unsettling about walking around the park in the near-dark with screams of terror in the background mixed with the joyous screams of someone experiencing the double-dip on the Jack Rabbit for the first time.

Mike and I made our way to Kennywood for Fright Nights on a beautiful Sunday night. The sky was already turning from redish-pink to black while we waited to buy tickets and enter the park. By the time we were in, dark had settled on the park and we were both ready to ride some coasters and experience a few frights.

Ski-lift going into the park.

The photo above is a fairly accurate representation of how creepy it was to walk around certain parts of the park. Creatures wandered through the smoke, and at times you couldn't tell if a creeper or a yinzer was stumbling toward you.

Noah's Ark transformed into a haunted pirate ship.

We ended our night by riding the Jack Rabbit.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but this one needs just one: FUN.

The news this year is that Kennywood is opening up during the holiday season for a Christmas light show. Normally I am not one to enjoy Christmas-themed things (Call me Scrooge if you want; I just prefer weird things like Halloween!), but this one could pull me in for a visit. It's hard to say no to Kennywood.