Penn State -- May 15, 2014

Nathan found out a while ago that Penn State has a nuclear reactor on campus, and he has been very anxious to tour it.  No worries though.  This reactor is not a very dangerous one, but that didn't stop Nathan's excitement of wanting to see it so he booked a tour.  We dropped Hannah off at her little co-op preschool for a couple of hours and then the four adults toured the reactor (there was no way we were taking Hannah to that!).  Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures on the inside as there were no cameras allowed (not even phones).  The facility did give us some complimentary post cards though, so this is the best I could do for pictures.

I admit, it was really cool to see, but I think the boys enjoyed it more than the women.  Nathan and my Dad understood the science lingo much more than my Mom and I did.  The good news I should report is that our dosimeter read that we had received no radiation while touring the facility.  So we don't glow in the dark.

After touring the reactor, we picked Hannah up from pre-school and came home for lunch and took some well needed naps.  After nap time, we ended up going back to Penn State to show my parents more of the campus.

Nathan showed them where his office is located, but we couldn't go in because the building is under some construction and they locked him out for the week (good thing he had the week off).  We then parked the car at Beaver Stadium (where the football team plays) and took a bus into campus.  For some reason, I didn't take pictures.

We saw Old Main, and the former bell that was in Old Main.

We saw the obelisk, which is made of stones from all the different counties throughout Pennsylvania.

We also went by the Alumni house and saw some of the ducks and their little ducklings in the pond, along with a few turtles.

It started to rain however so we had to run and seek shelter in the Willard building that Nathan occasionally works in from time to time.  It is a labyrinth in that building and I'm glad we had Nathan to help navigate us out.  The rain stopped after a while so we walked around more outside, and went into the library for a little bit.  Unfortunately, Nathan had to leave for some church meetings so my parents, Hannah and I headed over to "The Nittany Lion Shrine." Everybody takes their pictures with the Nittany Lion (especially recent graduates, which there were a few there) so I took some for my parents.

We then took another bus back to the stadium so that we could get in the car and head home. We ate dinner, did some laundry, I put Hannah to bed, visited some more, and then we gradually all went to bed.