My wife and I traveled to Pittsburgh in December, and really enjoyed it. Here are some of the highlights in photos.
Andy Warhol painting. Andy Warhol was from Pittsburgh and is huge there. They have a bridge named after him. They also have a museum of his life and work. I drank coffee there and did some writing in the cafe. This painting is cool to be because if you look on the side in the shadow, you can see a baby face. It shows the transition for birth to death in the skull.
This is a Giacometti. In the Pittsburgh Carnegie Museum of Art. I like his sculptures. His most famous is "Walking man"
Christmas tree. Pittsburgh goes all out for Christmas. Not sure where this was.
Our happy suit case. I read that it's easier to find a bag at baggage claim if it is a bright color, because all bags are black.....but....colored bags get filthy from the handling in the plane. So, we are going to try a hard side colored bag. It might fair better.
Our hotel. The Renaissance. It was nice. The restaurant was great. It was right down town in the cultural district so we could walk to art museums, the symphony, restaurants galore, the ice skating rink, and tons of other things.
This is from the top of the Monongahela Incline looking down, at a river front area full of restaurants and shopping. There are two inclines the other is the Duquesne Incline. Which I irritated my wife, by continuing to call it the Du Quoin Incline. Which is the town we are from. These inclines were built back in the days when Pittsburgh had factories and mines in these areas. The inclines were elevators to bring workers and supplies up and down the mountain. Now they are form tourists and are really nice. We rode to the top and ate at the Shilloh Grill. There are whole neighborhoods, with stores and eateries on top of the mountain.
This was at the Phipps Conservatory. They do a thing for Christmas.
A Monet at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
Van Gogh at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Normally you would not photograph the art. But, new digital photography doe not harm paintings like the old flash photos did. The museum encouraged it.
Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece of architecture. He has works around the country and my wife, and I go and see them whenever we can. Pittsburgh has several, including his greatest.
Fallingwater. This staircase comes out of the living room and down to the creek below.
Pittsburgh has tons of bridges, and they painted them Steeler yellow. In the distant past several of the bridges were built and privately owned. The owners made them into toll bridges. You had to pay the toll to cross the bridges into the neighborhoods where all the millionaires lived. Pittsburgh at one time had the greatest concentration of millionaires in the world, because of steel, coal, factories, etc.. The workers could not pay the toll and therefore could not go into the rich areas. In later years, the city and state passed laws demanding bridge maintenance, that became too costly for private ownership to to maintain. So, the city acquired the bridges. I did not have to pay a toll to go and cavort in the rich neighborhoods where I did not belong.
Close-up of Pittsburgh skyline.
The Rachel Carson Homestead. She is the author of the book "Silent Spring" which started the environmental movement. The book basically told about the fact that we are killing off all the birds and other wildlife with DDT pesticide. For some reason the house was closed. I guess we were supposed to make an appointment to tour the house. But, walking around peeking in windows is free, and I'm pretty good at making up my own narrative. There's a wonderful nature trail behind the house. I assume that in the day it was built, it was in the country. It is no longer in the country.
The National Aviary was great. It was full of all kinds of birds, and the penguins were hilarious. There was also a Virtual Reality flight simulator, where you flew like you were a pterodactyl in dinosaur days. It was freaky. You could soar and fly past dinosaurs, and it seemed like you were there. It would let you dive underwater in the lake, and come back out. I flew into a mountain and died. It actually was a shock to my system. The brain cannot differentiate, between whether it's real or not, so you get this fear of death and the shock when you hit, even though it's not real. It makes me wonder if it actually really does kill you, but, you die years later from ailment unrelated.
Bird at the Aviary. He followed us around cawing.
Home of the Pirates
Street art
This was a park down town, where people could hang out. I think those people were inside that thing smoking dope.
This is a mural on the side of a building. Pittsburgh has tons of murals like this. This reminds me of the Jetson's but I think it's Pittsburgh in the Jetson's
Street art. These are big musicians. I ate some pizza for lunch down the road from here. The cultural district has lots of these things, and galleries to view.
Homeless
person. There were many that I encountered as I walked around down
town. One guy asked me if I could buy him some candy at the candy store.
