Labor Day with Amanda in State College

On Sunday morning, Foo and I set out early to go visit Amanda at Penn State. We hadn't seen her in 3 weeks and we MISSED HER!

It is about a 3-hour drive. Halfway there, there is a lady liberty statuette in the river. No idea what this is all about, but it's kind of cool.

Yay! We picked up Manda shortly before noon and went into downtown State College for lunch at The Corner:

After lunch we walked around shopping, and assaulted a small family of pigs:

Around 3 we attended a Dorm Football tournament. Manda is a Resident Assistant, and part of her job is to get people involved, so she got a group of girls from her floor to attend. None of the girls played, but it was a beautiful day to get a tan and boy-watch. Er - if you are a college girl, that is. I sat under a tree and thought about how I could be all their moms.

Can you see Amanda?? She's not on duty, she is spending QT with the Fam. Yay!

Manda said this is the first year Packer Hall has had girls in it. It was built in the 60's, and she wondered what the people were like who lived here before her. I told her, they're a bunch of old men now. Foo is right at home:

Manda is lucky, she gets a whole room to herself, one of the perks of being an R.A.

These 2 never miss an opportunity to mug for the camera:


After a quick and extremely cheap dinner in the Commons (no kidding, it was less than $4 for all 3 of us to eat dinner - !!!) we then stood in line at the Creamery, where it cost $9 for dessert:

The long wait was worth it!

After ice cream, the girls dragged me off to see the new Star Trek movie in the HUB. They have each seen it half a dozen times, and they LOVE it. Ok, I will admit it was good. I'm not really into the action/sci-fi genre, but it wasn't too violent.

Early on Labor Day, we went to Band Practice with Amanda. Here they are getting warmed up with some Aerobics. Wow, they are serious about their flag twirling at Penn State.

Penn State is part of the Big Ten conference. I'm not sure why it's not called the Big Eleven, since there are 11 schools in it, but I never did fully understand football.

Manda is getting her twirl on:

She's the best one, can you tell?

For the end of practice, we went out to the field with the entire band (310 members), and Manda had Foo walk around with her to see how they made their formations. They just get a little sheet with codes on it and they have to figure out from that what to do.

See what I mean? Hams:

They practice right near Penn State's football stadium:

For the show finale this week, Manda will be right in the front:

I think Danielle is ready to join the Blue Band:

Foo relaxing on Manda's car, waiting for her to put her flag away:

We were starving and went to TGIF for lunch, then just hung out in Manda's room watching last years Blue Band video before heading home.

Foo slept most of the way home, so I took this one without looking while I was driving. I'm surprised I didn't miss, there's only a few seconds before the trees block it out.

So, that is all, now we won't see her for about a month or so, she is going to try to make one of Danielle's games in early Oct. Here is a sideways video of Amanda practicing!