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State College Snaps

Becky and I were in State College for awhile a few weeks back. Here’s a few pictures I took while we were there that I thought were worth sharing. The architecture around the school is not bad and in an alternative life I could see living there during the summer and fall. (However, I have seen the winter and: no. thank you, though.)

The new department of Food Science building is going up, and before you guffaw you should know I have food science relatives. My great uncle-in-law invented the Symphony© bar for Hershey’s (and still lives there…the whole town smells like chocolate).

    

The new Stuckeman Family Building and grounds for the Department of Landscape Architecture is almost through with construction and it looks great. I think the outside is copper, or is at least simulated copper.

      

The Alumni Center and Gardens reflect the culture of Penn State’s history. The only question I have is why the gardner can make the pretty stripes on the front lawn but he makes the corners all screwy.

            

We came across the backside of the art department — nice set of kilns, eh? — and this interesting piece that we couldn’t decide if it was purposeful sculpture or art student sculpture refuse.

      

While in SC I discovered Birch Beer which is only something like root beer or sasparilla, but a little different — worth a taste.

  

The dogwoods were in bloom. They were quite different than the ones in Louisiana (not better or worse — just different).

  

I don’t have much to say about the museum of art…except those paws are kind of odd.

  

This mural sits across the street from a pretty good pub next to campus. It gets occasional additons like the angel set (don’t ask me who they are) and features famous PSU folks. (We think the last pic depicts that athlete who died pole vaulting for PSU.)

        

And a few miscellaneous pics: a cool statue/installation on campus; no visit is cemplete without a picture taken on the Nittany Lion; this is a well-known statue of a pig and her brood down an alleyy just off-campus. (frat boys are known to steal a piglet every now and then)

    

These were taken with the Panasonic SV-AV30 which I have finally decided was a bad purchase. It is more rugged than my SD300 but the pictures are too crappy and the lack of zoom only makes it worse. So, my next set of pics (from 7/4 in NOLA) will be better quality.