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.