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It’s Wednesday! It’s time to procrastinate and daydream about traveling and visiting spaces you’ve never seen before. I must admit, I wasn’t always in love with State College, Pennsylvania. Growing up, I thought of it as a drinkers’ paradise where sports fans would flock on the weekends to watch Penn State football. I was absolutely right about those things, but State College is so much more than that. It’s Happy Valley, an adorable little city nestled between mountains in the middle of beautiful central Pennsylvania. As an adult, I was reintroduced to State College when Katie and her husband bought a home there. They both worked at Penn State University and I had just returned from Thailand when they convinced me (it wasn’t too hard) to move away from Philadelphia and move in with them. I spent the next eight months working as a delivery driver, walking their dog. readjusting to life in America and learning my way around town.
After a couple weeks, I knew the streets better than Katie, but she introduced me to a lot of the goodness on this State College city guide list. State College is a completely different space depending on what time of year you are visiting. During the summer, it is usually calm because many of the students are gone. The city actually halves in population! It goes without saying that summer is my absolute favorite time to visit. In the Fall, during football season, downtown is crazy crowded with students and fans that flock from across the state and nation to watch Penn State football. If you’re a female delivery driver that means stacks of cash and lots of traffic. In the dead of winter, State College is cloudy, icy and cold. I try to avoid winter in State College at all costs, but really, I try to avoid winter everywhere at all costs.
