Johnstown, PA

Sunday we got bored so we got the idea to drive out to Johnstown PA located about and hour and a half east of Pittsburgh in Cambria County. Johnstown is the site of a major flood that happened in 1889. Over 2200 people died in that flood. After several days of heavy rain, the South Fork Dam located up the Conemaugh river gave way. The dam was in a very bad disrepair. The dam was situated on the land of the South Fork Hunting and Fishing club which was owned by many wealthy industrialist during that time (Carnegie, Mellon, Frick). 20 million tons of water came washing down the valley and hit Johnstown, after which much of the debris caught on fire and burned for three days.

Page Dairy Mart South Side

After visiting Sewickley we drove over to the Southside to try some soft serve ice cream at "Page Dairy Mart". It is located under a bridge, literally. Normally it is not somewhere you would stop but we saw on a Rick Sebak special "It's the Neighborhoods" that this place was a icon of the south side and has been around since the late 19th century. It had to be rebuilt after the 1936 flood and again after a gas explosion in 1958. The ice cream was great!

By the way, Rick Sebak is a local Pittsburgh celebrity, producing many made for PBS specials about Pittsburgh and surrounding neighborhoods. Now we have Rick Steves (Jennie's favorite travel guy on PBS), Rick Bayless (Bryan's favorite mexican food guru on PBS) and Rick Sebak (everyone's favorite Pittsburgh expert on PBS).

Sewickley

Saturday we took a drive up to Sewickley PA which is located about 20 minutes northwest of the city. The name Sewickley is thought to be from the Native American word for "sweet water". The borough has a mixture of old Victorian homes and mansions and has a small business district with many antique and boutique shops. We walked around the streets with shopping and drove around a bit to look at some of the neat old homes. We also stopped at Observatory Hill on the way up. Observatory Hill is located on the north side of pittsburgh and has the Allegheny Observatory atop a hill in Riverview park.

Phipps Conservatory

On Easter Sunday we visited Phipps Conservatory located in Oakland within Schenley Park. We walked to the park and the botanical garden. The annual spring flower show was going on and everything was in bloom.

Strip District & Primanti Bros

For lunch on Sunday we decided to stop at the Strip District and attempt a Primanti Bros sandwich. The Primanti Bros located in the Strip District is the original one. They are famous for large sandwiches - pastrami, capicola, etc with cole slaw and french fries in the sandwich! The sandwich is said to have its origins in the city's steel days when blue collar workers needed a hot meal mid-shift that would keep them full all day long. However, the workers had neither the time nor the utensils for such a meal. By combining the sides with the sandwich, a Pittsburgh staple was born. The Strip District is located just north of downtown and in the 19th century was home to many factories and mills. By the early 20th century the Strip District became home to many wholesalers - mostly fresh produce, meat, and poultry dealers.

Carnegie Science Center & Sub

We finally hit up the Carnegie Science Center which was the last remainin museum to see with our Carnegie Museum membership. There was also a decommissioned sub (USS Requin) outside the museum from the 1940's. You could walk through and tour the sub and see what it was like for the men on the sub out at sea. Unfortunately the UPMC sportsworks is under renovations right now but hopefully that will be ready to go for fall so we can check it out then. Below is a picture of us on board the USS Requin!

Duquesne Incline & Mt. Washington

Saturday night we decided to try one of the Pittsburgh inclines for the first time - Duquesne. There are two remaining inclines in Pittsburgh (Duquesne and Monongahela). They are the two oldest remaining continuous inclines in the world. It goes from the Southside neighborhood of Pittsburgh up to Mt. Washington which overlooks downtown. We had dinner at a restaurant at the top which will remain nameless because the food was not that good, it was expensive and we did not actually have a very good view of downtown from our seat, which is why we were going there in the first place. The views of the city were nice however and riding the incline was an experience. Below is a picture of downtown taken from atop Mt. Washington.

