What To Do As A Family In State College With Your Family Once

What To Do As A Family In State College With
Your Family Once Football Season Is Over
December 29, 2015
State College, Pennsylvania. Growing up in Pennsylvania with a father and grandfather who
graduated from Penn State, going to State College was always a joy. When I was very
young my grandparents would drive in from the West Chester, PA area and my dad,
grandparents and I would attend football games, complete with several days of tailgating,
staying in a hotel and mingling with their friends. My family rarely travelled so this was a
huge highlight for me. A lot of my memories of those trips, and later men's and women's
basketball games with just my dad, are flooded with the sites, smells and tastes of those
trips. The 'Teenie-Weenie' hot fudge sundaes from Baby's Burger and Fries, greasy pizza at
a pizzeria downtown and the smorgasboard of food during our tailgates, including KFC fried
chicken, all things that were generally forbidden back at home. For me, Penn State
University always seemed like a natural choice when it came time to select colleges and
I only applied there as an early applicant. I still remember the joy of getting the 'thick packet'
which signals acceptance in the mail. Family obligation steered my decision to attend Penn
State Harrisburg instead of attending Main Campus, but I lived on the campus in
Middletown.
Blue and white pride obviously runs deep and in the last 11 years I've visited Penn State
Main Campus, but usually to attend a sporting event (hockey, basketball, football). When
the opportunity to visit State College as a mother of two children for a longer stay, I was
very excited to visit the place that so many of my childhood memories were formed, but also
a bit anxious. Would my kids enjoy and appreciate this place in the mountains of Central
Pennsylvania?
We drove to State College on a clear and unseasonably warm Friday night. We checked
into the Residence Inn in State College, which I highly recommend when travelling, their
free hot breakfast and room setups are perfect for families, and then headed over to the
newly built Pegula Ice Arena. The arena is gorgeous and it's hard to have a bad seat in the
house.
Food at the arena was well-priced as compared to other stadium-style events. They also
have a Subway restaurant in the arena which is operational with a limited menu during
games. The steep rows of bench seats behind the opposing goal is where the students
section is located and their chants are typical for a college-crowd, but I still felt the need to
lean over a few times and remind the boys that we don't say or chant unsportsmenlike
things like "you suck!" You see, or rather hear, such things at a lot of sporting events
though, so I'm not singling out this event, instead just trying to forewarn other parents. Other
than that, college hockey is a more family-friendly alternative to professional hockey as
you'll see significantly less, if any, fighting between players, which I enjoyed.
The next day we drove to nearby Bellefonte, PA to visit Penn's Cave, which our family saw
as one of the highlights of the trip. It's an all-water cave so you ride in a boat with a guide
for the tour. I'll be posting soon about that as I took so many pictures and notes it definitely
deserves to stand on its own.
Downtown State College was a place I was excited to take my kids as, like I mentioned, a
lot of my experiences relate back to either sporting events or visiting the quaint shopping
district so we headed there with excitement.
Mural on the side of the Student Book Store - photo property of Mendingthepiggybank.com
If you're looking for Penn State apparel, you'll have plenty of choices in several price ranges
in State College, my frugal-loving heart appreciating The Family Clothesline the most. The
location at 3528 E College Ave is very modern and has a wide variety of prices, but you can
still find great deals. The Clothesline Factory Outlet location is also on the same road at 138
E. College Ave, just further down the road. The outlet has a lot of screen-print shirts for halfprice or more from what you may find in other stores. With the kids quickly growing out of
tshirts, this is a great place if you're not wanting to make a more expensive purchase,
though the quality may be just a bit less than what you'd find at a higher price-point.
When you have kids in tow, The Growing Tree, a boutique-style children's toy store, is a must-see in
Downtown State College. It was one of my favorite destinations as well so for a toy store to be still
thriving 25 plus years later (the store has been open for 33 years!), despite the recession deeply
hurting so many specialty stores, that's saying something!
Shawn Annarelli of the Centre Daily wrote a great piece earlier this month about the store and its
owner, Kay Emeigh.
Prices can be higher than you'd find elsewhere, particularly on some of the brand name items like
LEGO, HABA and Melissa & Doug, so my personal suggestion would be to gravitate towards the
items that you're less likely to find in big-box retailers, and Growing Tree Toys sure does deliver
when it comes to a variety of unique, often educational toys. The above photo is in just one of three
large rooms filled to the brim with toys.
Another destination for kiddos is Discovery Space of Central Pennsylania on 112 W Foster Ave #1,
not too far of a walk from Discovery Space. With a rather plain brick exterior, you'd almost never
guess all that's inside the one-floor science haven.
As they say on the Discovery Space website, "Discovery Space of Central Pennsylvania is
an exciting growing science museum of interactive exhibits and hands-on programs
designed to provide valuable informal science education, especially in the areas of Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), in a fun learning environment." It surely was
STEM heaven!
The black lit room was neat. In it housed the Light Bright-esque peg board that was a
favorite of my oldest son, Carter.
Discovery Space of Central PA is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm
and Sunday from noon to 5 pm. They are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Regular
admission is $6 per person. Children under 2 years old are free. All children 17 and under
must be accompanied by an adult.
Finally, no trip to Penn State would be complete without a stop at the Nittany Lion Statue so
we headed over to Rec Hall.
Recreation Hall is one of the oldest and most recognized buildings on campus and is home
to Penn State Men’s & Women’s Gymnastics, National Champion Men’s & National
Champion Women’s Volleyball, Men's and Women's Soccer and Three-time National
Champion Men’s Wrestling. It is also where basketball was played when I first started
coming to games as a young girl, but has since moved to the Bryce Jordan Center by
Beaver Stadium. It was neat showing the kids the older building.
We especially liked the old photographs in the halls.
As we were packing up to leave, I finally realized, I had nothing to fear when it came to
visiting Penn State with my family. My boys loved the experience just as much as I did as a
child and still do as an adult. It's a beautiful thing to share such a treasured place with your
own kids and see new and old places and make new memories.