It's All Happening.: Clarion

Monday, July 22, 2013

Camping 2013

We had our annual camping trip last month and it was one of the best yet. We go up past TIonesta to Warren, PA, home of Buckaloons and the Allegheny National Forest. The weather was perfect—hardly any rain, and it wasn’t too hot. Kevin came with me for the first time—he spent a lot of time fishing with the guys, and the rest was spent seeing all my favorite places at Buckaloons and in Warren. It’s truly one of my favorite places in the world. It’s relaxing, peaceful, and feels like home to me. We went to Haller’s in Tionesta, went on a lot of walks, went to the creek, visited Kinzua Dam, had breakfast at Richard’s, junk shopped at Simple Dicks, rode bikes, sat by the fire, and ate some good food. To top it all off, Kev and I stopped in Clarion on our way home. We bought some things at the school store, visited our old houses, ate our favorite ranch pizza at Pizza Pub, and stopped by the Loomis for a beer. Perfect week if you ask me.

I painted rocks and sticks and scattered them throughout the camp grounds!

Kinzua Dam

My house in Clarion! 518 South.

Main St.

Fish Bowls at Pizza Pub.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Autumn Leaf Festival

I think everyone in the world knows how much I love Clarion--the town, the university, the scenery, it's all completely perfect to me. I spent four amazing years there and I still think about all the memories, friends I made and skills I learned. The Autumn Leaf Festival has been going on forever (I'm not going to even try and guess the year it started). My family used to take me up when I was younger--one year Chris Kirkpatrick from N'SYNC, a Clarion local, was in the parade--I obviously attended while I was in school, and now I've gone back the past 3 years as an alumni.

It's become something that I look forward to every year. My roommates and best friends from college and I get a hotel room, go up Friday to walk around the craft show, eat at our favorite places, enjoy a few or maybe more than a few beers at our favorite bars, and wake up anxious to talk about the night before--something that we always loved doing when we were in college.

Since so many of my family members attended Clarion, and almost all of them were Greek, it's always exciting for us to go back and visit with sorority sisters and fraternity brothers, meet the new people in the chapter, and see the floats in the parade! Seeing all the beautiful new members and hearing all the amazing things the chapter is doing always makes me so proud of my Zeta Tau Alpha sisters! Three Zeta's were on Homecoming Court this year and of course a Zeta was crowned Queen!

Seriously though, even if you didn't go to Clarion, ALF is definitely worth a visit. Actually the drive alone is worth it--all the leaves are changing and it's just so peaceful. And make sure you get a Poorman's Caramel Apple, Vinny's Buck-A-Slice, a beer at the Loomis, wings at Toby, and maybe a coozie from the school store. Ahhh I'm already counting down the days until next year :)