[On location in Spokane, Washington]
I have some free time on my hands while my cousin Jonathan is at work and while other people are here checking in on my aunt Marilyn, so I thought I may as well catch up some on my blogging backlog…
Last weekend my younger brother Jake flew out to State College from Wisconsin to come visit me. It was pretty cool that he did that, especially since it was his first time ever flying or venturing out that far from home. I tried my best to entertain him and show him a good time, and in the process we both got pretty tired. I think he enjoyed his visit too.
His flight arrived early afternoon on Thursday the 12th, but not before he had to put up with some of the “interesting” things that sometimes happen on flights. For instance, on the MSP-DTW leg, he was stuck ahead of a kicking and screaming 2-year old kid whose parents thought everything he did was just the cutest thing ever. I’m actually impressed that Jake waited until after everyone deplaned in Detroit to have a short chat with the dad. Anyway, when he got off the plane all the monitors indicated that his DTW-SCE flight was cancelled. In the process of finding out that it was not cancelled, but instead merely delayed a couple hours, he had the pleasure of dealing with at least one thoroughly unhelpful gate agent, who told him to go back to the original gate for the DTW-SCE flight and ask the agent there what was going on, even though there was no agent at that gate. He was definitely ready for a drink after all that finally got straightened out, haha.
Right after picking him up from the airport I took him to Wegmans for lunch, and then we went back to my apartment for a bit so that he could take a nap and whatnot, not having slept much the night or two previously. For supper that night I took him to Pickle’s downtown, after swinging by Lions Pride so that he could buy a PSU hoodie. Then we went to Hollemans to watch “The Office” and some football, and so that he could meet several of my friends from PSCG (he’d met Ash before, when Ash came out to Minnesota with me for Aaron’s funeral last year).
On Friday the 13th we got up early and hit the road at 8am for Washington DC. With Jake never having been out east before, he wanted to take a day trip somewhere to see someplace other than the university (and I don’t blame him!). We parked at the end of the Metro red line (Shady Glen) and rode the train in to Union Station near the U.S. Capitol Building. It was a cool, grey day in DC, with the remnants of Hurricane Ida just offshore, but fortunately it only was rainy and windy for the first hour or so that we were in DC. We were both fearing a washout, so we were glad it was actually dry most of the day. We did a TON of walking, going from Union Station around the Capitol Building, then to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in search of a food court (which was closed that day to our chagrin), then the rest of the way down the National Mall, by the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. Then we walked up to the White House (after having to double back a few blocks because of missing a turn), and walked all the way back to Union Station along E Street. It was interesting to see how many people were using their flash to take photos of the White House at night, especially given we were a good half mile away from it. I kinda doubt their little flashes could reach that far, haha. And several times during the day Jake was whinging (a little Aussie lingo there) about how much walking we were doing and that I wasn’t walking slowly enough. I basically told him he needed to suck it up. ๐ Right before heading back to PA, we also met up with an old friend of his from Wisconsin who’d moved to the DC area, who Jake hadn’t seen in 9 years. That was actually a big reason why he wanted me to drive him to DC, I suspect. ๐
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(All these pictures were taken with a camera of Nathan’s that Jake brought out for me to borrow for the weekend and for my trip to Washington that I’m currently on, since my camera was being fixed by Geek Squad. Thanks Nathan!)
After getting back to State College at almost 1am Friday night, on Saturday morning we left at 9am to go tailgating. Unfortunately we didn’t have some necessary supplies, so we wound up spending almost an hour driving around making various stops before we finally went up to campus for the tailgate. As a result we were only able to be there for about an hour or so before it was time to head up to the game. Oh well. On the plus side, the tailgate was set up by some parents of the younger meteo grads, so there was actually good, homemade food there. Yum! And Jake and I did manage to fit in one game of pong (good side: we won, hooray!; down side: we played with skunked Iron City, blech!). As for the game, Penn State was sluggish out of the gates, falling behind Indiana 10-0 on the strength of three first quarter turnovers. Ugh. Eventually PSU woke up and took a 24-10 lead in the 3rd quarter, en route to a 31-20 win. Jake said he enjoyed the game, but that he had more fun watching the crowd. The Blue Band had a really creative halftime show, with the Batman theme (forming the Batman logo) and the Rocky theme (forming a pair of boxers that even came together and slowly boxed a little bit!). And about Beaver Stadium, he said, “This place is huge.” Very observant, he is. ๐
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After the game we were exhausted from the last couple days, so we hung out at Walter’s for a bit, watching some more football and playing some games.
On Sunday morning I dragged Jake to church. ๐ To be fair, I didn’t have to drag him, he came willingly, haha. I asked for the week off from the worship team because of his visit, so I wasn’t playing this week. After church we had the obligatory photo-op at the Lion Shrine and visit to the Berkey Creamery, sandwiched around stuffing ourselves with pizza at Home Delivery. After the pizza and ice cream, I seriously didn’t eat anything else the rest of the day! Later in the evening I took him out to Otto’s for a drink of their home-brewed beer, but by that point they were down to just three types of beer on tap and the kitchen had just closed. Oh well, the Ottonator is still good. We even ran into someone at Otto’s who was familiar with the Spooner/Hayward area in NW Wisconsin. Small world!
I dropped Jake off at the State College airport late on Monday morning. It seemed like he had a good time in PA, and was more interested in traveling to other places, now that he had a first plane ride under his belt, and could see that the whole process wasn’t that bad. I was glad he came out and that I could show him around a bit, and that he could get a taste of the world outside Wisconsin!
So now my parents have been out here once (Oct 2005), my brother Nathan & Laura have been out here once (Oct 2008), and my brother Jake’s been out here once (Nov 2009). Who’ll break the tie? ๐ I do wish Aaron could’ve come out here at some point though. It would’ve been great to show him some of the great scenery here in Pennsylvania, and show him that while it might not be Colorado, it’s still really pretty out here. ๐ And I wonder how he would’ve thought the atmosphere for a college football game at Penn State compared to the game(s) he went to at Nebraska back in the 90s…
Anyway, now it’s time for me to get ready to drive from Spokane to Yakima in a little bit. Jonathan will be swinging by on his lunch break to take me to the rental car place. I’m excited for Tim & Hilary’s wedding tomorrow, and looking forward to seeing them again this afternoon! Much more about my current trip to Washington will be coming up in a future post when I get a chance.