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.