The Waterfront (Homestead)

The Waterfront is an open air shopping area spanning the three boroughs of Homestead, West Homestead and Munhall near Pittsburgh. The area sits on land once occupied by US Steel's Homestead Works plant, which closed in 1987. It is on the Monongahela River.

Stores in the waterfront include Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters, Gap, Hollister, Victoria's Secret, Macy's, Barnes & Noble, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Dick's Sporting Goods, Giant Eagle grocery, Lowe's, and Target. A Loews Cineplex are located in this area as well that is new and has a lot of theatres.

Restaurants include Eat'n Park, Steak 'n Shake, Uno's, Mitchell's Fish Market, McDonalds, Chick Fil-A, Bravo's, Red Robin and T.G.I. Friday's

PICT Performance of "St. Nicholas"

I received a ticket to the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre for a performance titled "St. Nicholas". It was not related to Christmas, but was a single actor performance in the form of a story - about Vampires. The actor sat with what appeared to be a pint of Guinness Beer and told a vampire story to the audience. It lasted about 90 minutes with no break and was very entertaining. The venue was in the Stephen Foster Memorial, an old Gothic style church on the site of the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland. The PICT was named Theatre of the Year-in both 2004 and 2006 by the critics of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Heinz Hall

We took in a performance at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh's Cultural District, titled "The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck. The performance was a very unique way to see Glenn Beck as he told a story and only had one supporting cast member who sang. Heinz Hall is a cool building downtown and we look forward to seeing the Pittsburgh Symphony there in the future. We also walked around the PPG Place Plaza which had an ice rink set up and Christmas art work inside the building.

Thanksgiving on the 3 Rivers

For Thanksgiving this year, being that we are in the middle of a move and didn't have all of our dishes, a kitchen put together, etc., we decided to do the Gateway Clipper 3 River Thanksgiving cruise with a full turkey and sides buffet. It was fun to see the rivers by day and night by boat, although it was a bit cold on the deck! The city looks great at night and it was a fun outing (and solved the problem of where to find a Turkey dinner!)

Pitt Panthers Football Games

I managed to take in 2 Pitt Panthers games in 2008 at Heinz Field, one game against Louisville and one against Rutgers. Both games were enjoyable, one they won and the other they lost. Heinz field is one of the best big league stadiums I have been to and as an outsider, this is the only way that you can quickly get out to see it. The Steelers tickets are a bit harder to come by! I ordered online for one of the games, for the other one I got a ticket from a friend.

Buffalo Blues Bar

Being new to town and not having my satellite dish set up yet, I needed to find a place to watch my favorite football team, the Buffalo Bills, play each week. I came across a bar on Highland Ave. in Shadyside. They are a "Buffalo Bills" bar, the only one I have found out here, but do offer Steelers games and other ones as well. The food is good, the wings are good, the beer special is good, and the TV's are big so overall a good place to go and catch a game!

Coffee Shops

Coffee Shops are very important to a healthy, balanced diet. So its very important when you move to a new city to find your venue. Of course there is always Starbucks, and they are all over Pittsburgh. There are also several one of a kind places in South Side Works, downtown, and around Shadyside & Oakland. But the main two venues that i have found myself going to a lot are Caribou Coffee and Crazy Mocha. Caribou is a little more commercialized throughout the country, but Crazy Mocha is Pittsburgh based from what I can tell. Both offer free internet which is great for a Saturday morning (especially before you get your internet set up).

Kennywood!

We went to Kennywood, an amusement park near Pittsburgh. Instead of fighting the day crowds, we ended up doing the "Night Rider Passes" $18.99 each (after 5:00 pm). I have never done an amusement park at night, but it turned out to be a lot of fun ... less crowded & half price tickets. Great for people without kids! There are 4 roller coasters at the park, a few of which are really old and are on the historic registry we were told.

Pirates Game

We went to see the Pirates play the Cubs at PNC Park on the 25th of August while amidst our move to PA. We sat in the "Pirate Cove", where tickets were $15 each and $5 of that was a credit to the concession stand. (We used that for a few Primanti Bros sandwiches by the way). The Pirates lost, but a fun game and a great ballpark with a nice view of downtown.