Pittsburgh

Good Saturday Night, Everyone (Linda and Mom)!

Yesterday we left Cleveland and motored on over to Pittsburgh.  This was officially the shortest leg that we had taken in our last four summers of vacation.  It is only about two hours between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, so it was kind of weird not having to go hard to get from our starting point to our ending point.  In fact, we were going to see the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but Lou and I decided to let the kids sleep in and kind of  just cruise to Pitt. 

After the kids and I ate our FREE, Cooked-to-Order breakfast, the kids went swimming.  We all left the hotel by noon, and began our short jaunt to Pittsburgh.

Now, none of us had ever been there, so I did not know what to expect.  However, that didn't stop me from formulating an opinion already.  I figured it would be a rough-hewn city, with a ton of minimally-educated white people eating white bread and generally being boring.  After all, as we were driving into the region, I was following a truck with a confederate flag bumper sticker on one side of his tailgate, and a "Nuke Berkley" bumper sticker on the other side.  Man, was I ever wrong.  In fact, Pittsburgh is the highlight of the trip for me so far (and Lou, too).

We stayed in a really cool Hampton Inn in "The Strip" district near downtown.  In fact, we were right next to the Heinz headquarters, some Heinz cultural museum, and the Allegheny River.  We could also see the Pirates' ballpark from our hotel.  When we got there, the room wasn't ready, so we took in some of the local culture a few blocks away and went to the original "Primanti Brother's" restaurant.

  If you haven't heard of this place, it is a Pittsburgh icon.  Something like 77 years ago, the Primanti Brothers decided to open a sandwich shop.  They needed to make a meal that could be eaten with one hand while the coal and steel workers worked, or walked to work, or home, or whatever...  In order to meet this task, they piled on a super large scoop of cole slaw (the good stuff this time) and an order of fries onto each sandwich they sold.  Then they would put the other slice of bread on top, wrap the sandwich, and cut it. 

 Everyone loved the sandwiches, although Joe thought there was too much cole slaw on his (he has an ongoing battle against fruits and veggies).

After the Primanti Bros, we walked around the shopping district that surrounded the restaurant.  This was like a permanent flea market, with many "ethnic (I hate that description)" shops and restaurants.  We found a Lebanese market, which made Lou very happy, and spent about ten minutes n the store talking to the owner.  Afterwards, we found a place called, "Fudgie Wudgie," that claimed to be voted "America's #1 Fudge" for many years in a row.  The fudge was very good, and the chocolate covered pretzels were even better, but joe was not swayed that this truly was the best fudge in the USA.  In fact, he was not even satisfied ranking it as the top fudge he had ever tasted, and he let us know that continually for the next 24 hours.

After the fudge, we went back to the hotel and got ready for the game.

We walked to PNC Park for the Pirates game-about 1 1/2 miles away.  The walk was a path right alongside the Allegheny River.  It was a pretty little trek.  

The stadium was pretty and the seats were a good value.  We were so full from the sandwiches earlier, that we did not have hotdogs at the game (the FIRST time EVER).  

The game was exciting, if you were a fan of the Rays (they won 10 to 5).  The fans were loud and knowledgeable.  The funniest thing, though, was that the scoreboard guy ran the "More Cowbell" skit from Saturday Night Live while a pitching change was being made.  This is a skit starring Christopher Walken, Will Farrell, and Jim Fallon.  It is hilarious.  The skit had to be broken up into three different segments, and each time the skit was turned off to restart the game, the crowd groaned!

We left in the bottom of the 8th, because I was a little freaked out by the previous night's walk back to our hotel in Cleveland.  However, this walk back to the hotel was beautiful and stress-free.  Pittsburgh was surprisingly clean and friendly.  The ladies running the front desk of our hotel were wonderfully helpful and friendly (not always the case).  At this point, Lou and I regretted that we were only staying behind the steel curtain for only one night.

-Dave