A Halloween Road Trip

Last weekend, the family and I, along with my mom, took a road trip up to Akron to visit my aunt and uncle. My aunt planned a full day for us with shopping, cookie baking, pumpkin carving, and a bunch of other fall/Halloween fun. Once we arrived and unloaded everything, we all split off and decided to meet back up for lunch in a few hours. My wife took my son off with my mom and my aunt as they headed out to the mall. As for my uncle and me, he offered to take me to the local card shops in Medina and Cuyahoga Falls. So after everyone left for the mall, we headed over to Medina.

I've mentioned the Medina card shop before way back in one of my early posts but the place isn't very organized. They've got old packs mixed in the same box as new packs and charge the same price for said old packs as they would for new packs. The owner claimed it was because he was "short on counter space" as he gazed about the shop with little to no eye contact being made as we chatted. I looked at some singles but there wasn't much in the way of digging to be had so I settled on the above packs, two packs of 2016 Update and two packs of 2015-16 SP Authentic, which I'll crack open in a future article.

Our second stop of two was over 30 minutes away in Cuyahoga Falls, which is a little town off the beaten path. There, after winding through some residential areas and along the edge of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, we found All-Pro Sports Cards in a tiny shopping center. The place was the complete 180 of the shop in Medina. Everything was laid out neatly and organized, had college football going on the TV, and was very clean. The one downside was that they didn't sell stuff by the pack. I asked why and was told that the majority of their sales are based on boxes, with only base products (like Series 1 and 2) being packed out. I looked around and my uncle and I talked about a 1909-11 T206 Frank Schulte card we saw in the case. Making a final lap around the shop, it was then I discovered a giant pile of junk wax stuff hiding behind a Harrison Ford standee. The prices were a little steep but then I saw the box of 1993-94 Donruss Hockey pictured above. I asked how much, and the owner thought and said "eh, ten bucks". Sold! I paid for the box, and my uncle and I headed off to meet up with everyone else for lunch at a local pizza place back towards the house.

After lunch, we all got back to the house and sugar cookie baking commenced in the kitchen. As you can see in the picture above, my aunt and my son had their aprons were ready to get their baking on. My mom and my wife helped as well. I'm not one for baking things so I let everyone else have at it while my uncle and I abstained and watched TV.

Here's the final product of the sugar cookies. I must say, they were just as good as I remember them being. After the cookies, we all took a quick rest before the pumpkin carving.

For the jack-o-lantern, we all picked out a design from online, just something simple, and my uncle went to work on it with a knife and power tools, all while narrating what he was doing. After the initial carving was done, it was spray painted gold so it wouldn't rot before Halloween. Here's the finished product.

An Indians jack-o-lantern! As much as I want to root for the Cubs in the World Series, I really can't since the Indians are involved and they're one of my favorite teams.

For dinner, we picked up burgers and fries from the local drive-in chain, Swensons. Let me tell you, if you've never had Swensons and you find yourself in the Akron area, get it! I got their trademark burger, the Galley Boy, and it was one of the best burgers I've ever had. The thing that makes it unique it that it's got two different special sauces on it, one with a barbecue sauce base and another with a tarter sauce base. You wouldn't think that would work but it does. The fries were so-so but with a little salt they livened up a bit.

After dinner, we all settled in an had planned on watching scary movies all night but we decided to flip back and forth between the Ohio State game and the Cubs/Dodgers game. Everyone except my uncle and I fell asleep but we stayed up long enough to say we saw the Cubs win the pennant. The next morning, there was a small, quick breakfast of eggs and toast and the family and I hit the road soon thereafter for the three hour drive back home.

Crazy Halloween Junk Food

I'll have to admit, September has pretty much been a blur. Between work kicking my butt and being busy nearly every weekend, I had precious little time to write. Fear not though, since it's now officially fall it's really time to embrace the season ... and by embrace the season I mean gorge myself on Halloween junk food. These items have no relationship to each other whatsoever other than the fact that I couldn't get enough out of them for a full fledged article.

Hostess Scary Cakes

Yes! These are back for another year. Sure, they're just the basic Hostess cupcake any other time of the year, but not in the fall. In the fall, they are "Scary Cakes" with S'cream filling. If these aren't a sign that the Halloween season is in full force then I don't know what is. The box design this year is great with a spooky design that just grabs you. The icing on the cupcake has that standard Hostess squiggle design but the frosting is orange! Name another time of year you'll find a cupcake with orange icing! Now, if you've had a Hostess cupcake before, you know what this tastes like, however I think it has just a little bit better flavor and taste because it has a Halloween style. Put some of these out along with a cold glass of cider for the Great Pumpkin when he comes and your Halloween will be that much better.

Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

I've always looked at Pepperidge Farm stuff from afar, it being more expensive than your normal Chips Ahoy or Oreo cookie pack. I've gotten a few of their products before and haven't been too terribly impressed which is mostly the reason I stray away from them (the other being cost). These were one of the first "fall" products I saw in the stores, so I grabbed it. The package design is very bright as has a design of falling leaves on the top. Opening these, I couldn't discern any particular smell so I just hoped they wouldn't be horrible. Well, they weren't horrible, but they weren't great either. The chunks you see picture in the cookie on the package are cheesecake flavored chunks. The cookie itself had a slight sort of gingerbread-y flavor to it. I can't say I can recommend these but you could do a whole lot worse.

Count Chocula Cereal Bars

Speaking of doing a whole lot worse, I found these on a display at the grocery store lumped in with all the Halloween cereals (side note: review of the cereals coming soon) and though they looked interesting. The box has a very cartoonish  vibe to it, probably to appeal to kids or fans of the Count Chocula cereal. I had the cereal itself before I had this so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Well, everything I expected went right out the window when I bit into it. It's got a very processed and marshmallow heavy taste and has the consistency of cardboard. The chocolate looks and tastes incredibly fake and it's very heavy on the artificial sweetener. I tried to offer part of the bar to my 3-year old son and he promptly screamed and ran away. Even if kids are running from this, that should tell you something.

Hi-C Ecto Cooler

This was all the rage back in the summertime when the new Ghostbusters movie came out in July. People were looking high and low and grocery retailers big and small just so they could get a nostalgic taste of their childhood. I didn't find any in my area until mid-August, just before the movie left theaters. That didn't stop me though, I grabbed a bunch of the 10-box packs. It tastes just like I remember it, very citrusy with orange and tangerine. You better believe that when I found more of these at the store, I loaded up. There's no telling if this is back for good or if stores are just going through what stock they have left. One thing is for sure though, this is the perfect drink to have on a fall night when you're staying up late to watch a Pumpkinhead marathon.