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.