The Carnegie Inn & Spa in State College, formerly the Carnegie House, recently re-opened with redesigned guest rooms, an award-winning chef, and a brand new organic spa. And Nick and I were thrilled to be invited as guests to the opening celebration. It was perfect timing, too — just three days before our second anniversary [...]
We have lived outside of Altoona for eight months, but this past weekend was our first trip to the Horseshoe Curve. This famous stretch of railroad was completed in 1854 and declared an “engineering marvel.” We took the funicular to the top where we claimed seats on a park bench to wait for the trains. [...]
The previous 5 days have been busy ones. Take a look. Hours spent in the car: 15 Phone calls received during live TV pledge: 14 Tastes received in the kitchen of Le Jeune Chef: 5 Bowls of chocolate soup eaten: 1 Pumpkin spice lattes consumed: 3 Lattes spilled onto pants: 1 Homebrews bottled: 60 (thanks [...]
Last Saturday evening we headed 25 miles east to Raystown Lake. We pitched our tent beside my sister (Laura) + her boyfriend (Stephen) and his brother (Michael) + sister-in-law (Mandy). I let a majority of the photography to Mandy since she has both a Canon EOS 7D (which I’m still drooling over) and a waterproof [...]
Laura turned 18 last week, which called for a very sweet celebration! Mom and I surprised her with a trip to the Hershey Spa for cocoa baths, cocoa massages, and unlimited Hershey’s Kisses. Before slipping into our plush robes, Laura and I visited the fitness center. Because that meant we could eat more chocolate throughout [...]
We had an absolutely fabulous weekend along the Susquehanna Heartland Wine Trail. Who knew central Pennsylvania grew such good grapes? Seriously, we tasted some really robust wines and experienced firsthand the love that goes into each bottle. I plan to do full recaps on each of the seven wineries we visited. Until then, here is [...]
I don’t claim to be a wine connoisseur, and I do hope to learn something this weekend while exploring the Susquehanna Heartland Trail. Over the course of the next two days, we’ll be visiting the following central Pennsylvania wineries: Brookmere Winery Seven Mountain Wine Cellars Mount Nittany Vineyard & Winery Shade Mountain Vineyards Spyglass Ridge [...]
On Saturday, Nick and I ventured out for our first night in our new town. I can’t say there’s a thriving cultural scene here, but the establishments are quaint and historic and the people are friendly and hardworking. Plus, we have family close by. Nick’s father grew up in nearby Altoona, and his aunt and [...]
Last time we went into the wild, Nick spotted a bear and wanted to photograph it. It was just a cub, but where there’s an innocent cub, there’s a protective mama. So before we packed the car for last weekend’s camping trip, I made him promise not to pretend like he has a telephoto lens [...]
Nick planned a little getaway after the race! He’s not very good at keeping secrets, and he let it slip that we were going to a bed and breakfast, although I didn’t know where until we pulled up in front of Shining Dawn in Hanover. It looked like a castle! It was built in 1902 [...]