A good weekend should be relaxing. A great weekend should be a little bit tiring—the kind of weekend that leaves you wondering how you are ever going to get up for work on Monday morning. Yes, there is something to be said for a quiet night on the couch to recharge after a rough week. Labor Day weekend isn’t about that, though. Labor Day weekend is about grabbing summer and wringing out every last drop of sun-tanned, sandals-wearing, party-going, family-uniting, outside-enjoying fun possible. I tried my best. In four days, I hit one of my favorite restaurants in Carlisle, went to the Penn State game, watched the fireworks in Negley Park, went to a pig roast, hung out on the deck at Dockside Willies and went to Kipona. I slept well last night. CHECK OUT MY PICTURES OF THE FIREWORKS, DOCKSIDE WILLIES AND KIPONA ON FLICKR Friday night, I got dinner at the Back Door Café in Carlisle which was fantastic, as always. I’ll write something short about it for Restaurant Round-Up tomorrow. Saturday was awesome, too. I always love heading back to Happy Valley, but the game was an absolute slaughter. I honestly think you could field a team made up of Penn State students who aren’t on the football team who could have beaten poor Coastal Carolina. The fireworks on Sunday were predictably very enjoyable. My friends and I made the trek from my apartment up the hill to Negley Park and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s no better place in the area to watch fireworks in Harrisburg. I think the City generally puts on a pretty good display both on the Fourth and at Kipona, but Sunday night had some new stuff that I’d never seen before. I especially liked the square red ones. The best part? Unlike the fireworks at the Olympics, these were real. I was both amazed and somewhat disappointed by the lack of atmosphere at Dockside Willies afterwards. Since most people had off on Monday, we figured that it would be jammed with people trying to cram in one last night of drinking on the deck. Not the case. The place was absolutely dead, and when we left at 12:30, we basically closed the joint down. Beyond that, the bartender was sarcastic to the point of being nasty. I’m not sure if he was trying to get home early, but they were supposed to be open until 2:00, so I was a bit put off by his annoyance every time we ordered a round of drinks. Sunday, I hit Kipona with my family and fiancée. It’s my favorite of the three Harrisburg summer festivals, and the weather was phenomenal. Parking was a nightmare between Kipona and the Senator’s game, but other than that, it was a nice afternoon. I had Camp Curtain BBQ (shock of all shocks) and watched the canoe races. I kind of wish I would have entered. Maybe next year. As always, I took some pictures. You can check them out on Flickr.

It’s easy to focus on the negatives of Labor Day Weekend. Pools and parks close for the year. The days are getting alarmingly short. If you are a kid, you’re probably already back in school or pretty close to it. Even Labor Day barbeques tend to lack the joie de vivre of their Memorial Day cousins. But there’s no reason to dwell on that stuff. Seriously, sweatshirts and Elliot Smith albums can wait for a few more weeks. Friday night, high school football is back. Spotobe has compiled the Friday night and Saturday afternoon schedules for every week of the season, so if you need directions to an away game at any time this year, come back and visit us. Friday is also the first day of the Long’s Park Art & Craft Festival in Lancaster, which is one of the biggest events of its kind in the country. I’ve never been, but people tell me that it is absolutely massive. The event runs through Monday, so you have all weekend to check it out. The Senators also open their final series of the season. It appears as though the Sens are going to fall a little bit short of the Eastern League Playoffs, but they just clinched their first winning season since 2002, which is a step in the right direction. Saturday, Penn State opens its schedule against Coastal Carolina, which is not close enough to here to be on the calendar, but is close enough to my heart to be on the Spotoblog. I’ll be there. With bells on. Or a white t-shirt. One of the two. Kipona also starts on Saturday, and you can find the full schedule of events for each day on the calendar. There are two more noteworthy festivals on Saturday as well, the annual Folk Festival at Moon Dancer Winery and the McLain Celtic Festival at the historic Two Mile House. On a weekend dominated by sports and festivals, I think the Public Astronomical Observation looks like something a little bit different. Sunday, Kipona, Long’s Park and the Folk Festival all continue. The Kipona Grand Fireworks Display, is Sunday night. There are also fireworks in Boiling Springs. More fireworks Monday, this time in York. Kipona and Long’s Park wrap up during the day, and you can also tour Shoaf’s Mill at Little Buffalo State Park. I’ve done it, and it’s worth seeing. You can get some corn meal to make cornbread. Friday, I’ll be out to eat somewhere, but I won’t be out late because I’ve got to get up super early to head to Happy Valley. I’ll check out Kipona Sunday or Monday and hopefully catch at least one of the fireworks displays. Enjoy the long weekend and have fun kids.

We’ve been here before. If you’ve read my previous post about the lackluster display of talent at any of Harrisburg’s Arts/Kipona/Music Fests, I apologize for being redundant. But in the spirit of speaking my mind about the things that are happening in Harrisburg today, I feel overwhelmingly compelled to write this post. Here, in some sort of order, [...]