I came across this state park through my Instagram a few years ago and I was instantly enamored. I immediately wanted to go but it would take some hardcore planning on our part because we lived clear across the country. When mom and I were planning this trip we made sure this was one of our stops. We got onto state route 14 and drove north to Watkins Glen and the rest of the Finger Lakes Region.
It took us about a half hour to get there. We saw the state park sign, Watkins Glen State Park, and turned into the parking lot. We must have been the first ones here because the parking lot was empty. It didn't fill up until later on.
I was prepared to pay a state park fee but there were signs that told us we didn't have to and we wondered why and we soon found out. We grabbed the stuff we needed and made sure we were wearing our warm clothes (it was like 20 degrees outside) and headed on in. The gift shop was closed because it didn't open for another hour or so when we walked by. We got to the front of the trailhead I have been waiting to do for years. There was another sign that said due to unseasonably cold weather and ice this trail is closed for the season. The gate was also closed. I was so disappointed. It was like the four corners all over again. We went out of our way to see this and it was prematurely closed. I did check the website before we went and it said that the Gorge Trail didn't close for another week or so. We got a picture of the waterfall, did the earthcache, Watkins Glen State Park Earthcache (GC13AMQ) in which we had to calculate the height of the waterfall and the thickness of the deposited layers in the rock.
I asked mom if she wanted to walk the upper trail (Indian Trail) so we decided to do that for a bit. It took us above the gorge.
It just wasn't the same. I was upset the entire time we walked the trail above. We walked in about a half mile before turning around and heading back. We walked past a few people who were also on the trail. They were probably disappointed about the Gorge Trail like we were. We walked back down the stairs, enjoyed the waterfalls one more time and then went into the gift shop. I got a few postcards and a magnet. I tried finding a NY postcard but they didn't have any. I asked the girl behind the counter where I could find one and she said maybe the post office? Mom got a few things and we thanked the girl for the information.
We went back to the rental and looked up where the post office was in town. It was a few blocks away. I had mom stay in the rental while I ran in really quick. I stood in line because there was someone in front of me mailing a package. When it was my turn I asked her if she had any NY postcards and she said unfortunately they didn't have one. However, she said that the gift shop down the road might have some. She gave me the address and I thanked her. Mom and I drove down a few blocks and found the gift shop but it sadly was closed. Why was everything closed in this town? It's Saturday morning at 10:30, stuff should be open by now. We got gas from the nearby station before we left town.
We started our way back to Pittsburgh but I plugged in the address for Williamsport because we were going to have a few more hours on our way towards Pittsburgh since we didn't get to do our hike we wanted to do. I figure as we drive back why not see these things since we will be driving past them anyway, right? Right! Let's do this! We followed Nuvi's directions to the home of the Little League Word Series.
We started our hour and forty minute drive south on the 414 when we got to the junction at Corning (yes, they make CorningWare here) where we merged onto I-99 towards the state line where it turned into US 15. While we drove, we saw a lot of watch for ice signs. It must get super icy in this area. It did get pretty rural as we drove further south. Lots of forests, hills and open land.
I bet hunters love this area in the fall. We saw the Welcome to Pennsylvania sign as we crossed the line. So long New York! We hope to visit again soon. Hopefully next time it will be in NY City since we have a contact there.
As we approached town, we could not believe we were here. Mom and I spent many summers watching the Little League World Series and never thought in a million years we would actually come here. We knew the complex would be empty so what a perfect time to explore. We followed Nuvi's directions and drove over the Susquehanna River once more to cross over into South Williamsport, where the LLWS complex was. We followed US 15 up the hill and rounded the corner. There it was!
We followed the road down the hill towards the fields. We stopped at one of the landings on the way down and admired the fields. I pointed out to mom the field that the kids slid down centerfield on flattened cardboard boxes. It seemed smaller in real life than on TV. But most things do anyway. We got back in the rental and went to the fields down below. We followed the road and found a lot we could park in. We saw the gift shop at the field was closed so we wandered around. There were no gates keeping people out so we went inside the field. We took a few pictures and I even sat in one of the seats just to say I was there. It was pretty cool just being there.
