We are ... Penn State!

Last weekend Don and I went to our first ever U.S. college football game: Penn State vs Temple. The pre- and post game tailgating was over the top! RVs and cars with Penn State chairs, banners, tablecloths, cups, awnings, tents, and Nittany Lion statues everywhere. Merchandising is big! And EVERYONE is wearing Penn State t-shirts, jackets, hoodies, hats, socks, jewelry, cheek tattoos - a sea of white and navy.



After our tailgate gawking and watching the parade, consisting of their huge marching band, flag bearers, baton twirlers and dancers, we watched the game. The highlight of the game, for me, was the halftime show! It was incredible!

They have a woman who is the national baton twirling champ. Unbelievably talented!

This is a shot of the field at halftime from our seats. From the section with the "S" (for State) to the entrance in the center of the end zone is where the Penn State students sit. They have a huge section where they stand and cheer the entire game. The "S" is compiled of seniors who are given white & navy t-shirts every game so they can form this "S".

Our college football games @ UWO and WLU were NOTHING like this (but they were fun too)!

The best part of the day was seeing Bryan again. He lives, he survives, he's doing fine! Needless to say, we had a great visit to PSU!

Vacation - Cape May & Hannah

We've already been back for a week but still, I wanted to post a few pics from our little vacation to Cape May NJ, Annapolis MD, and Washington DC.

First Cape May -
Its beautiful! Cape May is located at the tip of NJ at the entrance to Delaware Bay. We arrived on a beautiful sunny day, just a day before the remnants of Hurricane Hannah were to hit the shore. The anticipation of the storm was exciting. Everyone was out on the boardwalk, watching the surf build and the sky darken. At about 3pm on Saturday the rain came, pelting down so hard it hurt. (Of course we got caught in it!) We ran back to our hotel soaked to the bone.

Here's our hotel from the beach on Friday afternoon - a very hot, sunny day:


On Saturday morning the surfers were out in the pre-storm waves:

Here is the view from our room when the rain was so intense we couldn't see beyond the road:

A break in the storm came in the early evening. As soon as the rain stopped, people were out walking and enjoying the break. Lighter rain returned off and on that evening. Hannah was in a hurry to get up the coast - didn't last long.

Back to beautiful, blue skies on Sunday morning. Don and I walked the boardwalk to the end, then out to the Cape May lighthouse.

That was our first visit to Cape May. I didn't post my photos of the Victorian homes for which Cape May is known. Next post, I'll add to this trip.

Bryan is doing fine

IMing with Bryan tonight from his dorm room. I grabbed a few screen shots, mostly to surprise him if he ever goes to this blog. He started classes about 2 weeks ago so his settling in. It was fun to chat tonight.