FlyerACE1

On Saturday night we popped open one of the latest from Dogfish Head called Fort. Ellen is all smiles but neither of us cared for this ale "brewed with over a ton of pureed raspberries". It's also touted as the world's strongest fruit beer. Definitely not a favorite and too costly to buy again. Dogfish Head always has some cool bottle art. It's too bad the taste didn't match.

On Saturday, Ellen and I went to the Brewhouse in South Norwalk, CT with her friend Joann. They have a fairly extensive selection of draught and bottled beers. Keeping that Dogfish Head kick going, I decide on one of my all time faves- 60 Minute IPA fresh from the tap! Ellen enjoys her #1 favorite beer, Franziskaner Weissbier!

And being overanxious I posted without posting all photos. Doh! Here are more. Yummm!! Dogfish Head goodness! As you can see, WWS has a unique look- very dark and quite carbonated like Coke.

On Friday I decided to stop by my local beer heaven and splurge a bit. Being on a Dogfish Head kick lately, I decided on a single bottle of Worldwide Stout. A new bottle of the super strong and super delicious World Wide Stout!

Assuming this policy is correct, I will seriously consider demanding a refund on my already purchased season pass since this policy was not in effect when I bought it. Isn't it sort of criminal to not allow re-entry? What if I forget something in my car? Unless they offer free lockers or I can ride with everything I purchase or strap to me, I will not be visiting a SF park in '06. Daniel Snyder is the final nail in the Six Flags coffin. I feared that when the company was rewarded to him. SF was bad before but it'll be exponentially worse now. What a shame!

I don't know, I gotta say, I'm not a big fan of this brew. Had it with my Troegs mix pack and actually ended up dumping mine at CCL. I guess I'm just not a fan of the nut brown style. Sad because Troegs makes some nice brews!

If you look closely at some of the pics, you'll see shades of grey and most of the coaster is more of a beige color. I assume the grey is the primer and the finished color is the beige. Would be cool though it was the other way around. The grey, like storm clouds, would more fit the theme. I guess the lighter colors are easier to maintain. Anything red, pink or orange tends to fade and they're forced to paint every few years or it looks horrible. The problem with the light colors is that the track part will look dirty quickly and the grease from the lift chain will really make it look disgusting. I'm not sold on the new color.

On New Year's Day, Ellen and I decided to take a ride to the Jersey Shore and stay over at my family's condo in Wildwood. On the way down we stopped at Seaside Heights for a ride on the Casino Pier Carousel and lunch at the Saw Mill. On January 2nd, we took a walk on the Wildwood boardwalk to check out the piers and the remnants of a fire that claimed a hotel, Sam's Pizza Palace and Rita's Italian Ice. Here are some photos from Wildwood. There is only one establishment now open year round (Sam's used to be one) and that's Original Fudge Kitchen and Ellen is ecstatic! In the winter, the usually bustling boardwalk is dead quiet. It's rare to see more than maybe 5 people walking or jogging the boards. A cool shot straight into a room that's mostly intact. About half of the hotel remains but I don't believe it's salvageable. It'll probably be turned into condos like the rest of Wildwood. This is located directly across from the entrance to Morey's Pier on the west side of the boardwalk. Total destruction! This is where Sam's Pizza Palace and Rita's Italian Ice once stood. Sadly, boardwalk fires are fairly common. This photo was taken in approximately the same spot in September 2005. Sam's Pizza Palace was a fixture on the boardwalk since the '50's. A shot of the repainting of the Great Nor'Easter. Another shot taken from the north end of the pier. You can easily see some primer and a sort of tan final color. The bright pink color is almost all gone! Here is Morey's 26th Street Pier. In the distance you can see the transformation of The Great Nor'Easter.