We got back in the rental and went back up to the highway. I asked mom if she wanted to go inside the LLWS museum. She said sure.
We didn't have a whole lot of time so we just did the gift shop. Plus, it cost money to go through the museum. It would have been fun to go in but honestly we didn't have the time. We had to get to Pittsburgh at a decent time. We walked around for about 15 minutes. I bought a magnet and mom got a t-shirt for her traveling quilt. We thanked the people inside the museum since we were the only ones in there and they could tell we were from out of town. We got back into the rental and headed down the hill.
Mom noticed that there was a Dairy Queen up the road and she wanted to stop for a $5 lunch. We got chicken strips, fries, a drink and it came with a hot fudge sundae...which is what mom really wanted. I saw there was a geocache near this DQ. I parked the rental car next to it because I figured it was going to be in the corner of the parking lot underneath the lamp skirt. There, we found South Side DQ (GC144RG) which was a toy ice cream cone...very appropriate for this location. I was excited to see it was a fun container rather than a 35 mm canister or an Altoids can.
We got back onto US 15 and merged onto US 220 and drove towards State College, a place I've always wanted to visit. It would take us a little bit over an hour to get there. I have read books and watched documentaries about Penn State's football team and Joe Paterno. The place is dripping in football history but it's too bad about all that stuff that went down with Sandusky that broke in 2011 even though he has been doing it since he started coaching there decades ago. It tarnished college football in that town, community and university. You can't have a successful team without some sort of drama/scandal which is too bad. It ruins the experience for the kids.
We merged onto I-80 about halfway through the drive. As we reached State College, you could see the Beaver Stadium off of I-80. The giant stadium was really hard to miss. Holy cow!
I followed Nuvi's directions to the exit we needed to get to campus. I wanted to get the virtual cache, VCCGT: Lion's Roar (GC7B7GH) and go into the bookstore to get a sweatshirt. These are really the only reason's why I came here. I would have like to have spent a little bit more time here exploring the town but we just didn't have the time unfortunately. We found a place near the lion statue to park, paid 30 cents to be there. It was a short walk to the virtual. We had to wait our turn for pictures. I answered the questions and we were off to go to the Penn State bookstore.
Since we had no idea where we were going I put the address into the GPS. She took us there without any problems. I followed the directions and we had to park in the parking garage and had to pay for parking since it was the middle of the day during the school week. Luckily, I only had to pay a dollar. I tried putting cash into the machine but it was broken so I had to swipe my card for a dollar. Lame. It printed me out a ticket and I put it on the dash. Mom and I walked into the bookstore. I've been in quite a few campus bookstores and they all look the same.
We walked down the stairs and I set on my mission to find the right Penn State sweatshirt. After several minutes of looking I didn't find the one I wanted but found a close second. I wanted one with just the logo on it but none of them were like that. Penn State was at Minnesota and the game was playing on all the tv's. We went to pay for our sweatshirts and we talked to the clerk upstairs. We asked her about the game and she said she had her doubts about this game. She wants them to win obviously but it's been a rough season so far. Anything is possible. I told her that we were from the west coast and I went to WSU, she barely knew what I was talking about. Apparently, some people have no idea anything about the west coast who live over here. We told her to have a nice day and we went back to the rental.
I got my ticket out and stuck it in the machine, the lever lifted up and we headed into College Station just to see it as we made our way back to the interstate. We had another two and a half hours until we got to Pittsburgh. We continued down I-99 until we got to Altoona, there we merged onto route 22 which took us all the way to Pittsburgh.
We found the radio station the game was on so the rest of the way to Pittsburgh we listened to the game. It was a very close game but Penn State lost to Minnesota at the last minute. They could have won it.
We were going to make really good time once we reached the outskirts of Pittsburgh so we decided we had enough time to check into the hotel before we went to the game. We got through traffic at Monroeville and followed Nuvi's directions to our fourth hotel of our trip. It was the cheapest one we could find near the arena. We would have liked to stay closer so we could walk but it was way too expensive. I got onto a website and found a parking lot you could purchase tickets in advance. I took full advantage of that before we went on our trip. Now, we just had to find out how to get there. We got to the hotel around 4:45 and checked in. I found a parking spot near the door and noticed a guy living in his van next to the hotel. Neat. We wheeled our bags into the hotel and found the elevator to room 240. This hotel was huge but again, this one was also being renovated. The entire first floor was under construction. There were a lot of people here who were going to the Penguins game and some going to the Steelers game tomorrow.
