Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day weekend, I was really hoping to go down to Pittsburgh to visit Chelcy and meet her new husband. Unfortunately, Chelcy has lost her cell phone telephone and did not check her internets until Saturday night. A bit too late to plan a weekend, I believe. Both of us are greatly disappointed. Jacob and James did their part to cheer up the whole event, though.

After I got off work on Saturday, the three of us made chili and watched the Penn State vs. who-cares-what-team-we're-playing game. Penn State totally dominated. I think our score was in the high 30's, and their score was 7.


Jacob has a great recipe, which he keeps to himself, for making chili. It's becoming sort of a game-day tradition for him to make. I help where I can, with the peeling or chopping.
James, for some reason, gets to watch the game while Jacob and I slave away in the kitchen. He kept flipping back and forth between the Penn State game and the Naval Academy game. Both his teams won, and he was happy.
It was rather odd to only have the three of us on a weekend. There was leftover food, there were things to drink, we could actually hear the game. I may be saddened if people start coming over to watch it at the boys' house.

On Sunday, Jacob decided we should drive the 40 miles down to Altoona to check out their shopping center. He wasn't quite sure what exit to take, as there are three exits. Needless to say, we ended up missing the one we wanted which happened to be the last one to Altoona. We took the next exit instead, but there ended up being nowhere to turn around and no other connection between the two highways. 20 minutes later, we found an exit that allowed us to turn around so we could get back to I-99, so we could take the exit to the mall. Quite an adventure.
After going through all the stores, I ended up with a belt and a new green sweater for the upcoming cold months. Jacob got a belt buckle, a jacket, and a new pair of shoes. On our way home, we decided to take the exit before our usual N. Atherton St exit, which is marked with a simple "Waddle." Assuming it meant Waddle Road, the road parallel to Atherton Street, we took the exit. 15 minutes and a winding road later, Jacob called James to figure out what road we were on and where we ended up. Turns out Waddle is also the name of a neighboring town. I had told Jacob at least three times that we should turn around and take the N. Atherton St exit. He was having a great time driving and was enjoying the road we were on, though. We ended up near Bellefonte, which is 15 miles away from State College. Another great adventure and a lot of fun.

On Monday, James decided to go to the Rothrock State Park. Neither of us has been, neither knew the way, but James knows the roads and the general directions. We were really hoping for a road sign to tell us where to turn to get there. Indeed, there was a sign, and we got onto a small gravel road which told us the picnic area and campgrounds were 6 miles away. 6 miles takes an awfully long time when the car is only traveling 15 mph. We eventually made it there, in one piece.

It was a lovely little spot, and we decided our friends need to go up and have an afternoon barbecue before the weather gets to cold. There was a sign for that, too. No alcohol. Maybe this isn't the place for all our friends.

We ended up near a small pond, and nowhere near the lake/reservoir on the map. It was cute and quiet and full of foresty charm. There was a beaten path that went a little way down the stream.James and I walked down the little path along the little stream. The quiet of the forest was only broken by my childlike squeals of delight at finding an entire nest of water-skeeters with more little bugs than I have ever seen in my life. I love water-skeeters.

The sign told us there is no camping allowed in the picnic area, but this spot is too perfect! There is a mossy bank protected by trees that was super soft and rock/branch/root free. I shake my fist at that sign and declare that I will pitch my tent on that bank someday.


We tried to walk the whole way around the pond, but the north end proved to be the water source and therefore very muddy. Instead, we walked halfway around. It started raining a bit while we were on the other side of the pond. Not wanting to be caught in the rain on a winding gravel road, our little adventure was cut short. Totally worth it, though.