State College Visit

I did talk about this on Facebook, but I have not yet commented in this space about our visit last week to State College wherein we visited George and Ann at their lovely home in Centre Hall and got to see their visiting grandchildren - and our great-nieces - Mara and Sophie Lowry, ages 13 and 9.

One of the highlights of the visit was me teaching Mara and Sophie to play blackjack. No doubt their parents will really appreciate this.

We also went to see the State College Spikes, the short season affiliate of the Pirates play the Mahoning Valley Scrappers. That is Pirates big-money draftee from last year Stetson Allie, #48, seventh from left, lined up for the national anthem. We didn't get to see Allie pitch that night. I also can tell you that in the Spikes 17-4 loss to the Scrappers, we didn't get to see anyone who looks to be of immediate help to the Bucs, either.

Finally, the heat that has been dogging us all in recent days was also smothering Centre County as well, so the mandatory visit to the Penn State Creamery (now called the Berkey Creamery after some fat-cat donor) was especially welcome this time around. Man, is the ice cream there good! They will pack it for you in dry ice so that it can survive a long road trip out of Penn State. Our only mistake was buying only one half-gallon of ice cream to bring home with us.

I recalled the story of the year that the Blue Cross Men's Golf League Outing was held at Toftrees Resort in State College. While most guys took an afternoon to hit the bars along College Avenue, I took a trip to The Creamery for ice cream! A wise choice indeed.