State College

The true purpose of our trip to Pennsylvania was the AMQUA conference that was being held this year in State College. I was worried that State College would provide little in the way of entertainment for Kel and that we'd be stuck swimming in the hotel pool for two days. After my first morning of sessions I wanted to get Kel outside, even if only to play a bit of frisbee and wander around in the fresh air (I am not a fan of large indoor hotels -- though it was certainly a cut above our usual booking and very fancy). I asked the GPS unit to find us a park, any old park, and it brought us to the park of all parks -- a wonderful playground, a huge sand box full of toys, and a river for wading and swimming. We spent all afternoon and only returned to the hotel in time for dinner.

There was even a pretty scenic covered bridge over the river (look behind Kel).











On our second day at the conference, neither Nic nor I were required to be present until the evening hours, so we headed off to Penn's Cave for a fun day at the wildlife park and touring the caves by boat. Kel also panned for "gems" which was probably the highlight of his entire day. The sun was out in force and thus there was much squinting. Apologies.







At the evening's conference event, Kel spotted Onoclea (named after a fern -- yes, ok, we are scientists after all) and was thrilled to have some non adult company for the evening. She was only 11 months old, but he had a grand time playing ball, dancing with her, and simply enjoying her company. Look at his red face -- sun from the wildlife park and heat from the humid sticky evening.