Florida

This past weekend I went to Florida for the first time in years. My sister started grad school in the fall at the University of Florida in Gainesville and I told myself that when it gets cold I would go down to visit, and sure enough it was getting cold in late October so I went down there for an extended weekend. I had a great time down there. The weather was in the 80’s during the day and upper 60’s at night so almost perfect summer weather by Philly standards. Not too hot and humid, but nice enough to wear shorts, sandals and go swimming. We went kayaking at lake Wahburg and saw some Alligators in the lake. It was the first time I’ve ever seen an alligator in the wild. (I may have seen one at a zoo before but I’m not sure) Also go to see a lot of the campus and checked out a lot of the nightlife there. We went to a cowboy type bar that had line dancing. It was a cool experience since this place had country music to line dance to one minute then dance/pop/hip hop music to dance to the next minute. The UFL bar scene is pretty comparable to Penn State other then at UFL there are 2 main areas of bars while at PSU it’s really just downtown. Also, the alcohol laws were a little more lax as a 20 year old in our group got into most of the bars, and this townhouse complex we hung out at had a nice pool and people drank alcohol there. Also did some pre-gaming at a bus stop before going out, so that is something that people would not get away with in State College . Overall, it was a great time, I met some fun people there and I definitely plan on going down again sometime soon.

Valley Forge Park

I want to pay homage to one of my favorite attractions in the Philadelphia area Valley Forge Park. (http://www.nps.gov/vafo/) I've lived in King of Prussia PA for almost 3 years now and eventhough King of Prussia is known for having one of the largest malls in the Country my favorite attraction in the area is Valley Forge Park. I probably go there at least once a week (more than that in the summer) because there are tons of things you can do in the park. I've gone running, biking, hiking, and sledding here. It is also a great historic attraction with a visitor
center and lots of replica huts of where revolutionary war soldiers stayed. Plus it is only 2 miles from where I live so it takes 5 minutes to get there. It always surprises how many people from the Philadelphia area who have never been there or only been there a few times. They are missing out. It has tons of open fields and woods for a place that is only 2-3 miles from one of the largest commercially developed areas in the region. (King of Prussia) I created a link to some cool pics of the park that I have. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tdogg158/album?.dir=5adfre2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tdogg158/my_photos