Rugged One posted: "The Victory Hop Wallop. Absolutley awesome. I think I like this more than the Hopedevil right now. It's like someone rolled up a bunch of hops in thier fist and punched you in the face." Dude, so glad someone else loves this beer as much as I do. I took a chance on it based on the terrifically awesome name. All it took was one sip and I was hooked! Bought a new 6-pack just recently and I love it. Great thread here! Not sure how I missed it before. I'll be sure to start adding some material!! Live to Ride, Adam Revesz

That's my kind of girl too and just one of the many reasons why I'm marrying her! Live to Ride, Adam Revesz

Yeah, no beer fridge photo. Most of it was gone before I decided to take pics in the room. Well, we had a modest one and were successful in almost wiping it all out unlike when we over do it many times. Here is what we featured: Abita Purple Haze, Troegs Mixed Dozen (Pale Ale, Hop Back, Rugged Trail and Wheat), Weyerbacher Insanity, BBW Pumpkin Ale, Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, Sam Adams Winter Ale and two six packs of assorted brews left over from other trips.

Thank you all for the positive feedback on my first photo TR so far. Hope you're all enjoying it. Here are the rest of the photos! The far turnaround on Lightning Racer. Lighting Racer's first drop. On Sunday we woke up to about 3" of snow in Hershey. Here are some photos of Lightning Racer covered in the white stuff. Here Mark joins in on the shaking action! Sometimes the most low tech methods are most effective! We must have had the worst DVD player ever because many of the videos would freeze. Finally I decided to shake the machine and it worked!! Many shakings were necessary. This was in the machine at the time! Two of our viewings for the night- the just released 2-disc Tim's Parks N'at 2005 and Road to Nowhere 3. Here is the kitchen in our suite after being ravaged by the culinary stylings of Mark and I. Mark made us generous helpings of Skyline Chili 3-Ways and I pride myself in heating up frozen foods. And what video viewing event would be complete without the latest Theme Park Review Coaster Expedition video? Back at the Hershey Suites, the crew lounges out, drinks, eats and watches coaster videos! Ellen loves the Christmas music they play on the Carrousel for CCL. Tim and I freezing our butts off on the beautiful PTC "carrousel". What Christmas event is complete without Christmas frogs? The Great Bear is frozen for the winter but its track looms ominously in the winter sky. Ellen takes a slide down Merry Derry Dips! As the sun goes down, the lights start to glow. Here is a random light display in the park. One of the coolest decorations at CCL is Santa and his reindeer flying up the Comet lift hill. The lighted Dippin Dots trees!! Mark, Amanda and Tim brave the cold for a trip on Twilight Express. As seen from the train, you can see that Roller Soaker has been repainted navy blue. Hmmm...a Gingerbread House and Old Western saloon...just a few of the unusual sites you'll see on this ride. Ellen and I cuddle up to get warm on the park's transformed train ride- the Twilight Express. Twilight Express sure does attract a lot of strollers! This is just a handful as compared to how busy this attraction gets at night. Tim is so excited about this exhibit that he's tempted to buy the sweatshirt! Ellen gets her kicks from touching reindeer horns. Though hardly an exciting attraction, a stop to see the "smelly" reindeer is always a must during our annual visit.

It's hard to believe that it's been eight years that I've been going to HersheyPark's Christmas CandyLane event. It started as an official RRC winter gathering and transformed over the years to a more "inside" event that continues to this day. Tim Melago and I are the only ones who have attended every year. This year, we spent two nights at the recently renovated BlueGreen Hershey Suites resort and would tackle HersheyPark during the day on Saturday with video viewing, food and drinks at night. Here are some photos from the weekend. I'll have more up tomorrow as I've run out of time at lunch! Hope you enjoy my first photo trip report on TPR. Adam It's not easy to snap on the Larson Flyers but here Ellen makes a valiant attempt. My fiance, Ellen Whitman, prepares for her chilly ride on the Frontier Flyers. Ho, Ho, Hoes! Pimpin Adam Claus! Storm Runner sure looks enticing despite the cold. Unfortunately no coasters run during CCL. Mark in line for Starship America meets a new friend. Starship America is an old ride brought out of retirement and replacing the Big Wheel in 2005. The Kissmas tree, Caroussel and Comet in the background. Here's the Coaster Team's on-ride Hershey Chocolate World Tour photo with our "signature moves". Here I am thinking about the plentitude of good beer I'll be drinking later in the day. First stop was the Bear's Den at the Hershey Lodge for lunch. Here is Tim Melago and Amanda and Mark Rosenzweig.