Forbes Field

On Saturday we did a short driving tour of Oakland and Shadyside for the Grigonis' who were in town visiting for the first time. We drove by the old Forbes Field - of which only the old homeplate inside and some of the old outfield wall still exists. The ballpark was closed in 1970. It was the site of Babe Ruth's last three homeruns and also of Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run in the 1960 World Series.

Baseball and Hiking in Schenley Park

We hit one of the first warm evenings as we head to spring in Pittsburgh and we decided to visit Schenley Park to take a hike around and throw around the baseball. Actually, we took in tennis rackets to play on one of the many courts but a lot of other people had the same idea.

Schenley Park is a large municipal park located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA between the neighborhoods of Oakland, Greenfield, and Squirrel Hill. It is also a National Historic District

The park is made up of 300 acres donated by Mary Schenley in 1889 and another 120 acres that the city subsequently purchased from her. Another 36 acres were acquired at a later date, bringing the park's total size to 456 acres, and making it the second largest municipal park in Pittsburgh.

The park borders the campuses of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. In the early days of Schenley Park, the area known as "The Oval" was used for horse racing. Today, it has 13 tennis courts, an all weather running track, and a soccer field. There is also an ice skating rink, public swimming pool, and an 18-hole disc golf course nearby.

Exploring Mt. Lebanon

Saturday afternoon we took a drive to the South Hills to check out Mt. Lebanon. We have been trying to explore various neighborhoods and suburbs around the city. We heard a lot of people liked Mt. Lebanon so we decided to head down and drive around then have dinner there. Mt. Lebanon was named for two Cedar of Lebanon trees from Palestine that were planted in 1850 on Washington Road. We liked the community which includes many old churches, lots of older, well-maintained stone homes and a little 'downtown' with many shops and restaurants. We ate at Aladdin's which is a middle eastern eatery around Pittsburgh.

Carnegie Museum of Art

Today we took a 1.5 mile walk to Oakland to visit the Carnegie Art Museum. The art museum includes art from the impressionist and post-impressionist period and European and American decorative arts from the late seventeenth century to the present. The Hall of Architecture contains the largest collection of plaster casts of architectural masterpieces in America and one of the three largest in the world. There are replicas of the venus di milo, the winged victory, discus thrower among others. The marble Hall of Sculpture replicates the interior of the Parthenon. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the museum and then moseyed back home to Shadyside. We will probably be visiting again through the year since we have unlimited trips for the year with our "my museums" pass.

Frick Art Museum and Carriage House

On Sunday, we visted the Frick Art & Historical Center which is a cluster of museums and historical buildings in Pittsburgh. It focuses on the interpretation of the life and times of Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), industrialist and art collector.

The complex, located on 5 acres of lawn and gardens in the city's Point Breeze neighborhood, includes Clayton, the restored Frick mansion; The Frick Art Museum; The Car and Carriage Museum; the Greenhouse.

The Frick Art Museum currently has an exhibit from Walters Museum in Baltimore called "The Road to Impressionism: Barbizon Landscapes". The exhibit included paintings by Monet, Sisley, and Daubigny.

Out in Lawrenceville and Piccolo Forno

In our never ending search for our next favorite pizza place, we tried Piccolo Forno in Lawrenceville Saturday night. They serve a variety of thin crust gormet pizzas and pasta dishes. The pizza was good, and we want to go back and try the pasta too. We also walked up and down the main drag in Lawrenceville after dinner and checked out the shops.

Lawrenceville is one of the largest neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is located northeast of downtown, and like many of Pittsburgh's riverfront neighborhoods, it has an industrial past.

Lawrenceville was founded in 1814 by William Foster, father of composer Stephen Foster, who was born there in 1826. It is named for Captain James Lawrence, hero of the War of 1812, famous for his dying words, "Don't Give Up The Ship!" Lawrenceville was selected as home to the Allegheny Arsenal, due to "The area's accessibility to river transportation and its proximity to what was then the nation's only iron producing district". Lawrenceville was annexed to the city of Pittsburgh in 1868. Today, Lawrenceville is undergoing an exciting revitalization, being noted by The New York Times as a "go-to destination".

Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show

We are kind of between homes, but we decided to go check out the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show at the convention center downtown to get some kitchen ideas and check out some decks and other home type things. The show was on two floors, one for interior and one for exterior and had a lot of area vendors for home improvment.

The David L. Lawrence Convention Center is a 1,500,000-square-foot convention, conference and exhibition building in downtown Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Completed in 2003, it sits on the southern shoreline of the Allegheny River. It is the first LEED-certified convention center in North America and one of the first in the world.

Carnegie Library Cards

We decided to take advantage of our tax dollars at work and get library passes to the Carnegie Library system of Pittsburgh. The main building in the library system is in Oakland, and opened in 1895. It is 3 stories and was where we went to get our passes. It also has a Crazy Mocha coffee shop inside.

Carnegie libraries were built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. More than 2,500 Carnegie libraries were built, including those belonging to public and university library systems. Carnegie earned the nickname Patron Saint of Libraries.

Typhoon Restaurant on Highland Ave

For Valentines day, we decided to get Thai at the Typhoon restaurant on Highland Avenue. The restaurant offers a "sleek, minimalist interior" and is fairly upscale and arty. Dishes include pad thai, panang beef curry and fiery green curry chicken. There are also soups and noodles as well as green curry linguine with tiny shrimp, basil and sweet and hot peppers, as well as grilled mahi mahi with pepper and pineapple sauce.

We got the seafood green curry on linguine, pumpkin curry, and the normal tom yum soups. It is recommended to make reservations there as the seating is somewhat limited, especially on Valentines day when everyone seemed to have reservations.

Address: 242 S. Highland Ave.Pittsburgh, PA 15206

Visit to the Andy Warhol Museum

Today we went to visit the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art. The building looked to be Art Nouveau and is located just after the 7th street bridge near PNC Park. It consists of 7 floors with various works of contemporary / pop art, a mix of Warhol's work with other artists.

The museum was established in 1991 by the American family of the artist Andy Warhol and the Slovak Ministry of Culture. Until 1996 AWMMA was called The Warhol Family Museum of Modern Art.

The museum's Andy Warhol Permanent Exhibition consists of 160 Warhol works of art, most drawings and silkscreens, as well as Warhol memorabilia. Also displayed are works by Andy's brother Paul Warhola and his son James Warhola. The museum features prominently in the documentary Absolut Warhola, directed by Stanislaw Mucha.

South Side Works - Dinner and a Movie

Thursday night we decided to have a night out in the South Side Works area. We had dinner at Tusca which features Mediterranean Tapas and took in a movie at the South Side Works Cinema.

SouthSide Works is an open-air retail, office, entertainment, and residential complex (often referred to as a lifestyle center) located on the South Side of the city of Pittsburgh and just across the Monongahela River from the Pittsburgh Technology Center and the University of Pittsburgh.

The complex sits on the site of the famous "Southside Works" Jones and Laughlin Steel Company plant that helped win two world wars and make the United States a great industrial power. With the advent of cheaper foreign steel starting in the late 1970s and accelerating in the 1980s the massive mill and factory complex was idled in the mid-1980s.

Steelers Win Super Bowl XLIII

Much to our surprise having moved from Arizona to Pittsburgh in 2008, the Arizona Cardinals played the Pittsburgh Steelers for the NFL 2008 season Super Bowl title. We were somewhat indifferent being Bills fans, but we did root on the local team in the end. It turned out be a great game and the Steelers won, letting us experience (finally) what it was like to be in the city of a Super Bowl champion.

All week, it was all you heard talked about around town. Friday, we had a party at work to get ready for the game. Most businesses around town were decorated for the occasion. Eat'n Park closed early Sunday. After the game, fans poured onto Walnut street and 5th Avenue in Shadyside. We went to bed listening to the crowd outside and the news choppers overhead. Schools were even delayed monday morning, and a downtown parade followed during the week.

