A few months ago we traveled to Pennsylvania to visit my grandmother, a natural-born teacher. Although she was quite sick at the time, she sent us on several field trips while we were there – and one of them was to her alma mater, Penn State University.
Penn State is a huge, land grant university, with the main campus located in State College, very close to where I grew up. In fact, while Pennsylvania has only 500 institutions of higher learning, supposedly you’re never more than 30 minutes from a PSU campus. Penn State is big – it’s football, it’s Blue and White, it’s food science and ag and 4-H and intense study.
The kids had never been there before, and since Penn State plays such a large role in the life of a central Pennsylvanian, it was exciting to take them there.
Our first stop was at Beaver Stadium, home of the Nittany Lions football team. Of course, being early summer, no games were happening – but if there had been, the traffic would have prevented us getting in the proximity. As it was, we parked nearby and walked around the stadium, admiring it’s sheer size. We have yet to see a college football stadium that compares here in the south!
Our wandering took us to the Pattee and Paterno Library next. In both middle and high school, I researched my history day projects in these libraries. I spent hours looking for obscure information about Elizabeth Blackwell and the Massachusetts 54th in the stacks. My Little Man was excited to see such a huge library and wanted to search for old books, but … we got there 20 minutes after it closed. Summer hours – bummer. We’ll definitely be headed inside when we’re in the area again.
Nana wanted us to see Old Main most of all. The original building of Penn State University, it’s big, old, and very impressive.
Penn State University is spread out all over State College, but one edge of campus faces College Avenue. The other side of the street sports lots of shops and eateries. We hit up the Student Book Store for magnets and t-shirts, and now we happily match in our blue and white.
The Allen Street Grill is a landmark in downtown State College. I’ve always wanted to eat there and never have – maybe someday we’ll make that happen.
We found beautiful fountains and old clocks all over campus and had fun taking pictures with them.
Our last stop was our favorite: Berkey Creamery. It’s moved and expanded since I was last there, and the new set-up is wonderful. Penn State’s ice cream program is world famous, and people like Ben & Jerry have gone there to learn the science and art of making ice cream. They have the usual flavors like chocolate and vanilla, but there are variations on those, as well as specialty flavors like Peachey Paterno.
Servings come in only one size – enormous. You can get any flavor in a cone or a cup, and they wisely ask you to pay at the beginning of the process – because you can’t manage your wallet while juggling all that ice cream. It was absolutely delicious, and we all wanted to go back for seconds (but we refrained).
We visited Penn State on a cloudy, drizzly Saturday evening, and we made the most of every minute. There are lots of other attractions in State College, though – there are shows at Roosevelt Auditorium, many sporting events, shopping, tours, wonderful restaurants, and PSU attractions like the deer farm, dairy farm, and many more.
If you’re ever near State College, head over to the Penn State campus. You’ll find a beautiful area with lots to see and do.
Want to know more about what makes Penn State great? Check out these resources:
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