And, of course, Penn State — where 1 of every 8 Pennsylvanians attends school, and 3 of every 8 Pennsylvanians drunkenly tries to ride the Nittany Lion.
Pittsburgh has one of the best views in the country from Mt. Washington. Plus, there are sandwiches in both of these places. Hoagies and cheesesteaks in Philly, Primanti’s and fish sandwiches in Pittsburgh. Hell yeah.
Ohiopyle State Park has a classic waterfall and yearly whitewater festival. Point State Park is located in Downtown Pittsburgh at the confluence of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers. Hickory Run State Park in the Poconos has National Natural Landmark Boulder Field, which to the untrained eye looks just like rocks. And we have a huge chunk of the Appalachian Trail.
Okay, it’s not quite the regular Grand Canyon, but it does have the Pine Creek Rail Trail and wagon rides.
You can thank the PA Dutch for funnel cake, scrapple, and massive whoopee pies. The Amish Village in Lancaster is where you can go to learn about all this.
The Constitution was signed in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia was our nation’s first capital city. PA is the 2nd state of the Union, and you know what they say — first is the worst (Delaware), second is the best (Pennsylvania) and third is the one with the hairy chest (New Jersey). Rings true.
It’s like a delicious combo of pine, apple pie, and mushrooms. We say the mushroom smell permeating certain parts of the state is worth the agricultural benefit to PA’s economy. Many, many, many more would argue not. However, we all love apple picking in the fall, and chopping down our own Christmas trees in December, just like Jesus did.
Gettysburg has miles of battlefield and an annual reenactment of the battle is done every summer by truly dedicated nerds.
Of course, we’ve got the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Carnegie Museums, Andy Warhol Museum, and the Franklin Institute. But we also have a ton of other lesser known ones like the Mütter Museum featuring medical oddities, the Eastern State Penitentiary featuring creepy jail cells, the Mercer Museum featuring weird artifacts from the 18th and 19th centuries, and the Crayola Factory featuring CRAYONS.
It’s actually a miracle that everyone here isn’t an adult-sized Augustus Gloop, because PA makes everything delicious — Hershey, Godiva, and Sarris. Also, Peeps are made in PA. Then we have Utz, Snyder’s of Hanover, Wise Foods, Herr’s, Auntie Anne’s, and the most delicious, Tastykake. If “snacktacular” was a word in my vocabulary, I would use it.
D. G. Yuengling and Son is the oldest operating brewery in the country, and there’s the big brewers like Iron City and Lions, but the smaller craft places rock too like Sly Fox, Yards, Victory, Weyerbacher, Tröegs, Penn, and East End.
Especially at Cherry Springs State Park, which maybe has the best conditions for stargazing in the eastern half of the United States plus one of the best places to see the Milky Way (and aliens???). I give it a rating of 100 billion out 100 billion stars.
Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), The Blob, My Bloody Valentine (3D), The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, Sorority Row, and Monkey Shines were all fully or partially shot in PA. We’ve also got Centralia here, the near-abandoned town sitting on top of a huge underground mine fire that has been burning since 1962, which was inspiration for the film adaptations of the Silent Hill video games. Finally, among other creepy things, Pennsylvania is the last resting place for H.H. Holmes, widely considered to be America’s first serial killer. 