Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh by day

While I considered abandoning my road trip in favor of staying in Ann Arbor for the summer to work at Zingerman's Deli (they receive over $20/hour and have full benefits) the open road called out to me whispering "Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. The iron city awaits". Pittsburgh it would turn out was indeed was laying in wait. When Roy and I journeyed through the Fort Pitt Tunnel, just as we emerged through it's mouth, the Pittsburgh cityscape exploded into view in front of us. The Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, crisscrossed with colorful iron bridges, carved out the peninsula of Pittsburgh's downtown, towering with tall skyscrapers. Pittsburgh beamed with industrial pride, unabashedly displaying its unfinished brick buildings, wrought iron bridges, and murals of iron and steel workers.

Pittsburgh by night

I met my friend Karl, a former Wesleyan frisbee teammate, at one of his summer league ultimate games. His team was losing, but he was playing very well in spite of the score. As I watched him play, throwing deep hucks to his teammates, I reminisced about the times when I had been his receiver on the field and we connected  to score against strong opponents. Because I showed up late in the day, the game was over only ten minutes after my arrival. Karl and I threw for a short while after the game then headed to a bar for a few drinks. I followed Karl up a winding road to the top of Mt. Washington, a hill of a mountain, opposite downtown and across the banks of the Monongahela. From the top, I snapped a few beautiful shots of Pittsburgh alive with color in the evening hour. At the bar, I imbibed Pittsburgh's signature beer, Iron City, which we ordered by the bucket full (each bucket comes with five beers).

The incline moving up the tracks

The next day, Karl left early in the morning for work, and I set out to explore Pittsburgh by foot. I headed to the Duquesne incline, an iconic Pittsburgh cable car system that has been pulling its passengers up the side of Mt. Washington since 1877. The old wooden cars which have been restored to resemble their original style, are painted a brilliant red so that they can easily be seen from most parts of the city. While the ride itself was not as thrilling as that of a roller coaster, it did allow me to take some more beautiful shots of Pittsburgh by day (as seen above).

From the incline I walked across the Monongahela, on one of Pittsburgh's many bridges, through downtown to the Heinz museum. Named after senator Heinz of the prolific Pittsburgh Heinz family, it contained seven different exhibits in a single building. One of them was devoted entirely to the history of Pittsburgh sports and at its entrance a small plaque stated "winning starts here". This particular exhibit featured an installation called "is it a sport?". There, to my chagrin, they displayed the jersey and disc of the the Carnegie Mellon University ultimate team. Another exhibit focused solely on the history the Heinz corporation and its many products. My favorite part of the exhibit was a cartoon version of a couple people talking on the phone with the following conversation. Wife, "Come on home for supper, darling! Corned beef hash, poached eggs, and a new bottle of Heinz ketchup!" Husband, "Coming soon, you angel! That bright fresh ketchup flavor has my mouth watering already!"

Pittsburgh's industrial look

From the Heinz museum, I walked around the strip district soaking up the Pittsburgh state of mind. I passed many storefronts covered in black and yellow, the color of all the major Pittsburgh sports teams. I popped my head inside one of them and snagged two more bumper stickers for Roy as part of a project I'm doing. I continued strolling through the strip as a light rain began to paint the brick buildings a rusted ruby color. As I walked through the former industrial neighborhood turned bohemian chic by the newest generation, I still observed the older signs left behind from the working man's era. One proclaimed, "We don't go to the office. We build it." All in all I found myself becoming a fan of Pittsburgh productive no-nonsense ethos.

Max and I at PNC park

I continued walking until I reached my friend Max's apartment where we had a delicious Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville machine margarita. We didn't stay for long because we had tickets to that night's Pirates game. We took a quick drive down to PNC park, the Pirates beautiful new stadium (RIP three rivers stadium) and found parking for only four dollars. Max said that our twenty dollar tickets were unusually expensive for the pirates because they were having an above .500 season for the first time in twenty years. Normally for twenty dollars you get seats in an all you can eat area. Maybe the Pirates should keep losing if you ask me. In any case, we found our seats in the bleachers and proceeded to heckle the Houston Astros' left fielder immediately. The buccos (the pirates affectionate nickname) came back in splendid fashion against the Astros with two late inning two run homeruns to win the game.