The Nittany Lion Inn

This is Penn State's Nittany Lion Inn, as viewed from the fourth level of the Nittany Lion Inn parking deck on a breezy spring day. The spring semester has just finished, so campus is relatively quiet. I was there with friends to celebrate semester's end with a lovely lunch, featuring the Inn's world famous lobster bisque soup. Not just a cup, mind you, but a huge bowl; and a little salad on the side.

I photographed the bisque, of course. But the bowl of soup, while delicious, somehow wasn't quite as pretty as the cup of soup usually is. And the fancy cracker they usually put on top or on the side was missing on this day; they provided Saltines instead (which just don't photograph quite as well, IMHO). So I think I'll snag a lobster bisque soup photo another time. I can't promise when; I generally only make it to the Inn for lunch a few times a year.

This building may look familiar, and that's because you've seen it before. But this is the first time you've seen it made of anything but gingerbread! Every December, just a bit before Christmas, one of the bakeries makes a gingerbread replica of the Inn, and the replica is placed on display inside the Inn (generally near the main dining room) for several weeks through the holidays.

It has become something of an annual tradition for me to take the Crittergators along to the Inn in mid-December for a fun gingerbread replica photo shoot; the Dancing Girls even came along last time!  It's lots of fun. (I'll include the gingerbread replica photo links below, at the end.)

So this is the first you've gotten to see the building that is the Inn itself. There it is, shining whitely from behind trees and grass that are just bursting with the shades of spring baby-greens that are moving right along into the darker greens of early summer.

I have never stayed at the Inn myself, though I've had meetings there often. I can't say that campus is actually my home, though it was at one point in time; but for years, it has felt sort of like my home away from home. And so the song I've selected to accompany this image is Tom Jones, with Green, Green Grass of Home.

And now here are the links to the gingerbread house Blips . . .
2011 (no Crittergators yet)
2012 (Crittergators arrive)
2013
2014 (the Crittergators are joined by a Dancing Girl and her trusty steed)