The next few weeks I thought I’d write about something a little closer to home and a little bit different. Pennsylvania unfortunately does not have any National Parks of its own, but it does have 121 State Parks! There are a few State Parks that I visited all the time as a child, so I thought I would share these with you in case you’re ever in the Western PA area looking for something to do.

The first State Park is Moraine State Park and it is only about a 15 minute drive from my house. The main focus of the park is Lake Arthur, which is a man-made lake. The lake draws people from the Pittsburgh area who are looking for an escape from the city. They come to kayak, paddle board, sail, fish, swim, picnic, bike and hike. Another fun aspect of the park is the disc golf course. My dad got into disc golfing and bought a bunch of discs, so we go disc golfing at Moraine and other nearby courses. They actually held the disc golf world championship in the Pittsburgh area in 2015, and my dad and I got to watch at Moraine. This was a very interesting experience for sure!

My family has been going to Moraine ever since I can remember. When we were younger we would swim at the beach and occasionally rent a pontoon boat to have an afternoon on the lake. (My brother even works summers at the boat rental now) This was always a great time! We also had an old sailboat that my dad bought from his brother. My parents took us sailing in the summers and it was always a lot of fun to work on the boat and get it ready for the water. Unfortunately, my dad went sailing by himself one day and flipped the whole boat over. Luckily people helped him get it upright and to shore, but he lost a key part of the boat; the rudder. We never bought a new one because honestly the boat was so old the rudder would cost more than the boat!

As we got older we bought 2 paddle boards and 2 kayaks along with our canoe so that we could all be out on the lake together. One of the most fun activities is running and jumping off of the paddle boards into the lake. The paddle boards are great with friends too! There is even an island in the middle of the lake we can paddle to and have lunch on. This past spring, my dad decided to buy a new sailboat, which is bigger than our old one, but still just as old. It took a lot of work to get it ready to actually sail, but this summer was fun taking sailing trips. We even got our dog, Moose onto the sailboat after much coaxing, and eventually just pushing him. He actually seems to enjoy the sailboat (much more than the paddle boards) he is just terrified of the wobbly dock!

As some of you know my family loves hiking. The past 2 years we have been hiking much more because Moose requires a daily walk or swim or he is insane and won’t sleep. Moraine is our go to hiking spot when we have time to take a real hike. There are so many great trails, including parts of the north country trail.

Thanks for reading about my family and Moraine!