My Beary Action Packed Weekend In Pictures

Another weekend where a BEAR apparently wanted to star on my Weekend In Pictures.  This BEARY action packed weekend involved many laughs and love with friends.  My weekend started off Friday night with a visit to my favorite irish pub in Franklin.  I ran into my friends Doug, Sally and Mark which was a pleasant surprise.  Doug and Sally ambushed me with a surprise.  Apparently Doug recently went to a food convention, and ended up getting me a special hat with a BEAR on it.  Little did I know this would end up be foreshadowing for my weekend.  We enjoyed a few Sam Summers, which was refreshing during all of that humidity.  

Saturday morning, I ended up catching The Royal Wedding replay.  Talk about a phenomenal return on investment, they reportedly spent $45 million on the wedding, and this will generate upwards of $500 million in tourism for the year!  Wow!  While The Royal Wedding might not exactly my cup of tea and strumpets, it was refreshing to watch news coverage for a couple of hours be nothing but positive.  I was then in the mood for some retail therapy in Newton on Route 206.  Of course if I'm in Newton, there must be a visit to see Steve Andrews and Wally at Subaru World Of Newton.  It was great to visit them and get out of the pouring rain for a few minutes.  As I'm shopping in Newton, I still CANNOT escape THE BEARS!  Apparently Levi's, unknown to me, now uses Bears as their mascots / logos.  Needless to say, I'm sticking with my Lucky Jeans, or Nautica, or Calvin Klein.  Then I ventured off to Hackettstown visiting Awesome Girlfriend Megan.  Meg had her Awesome Daughters this weekend, so I wanted to see all of them.  Meg's eldest, Awesome Daughter Caitlyn reminded us of Maifest happening in Hackettstown!  Woohoo!  I just forgot about it after all of the rain figuring that would dampen the party, but it did not!  We went to a nearby brewery and enjoyed the fun festivities.  We then went to the pickle store in Htown and finally scored delicious full sour pickles.  If you're a pickle fan, I recommend that style.  Meg and I then took her youngest, Awesome Daughter Amanda to dinner followed up by visiting Awesome Daughter Hailey at the ice cream chain where she just started working.  We had a great night with Amanda, and I was so proud to see Hailey progressing and growing up little by little at her part time job.

Sunday morning, I woke up to a terrific painting that Awesome Daughter Amanda made for me.  I left Hackettstown with souvenirs of pickles and a painting --- that almost sounds like a bad country song, but it was strong!  I went to Franklin, successfully visiting my stylist Jen for an overdue haircut.  This is while I was trying to transport a jar of amazing pickles from Hackettstown to Vernon, not a small task by any means.  The pickles were in my Jeep for longer than anticipated, so tensions were very high as to whether or not I could surprise my besty JG a fellow die hard pickle fan with good pickles.  Then I ended up back at the irish pub in Franklin, where my buddies Packer Fan Pat and bartender Cowboy Fan Rachel were working feverishly trying to bang out a crossword puzzle.  I may have successfully helped them with one answer out of 300.  Then I wanted to relax on my deck with an ice cold beer, and a stogey from Newton Medical Center's Wine & Roses Thursday night.  I was on the phone with Awesome Girlfriend Megan, then abruptly screamed "I gotta hang up, and go, BEAR!"  The BEAR was in the mulch right by my end unit ground level deck, but my iPhone froze while I was trying to get a picture.  Thus, my Bear pictures weren't quite as epic, but still majestic.  I then went out for a couple of buddies for beers on Campus so it could take the edge off of my latest Bear encounter.  I was able to refrigerate the amazing pickles and surprise my besty JG.  We've had more Bears on Campus this year, and it is quite entertaining.  Where we live, is very special.  Unless I get eaten by them.