We changed into our game gear, grabbed all of the stuff we would need and left the hotel at 5:30. I wanted to get there a little early so we could find our parking lot and wander around PPG Paints Arena for a bit before the game started. I followed Nuvi's directions exactly but failed to realize all the downtown construction and detours. We should have left earlier because we had to circle around the construction three times and it ate up our getting their early time. I was getting frustrated because I just wanted to get to the parking lot, park the rental car and walk to the arena without being rushed. On the forth time we finally figured it out and got to our lot. I handed the parking attendant our printed out receipt, he gave us a ticket stub to put on our dash. We found a spot, grabbed the stuff we needed and started our walk to the arena. I was so excited. We were finally here!
We crossed the street and followed the mob of people over to get into the game. We had to go through security. Once we got there, we found out mom couldn't bring her camera into the game. Her camera lens was too long. She was upset. She's never had any trouble in the past with other arenas, fields or courts. Why PPG Paints Arena? We even brought our see-through clear bags just in case but they didn't have a bag policy, which we thought was weird. We had to walk back to the rental car and leave her camera behind. We weren't going to get any good photos now. Bummer. Also this wasted more time for being able to wander around the arena before finding our seats. I was upset because now I was feeling rushed and I wanted my first time here to be a good experience.
We walked back and got into another line. There, they scanned my phone tickets and we were in. They handed out programs but sadly we went on a day where there were no free giveaways. We sorta walked around a bit, I took a few pictures and we found a station where you could spin a wheel and get something free. I spun and won a shirt! Mom spun and won a weirdly shaped stress ball. She tried to trade with me and I told her no.
We weren't hungry yet so we went to our seats. Our. Seats. Were. AWESOME! They were 12 rows up from the rink behind the home team's goal. So we were on the side that the Penguins were defending first. It was also the Veteran's Day Celebration so they honored vets throughout the game. I was so excited to be here it literally blew my mind! We watched them warm up while we took a few pictures.
The starting line up was announced and then the national anthem was played for both the US and Canada.
I found out Kris Letang and Patric Hornqvist were still out due to injuries and are some of our best players. We've been finding ways to win without them but as a huge threats to the other team they were missed dearly.
The puck was dropped at center ice. GO PENS! We won the faceoff in neutral zone but there was a lot of back and forth. We had 15 shots on goal and no penalties and one power play that resulted in nothing. At the end of the first period it was tied 0-0. I held up my sign in hope that I might get to be on TV or on the big screen above the rink. I would have to check out the highlight reels on the internet later on. I was really disappointed that the first period had no scoring. We came close but no shots made it past the goal line. I was also hoping that the first goal would be by Crosby. Fingers crossed as we went into the second. Of course I had to sit next to an annoying Black Hawk fan. He was always yelling at something. I really wanted the Penguins to score so it would shut him up. Why do I always get stuck sitting next to lame fans from the other team?
Mom and I just chilled in our seats during the intermission.
In the second period, the Black Hawks won faceoff, there was about five minutes of back and forth, some almost scoring and some icing which stopped game play. The 7th minute the tie was broken by by the other team when Dominik Kubalik scored the first goal. It was a three on one. Matt Murray was not able to stop it. The guy next to me went nuts and I was disappointed. I so badly wanted to go to a winning game. Crosby won the faceoff. Late into the 8th minute the Black Hawk's scored again, this time by Patrick Kane. NOOO! Now we were down 2-0 with almost half the period left. The guy next to me was bouncing up and down with delight. I wanted to punch him. There were a few penalties, a power play for us that resulted in no goals over the next few minutes. I was getting antsy...we NEEDED a goal to stay in this. Then finally during the 16th minute Jack Guentzel scores off of an assist from Evgeni Malkin and Jared McCann.
