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The act of building and running a website can take up a lot of your time, especially if you are new to the process. There is an extensive amount of behind the scenes work that can’t be seen by simply visiting a site. Endless research on techniques for design or advertising. It’s enough to drive a person out of their mind if they don’t take a break every once in a while. Regular 9-5 jobs come with vacation time, and with good reason. You need to take a step back when you are running your own business too. You need to get out, experience life, and spend time with your family. So that’s exactly what I did, and what this post is about. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not about what you need to do, it’s about what I did. Be jealous, ‘cause it was amazing. I’m going to gloss over the drive out, it’s not really pertinent to the story at hand.

You know that list that some people have, the celebrity crush list? That list is the reason we ended up where we did. My girlfriend’s birthday was coming up and I wanted to do something special for her. Her list consists of Ty Pennington which offered no opportunities for a gift. Wolverine, not Hugh Jackman, but Wolverine which was also no help. Her last and probably biggest crush just happened to be coming to town.

She absolutely loves Bret Michaels, she had never been to a rock concert, and Poison was coming to the area June 24th. So I got floor tickets as close as I could, 9th row, and reserved a room so we didn’t have to worry about the drive back so late at night. Having the room also allowed us to have a few drinks together if we wanted during the concert. Instead of one of us drinking alone, and one being the designated driver.

We got to our room at the luxurious Renaissance Hotel in Allentown Pa. with a couple of hours to spare before the event we were attending began. Basically just enough time to get cleaned up after a long drive, and still arrive at the venue early enough to get a bite to eat.

The room was well decorated, and quite comfortable. It’s miles beyond my usual side of the highway, middle of nowhere motel. I don’t know about you, but I have never stayed in a hotel of this caliber before. This is the kind of place with gourmet room service. If I need a hotel, the kind of place I usually stay is lucky to have vending machines and the ice machine is always broken.

The Renaissance Hotel is inside the PPL Center which greatly improves the entire experience. There is a door from the hotel lobby directly into the venue allowing us to skip the huge security lines and be some of the first people inside even though doors opened 30 minute before.

There were 10-15 concession areas open serving a pretty wide range of arena foods like hot-dogs, nachos, soft pretzels, and quite a bit more. Of course each one had beer, but you had to keep an eye out for whatever you were drinking, because they didn’t all carry the same selection.

Pop Evil was the opening band. They put on a great show. Towards the end Leigh Kakaty walked the crowd and actually ended up in my row and shook my hand. I’ve been to quite a few concerts and festivals over the years, and met a few band members here and there. It’s always a cool experience. I know, they are just people, but they are people I was listening to on the radio 20 minutes ago.

Cheap Trick played next. Rick Nielsen is amazing to watch. His rapport with the audience is legendary. At 70 he was running around the stage, throwing a seemingly infinite number of guitar picks into the crowd, with the energy of someone 50 years his junior.

There was no guessing who the spectators were here to see. Seats didn’t begin to actually fill up until Poison was due on stage. Even then they didn’t stay occupied for long because everyone was on their feet for the duration of the set. The energy and excitement could be felt throughout the stadium.

Seeing Poison live was incredibly nostalgic for me. They were one of the last on a list of bands that I grew up following and idolizing that I had yet to see live. To be able to share that experience with someone so special made it that much more enjoyable.





I feel like maybe I should apologize for the quality of the photo’s. I didn’t originally plan on posting this, so we only had our cell phones with us for taking pictures.