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Pittsburgh Area September 22 - September 29, 2002 What a wonderful city Pittsburgh is! My mother tells stories of visiting Pittsburgh during her college years and having a layer of black grit over every surface. Those were the old days - this is a great area. Of course, my opinion may be prejudiced by the excellent tour guides I had (my cousin Elsie and her wonderful husband, Al). We started off our introduction to the city slowly with a visit to Sarris, a candy store with more chocolate than you can imagine and world class hot fudge sundaes. Then we went into Cannonsburg, birthplace of Perry Como. Cannonsburg hopes to market itself as a destination tourist site with this claim to fame. The statue of Perry is up, but tourists haven’t quite found it yet. Then it was on to Pittsburgh. Remember that hot fudge sundae? That was just to put a base in our stomachs to prepare for mixed up “Burgh” food. Do you like french fries? Well, duh...who doesn’t. Do you like sandwiches? Well, sure. Then why would you get two dishes? Put the fries in the sandwich, add some coleslaw in there too and you got yourself a Pittsburgh Primanti Brothers sandwich. Our sandwiches were great and we impressed our local guides by polishing off everything on our wax paper (no plates at this joint). This deli is in a wonderful area of town called The Strip District. This area does not actually involve female dancers, rather it is a strip of flat land (in a very hilly city) that houses wholesale food warehouses and factories. On a Sunday the area is pretty dead, but Primanti’s is open 24 / 7. (When Elsie was new in town she called to see if Primanti required reservations or had a dress code before taking her first out of town guests there. Elsie was lucky the lady didn’t die laughing on the phone - this place looks like it barely meets the health code. Maybe that’s where that special “Primanti” taste comes from.) Another night this week Al and Elsie took us to the new PNC Park to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates beat up on the New York Mets. It was a fun game (Pirates pulled it out after some rather ugly play), but I probably enjoyed the park (and another Primanti sandwich) more than the game. Al is “Dean Newell” to the students at Washington & Jefferson College, a charming college in the hills of Pennsylvania outside Pittsburgh. (A great school if you are in the market - and one of the only schools with an ampersand in its name.) So we also got a tour of the college area and we watched him go off to work in the morning from the snugness of Tiny. By the time we rolled up to the house and the amazing back porch where we spent most of our waking hours, he had probably already interviewed 10 prospective students. A lot of our time here has been spent soaking up conversation with Elsie and enjoying the view from her back porch (oh yeah - and the really, really good food). We did do a little more sightseeing: a trip into the Strip District on a busy Saturday, a really fun day at the SportsWorks where we played shadow volleyball, designed our own roller coaster (and rode it on their incredible simulator - I named my design “Get David”), ascended a climbing wall, and had great fun on an Orbitron (see those fun pictures below). Sports Works combines science and sports in hands-on demonstrations. David really liked the pitching booth and the golf swing analyzer. We also visited the Andy Warhol Museum (Mr. Warhol was born in Pittsburgh). And finally, we ended our week by seeing a tear-jerker movie - but it was a well made, local, independent movie, “The Bread, My Sweet” which featured The Strip District which we know pretty well by now. All in all, a great town, greater tour guides, and the greatest conversations with friends. Forget Cleveland - Pittsburgh Rocks. We are now off to more rural, northeastern environs to look for some changing autumn colors. Thanks again Elsie and Al for opening up your home and your wonderful area to us.
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