Ron and I went away this weekend to Penn State by ourselves and left all three kids with my parents. We dropped them off Sat morning and drove out the 3 hrs to get there. We even managed to score a room at the Nittany Lion Inn, right on campus. We parked when we got there and didn't drive again till we left Sunday afternoon to go home. We walked all over the entire campus, visited our favorite bars from when we were students there, shopped for lots of PSU gear for gifts, and just had a great time. No wonder I was so skinny in college -- the campus was huge when we went there, but it's gotten even bigger in the last 10 years since we've been back! It was cool to see the same old stuff we remembered, but weird to turn a corner or go up a path and be confronted with a huge new building that had just sprung up out of nowhere! The downtown area is just a quaint as ever and we went by our old dorm buildings, apartments, and Ron's fraternity house (there are no sorority houses at Penn State -- my sorority was in a dorm suite). We had lunch at Cafe 210, which was famous for cheap pitchers of Long Island Iced Teas. They still had them on the menu and Ron convinced me to split a pitcher with him. Whew! They don't taste like alcohol at all, but do pack a punch!
Sat night we pulled off an unbelievable feat. The most popular bar in town is the Gingerbread Man (aka "The G Man") and there is ALWAYS a wait outside. It was a HUGE game for us: Penn State (ranked 3rd) vs Ohio State (ranked 13th). Whoever won would pretty much take the Big Ten title. The game started at 8pm,. so we took our chances and tried to get in around 6:45 for dinner so we could just have a table for during the game. We go there and, of course, there's a line. We tell the hostess that we'll stand at the bar, but to put our name down for a table anyway on the off chance we could get one. Then she says, "Wait, just two of you? I can't believe it. We don't have anyone waiting for a table for just 2 and a table for 2 is leaving right now." The owner came by and laughed and told us, "You two should go out and buy a lottery ticket. I can't believe your luck!"
So we got in, had dinner and were in THE BEST place for the game! The entire bar is packed with PSU college students and every single TV has the game on. Even the bartenders, wait staff, managers and owners were all in Penn State gear and shouting along with the students. Everytime something happened, the place would erupt in cheers and fight songs. We were high-fiving tables near us and just had an absolute BLAST. Many, many, too many beers later, Penn State won and it was CRAZY!! We left the bar and students were flooding out of buildings into the street shouting cheers of "WE ARE..." from one side and answering
with "...PENN STATE!!" from across the street. Then, without a band or music anywhere, the crowd just started erupting in chants and singing the Penn State fight songs. The streets were filled, students were crowd surfing and everyone was just jumping, laughing, cheering and having a ball. And we were right there in the midst of it! We decided to walk back to the hotel when we saw the riot police come out (nothing bad, just some kids climbing light posts to try to take pictures and kids throwing stuff into the crowd from the apt balconies). We walked back and got to our room around 1am. I can't remember the last time we were out so late and we had just THE BEST time EVER!!!!!
with "...PENN STATE!!" from across the street. Then, without a band or music anywhere, the crowd just started erupting in chants and singing the Penn State fight songs. The streets were filled, students were crowd surfing and everyone was just jumping, laughing, cheering and having a ball. And we were right there in the midst of it! We decided to walk back to the hotel when we saw the riot police come out (nothing bad, just some kids climbing light posts to try to take pictures and kids throwing stuff into the crowd from the apt balconies). We walked back and got to our room around 1am. I can't remember the last time we were out so late and we had just THE BEST time EVER!!!!! 
And to make it that much better, all three kids were great for my parents. I'm so glad we went through what we did last week breaking Allie of her paci habit cause my parents said she was an absolute angel for them. She's giving me a hard time this week in payback, but that's to be expected. I'm just so psyched that we had so much fun! It was sorely needed and it was the best way to spend our anniversary. I'm so glad we went!
