Running Stitches: back from PSU

Whew what a fun trip!

We spent our first day in D.C., wandering around the mall and stopping in whichever museums we felt like. The Jim Henson exhibit was in its closing days, so we went there first. They had lots of sketches of his early work, which was so neat! And of course, some puppets - Bert and Ernie, and Rowlf, and some others.

We didn't eat lunch until about 3:30 - we were starrrrrving. My friend Judy had recommended the cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian. Let me tell you, you should go there now! We each had a pulled buffalo sandwich and fry bread (basically fried bread-dough sprinkled with a little cinnamon, honey and powdered sugar). And Josh had some white sage peppermint tea that he said was really good. Even for the big portions, it's a little bit pricey, and cash only, which is kind of annoying (especially when each of our meals was $16!).

The weather was perfect - mid 60s and super sunny. And that night, we had a nice dinner at the Italian restaurant next to our hotel.

We headed to PSU the next day; it was a nice day for a drive. We stayed at a Sleep Inn north of campus on Atherton Street - I had booked it ages ago, so I got a good rate before PSU changed parents' weekend to the weekend of Laura's wedding - and, as of last week, rooms were going for $400+. They know they can get the parents to pay those kind of rates ... we were the only non-parents in our hotel, I think. I didn't like that our room was on the smoking floor, but at least our room wasn't too smelly.

We got to visit my old stomping grounds at the student newspaper - and best of all, the adviser was in! We chatted for about an hour about the state of the industry, what people are up to, etc., even though our stomachs were dying for food - it was 4:00 and we hadn't eaten lunch yet! So we wandered over to Mad Mex, stuffed ourselves with delicious happy-hour-priced wings and beverages, as well as a yum-o spinach and mushroom quesadilla (me) and enchiladas (Josh). Perhaps best of all, there was a beer promoter there, and she gave us these awesome, huge Hoegaarden glasses with a sample of beer in it. They are great glasses. Thanks, beer girl!

I showed Josh around - JoePa's house, the statue outside the stadium, the Creamery, my dorms, Family Clothesline to stock up on PSU gear, etc. And then we collapsed at our hotel room thanks to our tiredness from all the walking around the past couple days.

Saturday was Laura's wedding, but first, I was on a mission for a zip-up PSU hoodie (that wasn't $55), which I couldn't find the day before. We had lunch at the Corner Room, my favorite restaurant in State College. My mission was a success, we got ready for the wedding, and took a few pics at the Lion Shrine, the most famous (or most photographed) spot on campus.

Josh was a good sport with all my reminscing and tales of what happened here, or there, and let's take a photo here, etc. =)

The wedding was really lovely. I cried (of course) when I saw how beautiful Laura looked walking down the aisle. She told me later that when she saw me she wanted to stop walking and give me a hug and to say hello! When it was over we all tossed lavender into the air as they left church - man did it smell nice!

The reception was held at a family friends' home - well, it was the most beautiful house I had ever been to. It is the family who started the honors college at Penn State (which I attended) - in our four years there I had never known that Laura's family was friends with them! It was so beautiful - and big (I think the kitchen and dining room was bigger than my whole apartment).