Last week I was telling you a little bit about what Josh and I did last October when he came visited me. If I recall correctly, I had just gotten into Groupon (with the exception of the iPad, I tend … Continue reading
My birthday is this weekend! Josh is going to drive out tonight and stay until after the Steelers game on Sunday so that we can celebrate together. That got me thinking about how I celebrated my birthday last year. First, … Continue reading
My last trip to State College in August 2011 for Josh’s dissertation defense was pretty boring. I was there over a week and the most interesting stuff we did was the actual defense and the birthday weekend trip to Hershey. The rest of the time I was there Josh worked while I hung around State College. This was obviously before I started the blog so I didn’t take a bunch of pictures of State College. Quite frankly, after living there for about 7 years I really didn’t need to take any more pictures of that place and if I am ever inclined to do so could probably find a bunch of old pictures to share. However, we did have some professional pictures taken of us.
In August 2011 Josh defended his doctoral dissertation. I came out to see the defense and to spend some time with him. I planned my trip so that I would get to State College a few days before his defense and then stayed for about a week. I thought that having the bulk of my visit be after the defense would be less stressful, but it turned out that I was wrong! Josh had to move out of his apartment and into his friends condo the weekend before his defense and he really could have used my help.
Josh with his pig-shaped cake
Last winter Josh and I fell in love with the Two Rivers and Big Dam bridges. We went on long walks in Two Rivers Park and between the two bridges on Saturdays and Sundays. Each walk is around 5 miles and takes about 2 hours. We found the walks to be very peaceful and good exercise.
My friends and I have a tradition that we all get together for a weekend between August and October to celebrate our birthdays at the same time. We call this tradition Birthday Weekend. Since I moved down to Arkansas I have missed a couple of Birthday Weekends and will miss it again this year. But last year I was able to work it out so that we could all meet in Hershey, PA for a fun day at Hershey Park.
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I’m finally posting the last few pictures from my last trip to St. Louis. On Monday morning, we woke up and I packed up all of my stuff. We then went to Josh’s favorite breakfast place, First Watch, for an … Continue reading
After visiting Grant’s Farm Josh begged me to let him visit the Ulysses S Grant National Historic Site.
When I left off, Josh and I had just finished being attacked by a herd of greedy goats who tried to eat our pants (especially the drawstrings at my waist.) Then we looked at some of the birds that were hanging out in the zoo part of the park. Please check out the first part of our trip to Grant’s Farm to read about the deer park and goats. Oh, and technically the post on the Clydesdales was part of this trip to Grant’s Farm as well…
After meeting the goats, we checked out some of the other animals in the zoo. There were a lot of animals there with a surprising variety. One thing I should note is that the selections of animals are more like what you migh se at a petting zoo rather than a zoo. There were no dangerous predators like big cats. The park was still very enjoyable and it seemed petting the animals was allowed, though there were notices that the animals might bite.
We saw two really big tortoises. I got a picture of a tortoise up close, but I think this picture better demonstrates the size of the animal.
While I was in St. Louis Josh and I visited Grant’s Farm.
That is Grant as in President Ulysses Grant. Grant’s farm was actually the farm owned by President Grant’s in-laws. He later took over the farm with the intention of retiring there after his presidency. It was originally a peach orchard but he turned it into a horse ranch as part of his preparation to retire there. Unfortunately, he never actually retired on the farm. His children had moved to New York and his wife wanted to be closer to the grandchildren. After a bad investment left him in debt to the Vanderbilts, he eventually gave them the farm along with all of his other properties in an effort to pay off the debt. Continue reading
No Meat No Meal 