A Family Day in Pittsburgh

Friday, August 29. 2014
Did you know that Pittsburgh has been named one of the top tourist venues in the United States this year?  We didn't.  So the seven of us (Ken and I as well as our son, his wife and three girls) decided to check it out.  Now understand, we've been there but while it is a great spot for museums and other wonderful tourist spots, it is a terrible place to drive!!!!!!!  Still, we wanted to see more of what it has to offer.

One of amazing facts about Pittsburgh is that it has 446 bridges that can be driven on within the city limits.  That is more than any other city or town in the entire world!!  There are 720 bridges in total counting all the foot, bike and train ones.

Of course, having that many bridges necessary for getting over either the Ohio, Allegheny, or Monongahela Rivers that converge in the downtown area means you have to be an expert on how to get to the right one.  Even the GPS is a failure in this area but our son, Dan, took on the challenge, kept his cool and got us to where we wanted to go even though at times we had to do some reattempts.
Our first goal was to find the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, just one of 33 colleges and universities in the town and tour their Cathedral of Learning.

Since school was in session, we were not able to check out all of the very impressive nationality classrooms since classes were taking place in some of them but we still saw a large number of them.  I wonder if the students are as impressed as we were with their surroundings. This Gothic 42 storied building has a first floor study area that in the center with soaring Gothic arches.

Around the outside were the classrooms representing 26 heritages representing everything from 5th century B.C. Greece through 1st century Israel, 6th century Ireland, 9th century India and 18th century Africa.  The rooms are filled with authentic period furnishings, carved stone, stained lass,, and inlaid wood to provide unforgettable glimpses of European, African, Middle eastern, and Asian cultures.

I'm not sure I'd be able to concentrate on what the professor was saying if I was taking a class in this Austrian classroom with crystal chandeliers providing the light.  And check out the painted ceiling.

The girls were intrigued with the England Room with a fireplace, stained glass symbols, portraits including one of William Pitt for whom the city is named.

We all had a seat at the large table in the Chinese room so we could check out our surroundings including this ceiling with all of its special tiles. The black "cupboard" on the wall is actually the blackboard behind doors.

 This was the Indian room

This Ukranian room also had a fireplace.

Check out the carving detail on each of the chairs in the Irish room with Irish wolfhounds on the top.

And this huge mosaic across the back of the room with bright gold stones.

This is the view we had of the Heinz Chapel as we walked out of the Cathdral of Learning

The doors were open so we took time to go in and see the inside of it as well

Along both sides were a whole series of 73 foot tall stain glass windows

This plaque was on a wall near the front

And as we turned to walk out we could see these windows at the back

 Every one was hungry and our plan was now to go to Point Park which has a beautiful fountain,

a small museum and grassy areas where we could enjoy our picnic lunch.  However, we weren't able to find any convenient parking so after a couple of attempts we went across the oldest bridge

to Station Square original home of the train station with tracks carrying lots of trains between it and the Monongahela River.

There is not only a lot of restaurants and shops in this area but memorabilia from the steel making days and a lovely "dancing" fountain that gives approximately 7 minutes shows to music with 5 minute breaks in between.

We then took the duck tour of Pittsburgh - a one hour site seeing trip through the area including floating down both the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers to the converge point where they become the Ohio River. Eleven year old Noelle even had a chance to do a bit of steering while we were at that point.

Our tour took us past both the Heinz and PNC Parks homes of the Steelers and Pirates.  In fact,we were aware of lots of foot traffic because a game was due to start soon.  

Pittsburgh Place is a beautiful all glass series of buildings around a courtyard that sports an ice rink in the winter.

A city ordinance now requires new buildings to provide green space by them so beauty like this can be found mixed in with a wide variety of old and new buildings. Interestingly the flowering trees here have glass flowers so they bloom all year.

After enjoying all of this, we drove a short distance to bd Mongolian Grill for an early dinner.  This has been a favorite restaurant of ours since it first opened in Royal Oak, Michigan 21 years ago.  This one opened about 5 years ago in Pittsburgh (there is one in Lakeland, Florida so we can still get meals there even when in Florida)  It is a stir fry place where you choose from a huge variety of meats, vegetables and sauces and then take them to this big grill to have them cooked.  You just can't beat the wonderful tastes that can be individually created to your personal tastes.  Rice and tortillas are brought to the table to enjoy with your food.

On our trip home we made a stop at a favorite spot of the Ledford girls - King Kones for a special treat.