So, we went inside and I told him to get whatever he wanted. After a
few minutes, he came up with about 10 candy bars. I figured he would
grab only one or two. Note to self....the phrase "get whatever you want"
can be interpreted in different ways. So,
I was at the checkout, and before I could pay he asked if I could give
him money to go see his momma. So, I told him that he had to pick
between the candy bars or momma. He chose momma, oddly enough. So, I
gave him the money, and he took off to visit his mom. (I know what you
are thinking. I have no clue what he did with the money, and honestly I
don't care. I assume he went to the local crack dealer and enjoyed his
day in an alley somewhere. But, honestly I can't prove that. I'm just
called to give and love. If I had his life, I'd probably be smoking
crack and drinking too. If you are so worried about homeless people
bumming and drinking then why don't you do something about it. And yes,
you can.) Later that day I was walking down the sidewalk, when a guy
with no legs flew past me in a wheel chair. He had a cup of popcorn in
his lap and was the happiest guy in the world. He wheeled into a little
bus stop area and waited for the bus. I walked past and went to the
corner to wait on the light. I saw him lean over in his chair to thrown
his blanket over his stump, when all his popcorn fell out on the ground.
He cussed up a blue streak. I almost died trying not to laugh. Then,
lickety split, he leaned over in his chair somehow and picked up every
stitch of popcorn. Then he rolled over to the trash can and threw it
inside. I walked up to him and handed him some money. He looked at me
and said "What's this for?" I thought I was in trouble, and had insulted
him. So, I said "I saw you spill your popcorn, and pick it all up. I
felt bad about it, and wanted to get you some more." He smiled, took the
money, said "God bless you" and rolled off down the side walk like a
shot. He was the happiest man in the world again, as we rolled toward
the liquor store...I mean.. the popcorn stand. If I didn't have legs I
might be rolling around Pittsburgh drunk too. But, I honestly cannot say
what he did. I just hope he's happy..
This is one of the other Frank Lloyd Wright houses in the area. Kentuck Knob, It was built after Fallingwater.
Windows
outside. They all are doors that open up into the living room. Frank
Lloyd Wright, was about bring the beauty of nature into the home and
architecture. His designs used native stone, and incorporated the
natural lines of the area.
Frank's official panel on his houses. The older ones don't have it. Kentucj Knob was built in the latter days of his life.
Kentuck Knob Balcony: All those doors open up from the living room onto the balcony. It did not need air Conditioning.
The view from Kentuck Knob
We
hiked some trails at the Ohiopyle State park, and had lunch at an
outfitters. The town of Ohiopyle is completely given over to the life of
Kayaking, Hiking, Mountain Biking, Camping, Rock Climbing, and all
things adventure athletics. The eateries, stores, lodges, camp grounds,
the whole thing is themed for the outdoors adventurist. There were lots
of hippies. They had backpacks and beards. But, they were not like real
hippies, because they had all the best Northface gear. It was hiking
boots, hippies and vegan burgers every where. We talked about going back
and kayaking the river, and doing more hiking there.
The river we want to Kayak.
A
Trestle high above the trail we were hiking. At this point we were lost
and had gotten off the path somehow.. And yet there was a path we were
on. My wife saved the day when she pulled out the phone and found us in
the woods, and showed that we were only a little ways off the main
trail. Which is what I figured. Sometimes, I feel like Google is
snatching my manhood and sense of adventure. The women and their magic
boxes of truth have all the power now.. Gone are the days when you could
feed a female a line of hooey and she would believe you. Now she
googles it. Google has ruined everything.
This was a cool wooden bridge that went over the river and into the town
Images from the Phipps Conservatory
We went to the Symphony here to see Handle's Messiah.. It was down the street from the Renaissance hotel. Where we were staying. It is also a historic building. In it's day, it was the largest theater, west of New York. Here's a article about it from my blog:
https://
Pittsburgh
Skyline. These are the highlights of our trip. I enjoyed it and took
tons of other pics, but I assume people have lives, and don't want to
sit and look at my stuff all day. Pittsburgh is a great place if you get
the chance to go there. They have tons of sports, shopping, it's a
place where the people care, and our proud of their home.
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