Sunday, August 1, 2010

Double Dipper!

The Lehigh Valley/Scranton trip was the most anticipated trip of the summer. When originally planning trips, I knew I wanted to see the presumed best minor league ballpark, Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, PA. I found a way to make the most of this expedition by including a game at PNC Field in Scranton. What are the odds that the two teams would have games on the same day at 11AM and at 7pm?

We left early in the morning on Thursday to arrive at the stadium about 20 minutes before the game. The stadium was magnificent and has all the right reason to be called the best ballpark in the minors. The only con was the location of the stadium. The stadium was built in a parking lot of a major industrial park in the industrial part of Allentown. The pros far outweigh the cons.

The game went smoothly and ended around 2pm. It finished in 11 innings. Iron Pigs lost 2-1 to the Durham Bulls. We then drove the Lehigh University in Bethlehem and took a tour. It was the biggest tour group I have ever experienced. There were at least 40 prospective students with their parents, and they chose between 6 tour guides. Lehigh had great architecture in the building which were on average at least 60 years old. They built a new environmental science building that is LEED certified gold! The cons were few but included the fact that all athletic facilities including the football stadium is off campus and they shuttle students to games, and the fact that a freshman in their 2nd semester can join Greek life. Also, students can move off campus when they are only a sophomore.

The 1 and 30 minute drive to Scranton was through the beautiful Pocono mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania. We arrived at the stadium early and had a sit-down dinner in the restaurant overlooking the stadium. PNC field is a 21 year-old facility that was built at the end of the big-stadium era. Thus, the stadium has close to 20,000 seats, which were not even close to being filled that night. The concourses were small, but the stadium did face some beautifully carved rock that appeared when the stadium was built.

The game was much more exciting than the previous with the final score 7-1 in favor of the SWB Yankees. The attendance was just over 3,000 and we went home empty handed despite our many attempts to catch a ball.

We woke up early so we could drive into downtown Scranton for a look. The University of Scranton is on a cliff overlooking the residential part of the city and farther out the Pocono mountains. A friend at the aquarium is attending the Jesuit college, so I thought I might check it out. The campus was sprawled over a couple blocks and they are in the process of building a new 5 floor science center that will open in 2011. Scranton is a little run down, but pretty much the typical blue-collar city.

Next was the tour at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. The college has a beautiful location overlooking the town of Easton and the Pocono mountains. Set in the quiet, residential part of Easton, Lafayette has a lot to offer. Unlike Lehigh, Lafayette has modern, sleek buildings, a unique campus layout, and the football stadium and basketball arena on campus. I enjoyed the visit very much and Lafayette moved up to slot number 2 for the colleges that I have tour (behind Allegheny).

Even though we had seen a lot of college campuses, one more was on our list to explore. Muhlenberg College is a small community of 1800 students on a large city block in downtown Allentown. The campus was small and didn't have much to offer. That completed our college tours for this trip and we headed home.

Our trip was fine and uninterrupted until we were within 20 miles of home. A piece of my Dad's car kept falling off and we stopped over 9 times on the way home to set it back in place. That put our ride home over 2 hours and 45 minutes much longer than anticipated.

Overall, the trip was excited and exactly what I wanted it to be. It was a great unexpected exploration!
Andrew

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