Lehigh Valley InSite

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By Gregg Marzano

This past weekend as most of the Lehigh Valley was busy celebrating Mother’s day with brunch reservations, theater tickets and spa treatments, I gathered up three special ladies and headed to Stabler Arena for Pro Gymnastics Challenge.

The Championship

The Championship is set.

Emerging from the left side of the bracket is 02 Lehigh Valley IronPigs and their opponent from the right side of the bracket is 01 Musikfest.

Both teams are family fun, summertime activities and as such had high expectations coming into the Lunacy.

Final Four

And there were four, the Final Four.

Lehigh Valley Lunacy, which began March 1st with 64 participants is now down to four teams playing in semi-final matchups to get to the Championship!

WHAT IF: Summer Olympics 2024

It seems that Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have been sent letters by the U.S. Olympic Committee to gauge interest in hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Aside from any boost Lehigh Valley may get in overflow from a Philadelphia games, what if Lehigh Valley pulled the upset and won the bid for the games outright?

Tasty Talk in the Official Visitors Guide

Well look no further than Discover Lehigh Valley’s Official Visitors Guide!

It doesn’t matter if you are living locally or coming to Lehigh Valley to visit, this guide is a must have resource and we’ve got 250,000 copies to move out of here. I have had the pleasure (and pains) of putting together this 56-page magazine annually for the last 12 years. It is chockfull of information about Lehigh Valley. All-in-all there are 130 attractions, 54 shops, 92 restaurants, 44 coupons, 70 places to spend the night and over 50 events listed to choose from.

Also included are …

Ocean Spray is here

Last week I had the opportunity to do one of the most enjoyable parts of my job, telling people who will be moving here all the fun things there are to do in Lehigh Valley. I was asked to participate in the Ocean Spray Relocation Fair since their aging distribution plant in Bordentown, NJ will be relocating to a brand new facility in Macungie, PA.

I can't wait to do these again

Everything old is new again and the “same old, same old” is not humdrum. Sometimes attractions and events that happen each year are the most fun Lehigh Valley things that I want to do again this coming year.

April 4th, 2013 is Opening Day for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Last season, our ‘Pigs fell short of replicating their playoff run of 2011, but they were in the hunt until the very end. Meaningful baseball down the stretch starts with a good April and I’ll be there again to cheer them on.

cupcake bowl1

Sometimes things just roll the right way and you get lucky in life. That happened to me just last week as I was chosen to be one of the four official judges (there was also the “People’s Choice Awards”) to cast my vote on the “Best Frosting,” “Best Cake,” “Best Decoration,” and “Best Overall Combo” at the Inaugural ArtsQuest™ Cupcake Bowl. I do have a background in judging food competitions and competing in cake decorating contests, and I have a degree from the Culinary Institute of America which kind of gives me the chops to judge this event, but I have never done cupcakes before. I’m also a super huge fan of Cupcake Wars, well anything on the Food Network or Cooking Channel for that matter.

So, the morning of December 29, I prepped my stomach with a banana and water and headed to ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks along with 425 others, to this sold-out event. There were 15 Lehigh Valley bakeries that participated with some entering three selections. All-in-all there were 39 cupcakes to try! Ahhhh … bliss AND sugar high AND then crash AND burn.

Lehigh Valley Mascots

Lehigh Valley has some adorable mascots already.

The Lehigh Valley IronPigs have Ferrous and Fefe.

JustBorn has Mike and Ike and a bunch of PEEPS.

Yocco’s has the Hot Dog King.

Bear Creek Mountain Resort has their big fuzzy bear.

And, now the Lehigh Valley Phantoms ice hockey team has Dax, a fun looking beaver.

But, what about Lehigh Valley at large? What would be an appropriate, or even just the most fun, mascot that could encapsulate the whole area?

We’re not 100 percent sure, but we did come up with a few, let us know your thoughts.

Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me A fine piece of jewelry from Cleo’s Gallery.

Ok, you get the idea. I’m not going to make you read the whole song, so here is my Twelve Days of Lehigh Valley gifts I’d like to receive boiled down for your reading pleasure …