Another amazing, epic Weekend In Pictures! This weekend had me travelling from Franklin, New Jersey out to Philadelphia, then to Danbury Connecticut, then finally wrapping my weekend on Campus in Vernon. Our goal was to give Awesome Girlfriend Megan's Awesome Daughters a weekend they would never forget. Not only did we achieve that goal, but Meg and I also enjoyed a weekend that we won't forget ourselves. Before our road trip, my Weekend started with a special thank you from Bea DeVries from Newton. She was one of our Mets Crack Of The Bat winners, and was able to bring her grandson in those amazing seats on his birthday. Bea gave me a very sweet written thank you card, with pictures printed out too! Remember, to print out pictures these days it takes the added step of emailing them from your phone to a kiosk at a store. I asked her if she could join me in kicking off my Weekend In Pictures, and she was happy to help me.
Then, the road trip to Philly with Awesome Girlfriend Megan and her Awesome Daughters commenced. Philly is a 2 hour drive from Meg's in Hackettstown. I learned that it is a strong relationship tester, when you're in a car with 3 ladies at the same time. Awesome Girlfriend Megan is a single mom to 3 teenage daughters, so when there is friendly fire, I DUCK! Upon arriving in Philly where Meg got a clutch parking space in a lot closest to an exit, we discovered that all 3 Philadelphia arenas are side by side. Lincoln Financial Field where the Eagles (still mad they beat me in the Super Bowl boo hiss,) play, Citizens Bank Park where the Phillies play, and Wells Fargo where the 76ers and Flyers play. I lived the Minivan Dad life, dropping the teenage girls off to Panic! At The Disco. Meg and I learned that Billy Joel was playing that same time at Citizens Bank Park! We went to Chickie's & Pete's where they have possibly the best french fries of all time. I wasn't a fan of their upside down pizza with sauce on top of cheese, and Meg said her cheese steak was merely mediocre. Every single second during our Philly trip, I was reminded of The Eagles beating my Patriots this past Super Bowl. EVERYONE was wearing their Super Bowl championship gear everywhere. Meg is a diehard Dallas Cowboy fan, so we were definitely on edge in enemy territory. While dropping off two of Meg's Awesome Daughters to Panic! At The Disco, we landed on one of our greatest discoveries of all time. The Xfinity Live! Philadelphia Center! They had a bunch of indoor / outdoor bars all side by side on one complex with live music. Meg and I were PSYCHED. We loved the bars where you can get a beer at one of them, and bring your beer with you anywhere you want outside. They had EXCELLENT cover bands playing, and when they weren't playing, Billy Joel live at Shea Stadium ten years ago could be seen on the projection screens. Some of my friends thought from my Instagram story (@SteveAllanRadio,) that Meg and I went to the Billy Joel show. Negative. We still reaped the benefits though! At one point during the Billy Joel show Meg and I were nerds who went to the stadium parking to hear a couple of his songs, and he sounds great at 69 years young! The weather --- it hella rained on us, so I bought us one dollar ponchos. The ponchos weren't too effective, but did give Meg and me great laughs and memories.
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Saturday morning Meg and I recovered by jumping right back on the horse. We went out in Hackettstown for some Nuclear wings, and pickles. That's right, they have a store in Hackettstown that only sells pickles, and they're amazing. I then ventured back to Campus, had a couple quick beers with my besties Jasen and JG before leaving. It was also fun to run into my new buddy, Dana Marie Tedesco guarding the gate for us at Minerals right by our Tiki Bar. Right as I'm getting ready to go to my besties Nate and Lauren's house warming party in Danbury, Connecticut, Jasen calls me with scary news. Granny's on 23 is on fire. Full disclosure, I'm friends with the family who owns it so this hit very close to home. Jasen and I drove there immediately, and were very relieved to see it be contained to only the entrance. Thank goodness. Small businesses are livelihoods for many.
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Then I ventured off to Danbury. I was so proud to see my besties Nate and Lauren doing great. I was in their wedding this past November, and they're going stronger than ever. It was so wonderful to see so many friends you've had for 13 years, and even friends you've only had for a fraction of that time. We had many fun laughs, they played a drinking game which involved them shaking and yelling at their smart phones for some reason. I couldn't get into that, but we still were laughing all night long --- until 3 IN THE MORNING! Seeing Nate, Jake and Dan who inducted me into being one of The Boys during Jake's best man speech at Nate and Lauren's wedding, was simply wonderful. They're those friends with so many fun stories, you just start laughing for hours on end. Seeing all of them happy with amazing ladies is a wonderful bonus too! At one point, my buddies Dan and Cat looked at me and said "we better be worthy of joining your Weekend In Pictures, right?" They were very happy to join my rapidly growing Weekend In Pictures. I joked with my besty Nate how when we worked together at our Boston radio stations, he usually slept on Boston park benches. Now he has a house, with a bench in their front yard. Seeing my boy growing up has been amazing. He's also killing it with his career, working for our company that runs radio station scheduling software.
Sunday morning, I had a delicious Newburgh Brewery Mega Boss IPA with Nate and Lauren as we were enjoying recapping the party. Then I made my 90 minute trek back home to Campus. This weekend was Meg's Awesome Daughter Hailey's 19th birthday. It's so fun watching them grow up. I took a quick little nap, then wrapped up my Weekend at our Campus Tiki Bar. I brought pickles from the pickle store, and became immensely popular. When you bring pickles to a bar, everyone turns into 12 year old sophomoric humor jokesters. We were laughing all night long about my pickles. I enjoyed a gorgeous sunset with Natalee, Dave, JG, Jasen + Spot, Steve, Douglioso, Sally, and Melissa. We had a wonderful time wrapping up our weekend by joking about my Awesome Pickle. It's so funny how our goal was to give Meg's Awesome Daughters a night in Philly they'll never forget --- and we ended up with a fun night in Philly we will never forget. We had an amazing weekend blessed with so many wonderful dear friends. I hope your weekend was wonderful too. Time to start planning next weekend!