Eat'n Park

Saturday we were headed up to New York to see family and decided it was finally time to hit Eat'n Park for breakfast. It's a family restaurant based in Pittsburgh. The franchise began in the South Hills in 1949, with the business model that customers could drive their car and park at the restaurant, while being waited on by waitresses on roller skates. Today, the franchise has nearly 100 locations, and has become an indoor-dining family restaurant with some locations open 24 hours a day. The franchise's mascot is "Smiley", a walking smiley face, and Eat'n Park is well-known for its trademark Smiley Cookies, which are frosted sugar cookies with smiley faces drawn on them in icing. Because it was Super Bowl weekend for the Steelers, we bought the Steeler themed cookies to take to family.

Max and Erma's on Walnut

Saturday we tried Max and Erma's on Walnut Street in Shadyside. It is definitely an "American Food" kind of venue but is nicer inside than an Applebees or a TGI Friday's. The Tortilla Soup was good, but the best part of the evening was the six chocolate chip cookies that you can order freshly baked. They bring them out to you on a tray right out of the oven, still hot. It is on the list for a return visit.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

We used our "My Museums" pass today to go to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on forbes avenue near CMU. It sits on the site of the Art Musuem but we focused on the History Museum. There are a lot of dinosaur skeletons there right now making it a good place for kids, but we enjoyed it too. There were 3 main floors and what looked like a downstairs area for kids to interact with science. The museum had large display of rocks, minerals, gems and jewelery. It also had a large dinosaur exhibit along with animal / botanical exhibits from North America, Africa, Asia, etc. There were also rooms devoted to birds and butterflys, artic explorations, Native Americans, and Egypt (fun to see since we were in Egypt a few months ago). The museum is very nice, we had a good time and will probably revisit later in the year with our museums pass.

Willow

We went to Willow today, an upscale / trendy restaurant in the north hills. It lists as "Contemporary American" and it nestled in a fairly wooded area on Camp Horne Road. The venue, appetizers, food, dessert and drink were all awesome and we will definitely be making a return visit. I had the Ahi Tuna and Jennie had the salmon. We also had the calimari. We have heard that the duck and the Crab Cakes are also highly recommended (along with almost everything else on the menu!)

Welcome to Pittsburgh Items

We needed to do a few things to get us acquainted with a new city. The first thing we did was to get hooked up with a small company called "About Pittsburgh". They took us around the city and showed us some sights as well as potential neighborhoods to live in.

The second thing we did was to subscribe to Pittsburgh Magazine, which comes with 12 annual issues containing events, restaurants, and business profiles around town. It also has a yearly City Guide with business and restaurant listing (a thing to have around).

The third thing we did was to become a member of the Carnegie Museums for 2009. This includes the Art, Science, Natural History, and Andy Warhol Museums. We can go as much as we like in 2009, and also to hundreds of member museums around the country (more posts to come on this one).

We also have been been using Moon's guide to Pittsburgh, which has been also been very helpful in finding our way around.

Shadyside

Shadyside is a younger neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh, and is where we decided to take up residence to start off our time in Pittsburgh. The name Shadyside is drawn from the 19th century Pennsylvania Railroad station in the area, named for its unique shady lanes. There are a lot of college students and younger professionals living in the neighborhood as it is a fun area near Pitt and CMU. Renting is difficult depending on the season and the houses are older. Parking is also not easy, but in general worth living in Shadyside for the location.

Stores are located in two corridors; one centers on Ellsworth Avenue, the other on Walnut Street. Walnut is densly populated with stores and restaurants. Some of the stores along Walnut Street, including Williams-Sonoma, White House Black Market, Gap, Apple, J.Crew, American Apparel, Chico's, Victoria's Secret, Banana Republic, Talbots. Ellsworth is more arty and has several one of a kind stores and Crazy Mocha coffee shop. Resaurants that we have tried in the area that we like include Walnut Grill, Sushi Too, La Casa, Thai Place, Docs, Cappys, Harris Grill and Buffalo Blues.

For groceries, Giant Eagle Market District, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods. The Shadyside Market is also very nice, owned by the Dupuis family of Baton Rouge, LA for more than 50 years, features fresh produce, an on-site butcher, and a deli which is frequently packed by locals.