Author: Penny

Hi! Bonjour! Ciao! Hola! My name is Penny and I come from Penn State. I love to travel and play 'Where in the World is Penny?!' I love to educate everyone about the history of where I travel. I am searching for my prince gnome, and hope to find him in the most unexpected place. Follow me... find me... if you can keep up :)

Colorado Springs, Colorado

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Another day trip from Denver is Colorado Springs. It is an hour south of the Mile High City, and has many attractions to see. My first stop was the Garden of the Gods.

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Can you see me in the middle?!

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There are many trails to discover, but I only walked two.
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Looking up to Pikes Peak.

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The Siamese Sisters!

After walking those trails at the Garden of the Gods, I headed over to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings.
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This site has over 40 homes from the Pueblo Indians.
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It is a museum and shows how these Native people once lived.
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Inside the homes, which are on the side of a mountain, I could climb inside them. Can you believe 4 people would live inside this dwelling?!
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What a view!
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Do you prefer museums or parks when you are traveling?

Fort Collins, Colorado

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While staying in Denver, I took a day trip to Fort Collins. Ft. Collins is about an hour drive north. It was a very scenic route and the sun was shining… I was really lucky!

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The main reason I went to Ft. Collins was to visit the Anheuser Busch Brewery. I got there right when it opened and ended up having a private tour.

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It is 110 degrees F in this room!

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Out of the 12 breweries, this is the 3rd largest. Over 30 beers are brewed here!

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Over 28 batches are made per day, which is 9 million barrels of beer!

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The Ft. Collins location is famous because it is where the Clydesdales live.

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Each horse can be at least 6 feet tall and weight one ton.

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The largest horse on the current team is 6 feet, 6 inches tall and is over 2400 pounds!

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Being able to see the stables with 10 horses was amazing. Normally they are gone all summer on tour, but I got there the weekend before they started traveling!

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Each day, one male horse drinks up to 30 gallons of water and eats 50 to 60 pounds of hay. Every morning they are allowed to run around on 120 acres, however, the white on their face can get sunburnt so they are put inside before 11 am.

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The horses pulling sleighs of beer became a Busch tradition after the end of prohibition. These horses are so strong, that one horse could pull the sleigh, however, when they tour they use 8.

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They also have Dalmatians, but those stay in St. Louis, the breweries headquarters.

Have you visited a brewery?

Pittsburgh, PA

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Pittsburgh is the second largest city in the state of Pennsylvania. It is known as the “City of Champions,” “Steel City” and “The City of Bridges.”
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Here I am by the stadiums, overlooking Downtown Pittsburgh and the Allegheny River.
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For a day trip, I drove about an hour south-east to Fallingwater. Fallingwater is a house that is built over a waterfall by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935.

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This is the perfect house for me!

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Back in the city I went to the Mt. Washington to see another view of Downtown and the Monongahela River. DSC_0143
While Downtown, I had to see a rival cat… the University of Pittsburgh Panther. DSC_0153
I also visited the Cathedral of Learning, which houses most of the University. It it known for its Nationality Rooms. Actual classes are in these ornate rooms… but I couldn’t help myself from sharing some Penn State Pride!
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This is the view from the top of the Cathedral. Breathtaking!

I also went to the Andy Warhol Museum. Even though it is small, you can learn a lot about the artist who grew up and made a lot of art in this old Steel Town.

Have you been to Pittsburgh? Do you have any good day trips from the Three River City?

 

 

 

 

Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands and located in the North Holland providence. It is a city of canals and known as “the Venice of North Europe.” The first time I visited this wonderful city was during “Queens Day” in the Spring of 2011:

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One of the biggest tourist attractions of Amsterdam is the Heineken Brewery.

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Amsterdam has decriminalized marijuana use.

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I was also lucky enough to visit a second time in the Summer of 2013:

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One of the cities canals.

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Enjoying some cuisine and enjoying my view of Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam. That means Royal Palace in English.

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Going to a Coffee Shop is a must do… its all part of the Amsterdam experience! To learn more, I also visited The Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum.

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I like small cars, especially if they are pink.
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All three pictures above are some of the traditional fashion in Holland. That includes wooden clogs!

Have you been to Amsterdam? What was the one thing you didn’t want to miss?!

London, England

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I traveled to London for the first time in the Spring of 2011:

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Here I am with the famous Tower Bridge.

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I had afternoon tea at Harrods, London’s designer department store.

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The weekend I visited was 7 days before the royal wedding, but that didn’t stop me from going to Westminster Abbey. The picture to the left is the main entrance, and the picture to the right is the back of the abbey.

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Theres are from inside the gardens at the Abbey.

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I also went on the London Eye, which is a big ferris wheel. What great views! In the background of this shot you can see Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

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For dinner I had to get some Fish n Chips. Yummy!

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Riding a double decker bus is fun if you have the front row seat up top!

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I love public transportation 🙂

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I was looking for the Beatles…

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but only got to see some influential places they put on the map.

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Its always nice to have some familiar foods from home!

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Whenever you travel, you always need to stop and smell the roses! To me, this means relaxing and realizing how special each place it. I did that in London at the park on the left. And of course no stop to London is complete without going to an old school phone booth!

I visited again in the summer of 2015:

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Look at the London skyline! This is the view before the crossing the Tower Bridge.

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After crossing the Tower Bridge, I visited the Tower of London and Crown Jewels. I ended the day with a refreshing drink!

What is your favorite thing to do in London?

Social Media

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Go ahead, follow me on Twitter:

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And Instagram:

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Like me on Facebook!

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 Compared to my blog, on social media I may post:

1. close-ups of me with a sight/view/famous building in the background
2. photos of a place that you can guess before I give it away (similar to ‘Where’s Carmen Sandiego?!’)
3. myself in a ‘Where’s Penny’ scene (similar to ‘Where’s Waldo?’)

When I am not traveling, I will have ‘FLASHBACKS’ where I may post any of the above 3 options.
Enjoy, and thanks for following!!!

About Me

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When I was a student at Penn State, my love of travel started when I studied abroad in 2011. I lived in Paris for 5 months and was able to travel around Europe. All my friends and family back home loved my pictures and the stories I wrote along with them.

After earning my degree in Journalism, I decided to make this blog to continue sharing the places I visit. I hope you enjoy my pictures and the history along with it!

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P.S. Even though I have become a world traveler, State College and Penn State will always be my home. I try to go back as much as I can because nothing beats the green grass of Centre County, PA!

2016 Philadelphia Flower Show

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This past weekend I went to the Annual Philadelphia Flower show. The show is presented by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and is the largest & longest running horticultural event in the country! It was started in 1829!!

This years theme was “Explore America,” in celebration of 100 years of the National Park Service. There were park rangers and small exhibits of different National Parks all around the country.

 

Here I am with the Liberty Bell made out of flowers. Behind it was a wall with a passage from the Declaration of Independence, which was signed in Philadelphia.

 

I made a Penn State friend!


 

Here I met some gnomies. They were too busy planting flowers to enjoy the show!

Flight 93, 9-11 National Memorial

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On a recent trip to Pittsburgh, I decided to make a pit stop in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This is the site where United Flight 93 crashed while it was being hijacked on September 11th, 2001.
This National Park was very serene and I happened to get there around sunset. I would recommend this trip for anyone, as it was a place of remembrance and reflection.