Month: November 2008

Uncategorized Nov 17, 2008 The Waffle 1 Comment It was a cold and snowy day – at some point before the game, we couldn’t see 10 yards in front of us.  The hotel shuttle dropped us off in front of Heinz Field, near Gate C.  The Steelers were receiving the Chargers much later in the afternoon, but we wanted to go early to get a good feel for it all. We were told the good bars were on the other side of the stadium, in front of Gate A so we headed over in that direction. The Steel Nation is known to be rowdy.  Nothing compared to the Bills’ fans, but still.  Today however, their ardour was slowed down by the flurries. There was also some Chargers fans around – not a whole lot, but their baby blue jerseys were clashing with the sea of yellow and black, so they were easy to…

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Restaurant Nov 17, 2008 The Waffle No Comments What’s the best thing to do after a long night of hockey? Why, getting ready for a football game!  The first order of business though:  food! What will we do today? Jerry’s research on the internet had led him to believe that tailgating was really the way to go, but from our home base at the Radisson, we weren’t really equipped for it.  Besides, the plan was to do that in Buffalo.  So we went out looking for breakfast. After driving around for a bit in the area around the hotel, we had to conclude that we would not find anything satisfactory – in fact, we couldn’t find anything at all except for a bagel shop – so we headed for Downtown Pittsburgh for an adventure. Not knowing where I was actually going, I ended up following the indication for the Convention Center.  I knew…

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General Nov 17, 2008 The Waffle No Comments Buffalo is an All America City for more then one reason.  Although it is not known for its fine cuisine, Buffalo is nevertheless the epicentre of the most important sports cuisine revolution ever:  the chicken wings. Because it is here, in 1964, in a small establishment of Main Street, Buffalo, NY, USA, that the chicken wings were born.  The blessed nativity happened at the Anchor Bar. I’ve always wanted to go, but although it is on Main Street, it is still a few blocks away from downtown Buffalo.  On our annual football trip, we usually stay at the Adam’s Mark, as it is walking distance from the classy night life experience one only can get in downtown Buffalo, an All America City. Monday Night Football was changing our plans, as there was no need to enjoy said nightlife.  But it also meant we had…

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General Nov 16, 2008 The Waffle No Comments We had selected the Radisson Greentree as our home base for the Pittsburgh leg of our sports trip.  The hotel is not really close to downtown, in fact you have to cross the city through the crazy interchange and bridge systems, heading towards the airport.  But to compensate, the rates are cheap, and they had a free shuttle to the hockey game and back! After checking in, we got ready for a Hockey Night in Pittsburgh.  We got lucky and hopped on the shuttle as soon as we got back to the lobby.  Arriving at the Mellon Arena, we decided to find a place nearby to quench our thirst.  At the doorstep of the arena though, the view is spectacular, as the Arena is built on a hill.  We stood there and looked at the Pittsburgh landscape from our vantage point – tall…

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General Nov 15, 2008 The Waffle 1 Comment As I told you in this post, Jerry and I went on a road trip to Pittsburgh for a formidable sports week-end. Nobody seemed in favour of us stopping at Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub, so we didn’t make the detour.  I still thought about it, since it would have only added an hour and 43 minutes of travel time.  But then, another 5 hours to eat the Beer Barrel Belly Buster would have been too much to make it in time for the Sabres–Penguins game at the Mellon Arena. Instead, we stayed on the I-90, also known as the AMVETS Memorial Highway.  Part of the Dwight Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways, the I-90 is the longest Highway in the United States, almost 5000 km long from Massachussets to the State of  Washington. We passed a bunch of service areas, and, as…

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