I stood up and cheered as loud as I could! We were finally on the board! Let's do this Pens! We had 15 shots on goal and down only by one going into the third period. I've seen them work miracles over the years and was hoping they would do one for us tonight.
During second intermission I got up to go get some food. I wandered around trying to find the best deal for some food. I found a concession stand and bought a hot dog, chips and a souvenir cup filled with root beer. I was going to share half of it with mom if she wanted some. My souvenir cup featured Jake Guentzel which was okay, I wanted one with Sidney Crosby on it but that one wasn't available. I walked through the corridor and saw a stand that were doing spray on tattoos. Of course I got one. I gave the girl a tip and went back to my seat.
I missed two minutes of the beginning of the third period. Mom said we won the faceoff and Crosby left the game with a lower body injury. I was upset but at least we got to watch him for most of the game. We had one powerplay that didn't result in a goal however at the end of the 10th minute Brian Rust tied it up 2-2 assisted by Malkin and John Marino. I was so excited! The game was now tied up! Come on Pens! Let's get another goal. We came close a few times but none passed the goal line. There was a lot more back and forth and it was very aggressive. We had 11 shots on goal and had to go into an overtime period. I hate overtime but at least hockey overtime is better than football overtime.
We had intermission between regulation and the start of overtime. Mom and I just chilled in our seats hoping that we score in overtime so we didn't have to stress anymore.
Overtime began and we won the faceoff. It went back a forth, 3 on 3, for the remainder of OT. There weren't any goals but we did have 5 shots on goal. We came very close on one offensive surge. Overtime resulted in a shoot out. This was insane. First I go to a Seahawks game that resulted in a win in OT and now I get to see the Penguins game go into OT and now a shootout? Holy cow! I hope we brought them good luck.
The Penguins went first and it was Guentzel against Corey Crawford, he scored easily making it 1-0. The Black Hawks got their turn and it was Jonathan Towes and Matt Murray, Murray stopped his shot, it stayed 1-0 and we had the advantage going into the second round of the shootout.
Our next attempt was by Malkin, who let Crawford get the best of him, score still stood at 1-0. The fourth shot attempt was Kane who scored on Murray, the score tied 1-1. I was getting anxious. McCann took the fifth shot against Crawford and we added one more to our score, we led 2-1.
If Murray can stop the Black Hawk's next shooter we win. Alex Debrincat had a lot of pressure on him to make this shot to keep the Black Hawk's alive. He shoots and Murray makes the save!! We win 2-1 in the shootout!
PENS WIN!!
I was so excited! The Penguins pulled off another close game. They must have known we traveled pretty far to come watch the game so they won for us. This trip was so awesome! Mom and I took a couple pictures of us with the rink behind us.
I stood down by the boards so I could get a picture of me with my sign. I didn't know, Iceburg, the mascot was behind me while mom was taking my picture. Some ladies near us started talking to us because they saw my sign. They asked us, "you really came all that way to watch a game in Pittsburgh?" I told her, "yes we did!" They replied with, "good for you guys and I am glad they won for you." I told her thank you!
We walked up the stairs and into the concourse with the sea of people. It was nice walking out of there with a win. I stopped by one of the small souvenir shops and bought a Penguins hockey puck to commemorate the experience. We walked down the stairs and out of the building. There were so many people around. We got to the front of the building and walked across the street with the mob of people. It didn't take us very long to get to the rental car. It did take us a while to get out of that parking lot. I set the Nuvi to our hotel. Once we did get out I just got onto Hwy 380 and just drove. I knew the GPS would take us in the right direction eventually.
We got back to the hotel, got a shower in and watched a little bit of TV while I did some internetting. We complied a list of the activities and sights we didn't get to do the first day we were here and planned on doing them tomorrow.
Mom and I have now been to two Penguins games, one in Vancouver, BC and one in Pittsburgh, PA. We are looking forward to when Seattle announces our new NHL team next summer. Then, we can go to a Penguins game in Seattle, WA!
Mom and I found three caches, one earthcache, one traditional and one virtual cache and three new counties in two states.
Next Adventure: More Sightseeing in Pittsburgh, Andy Warhol Museum and Geocaching
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