Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- May 2003: Day 7 and 8

After breakfast, Enterprise Rent-A-Car came to pick us up.  The driver was very friendly, but we noticed he kept saying "Picksburgh" (and we thought we had funny accents!)  Soon, we were off in our budget rental to Laurel Highlands to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater.  It was a nice drive and we were surprised to be so close to Kentucky.  The further we drove, the more spaced apart the houses got and then, we almost got in a major accident when a baby deer jumped in front of our car.  First a horse in Amish Country, now this?  Were the animals in Pennsylvania out to get us?

As it was very easy to get to Laurel Highlands, we were there early and got on the first tour.  The house, an Asian-influenced modern behemoth was set within beautiful woods, yet the massive concrete structure blended into nature with the help of natural landscaping and a waterfall running right through the house.  It was an amazing place and has forever changed what I picture my dream house to be.  The lack of closets might be a bit of a deal-breaker, but we were ready to move in if they asked us.  After a tour, we hiked in the woods, lunched in the cafe, and shopped in the gift shop (souvenir alert: box of Fallingwater notecards).  It was then time for our tour of Kentuck Knob, Wright's other masterpiece in the area.

Privately owned by Lord and Lady Palumbo of England, Kentuck Knob was a much simpler, yet more inhabitable house (which was good considering it was actually inhabited!).  One of my favorite features of the house was the sculpture garden/ walk including a large Claes Oldenburg apple core, a chunk of the Berlin Wall, and a army of red "people", like a paper doll chess set.  The walk ended in a meadow, looking out to the mountains.  After a final stroll, we drove back to Pittsburgh to return the car.  Part of me wanted to go to the Frick Art & Historical Center while we still had the car, but it was unrealistic with only an hour to go.  We dropped the car off and they in turn drove us back to the inn.

After a bit of relaxation, we took the bus downtown and then the subway to Station Square.  To get to the restaurants up the hill on Grandview Avenue, we had to take an incline railroad, or a little mini train up the hill.  There, we met the meanest man we've ever met.  Ever.  He was almost a caricature of a mean man.  We didn't understand how to buy tickets and he just let into us.  We eventually figured out we have to buy a dollar token (which we had to immediately give back to board the train), and we high-tailed it out of there.  He was funny and scary at the same time.

Finally away from the mean man on top of Grandview, we walked down the street and looked at restaurants.  The street ran along Mount Washington.  Many of the restaurants had gorgeous views of the three rivers (Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio) surrounding Pittsburgh. At a few of the lookout points, there were groups of kids getting their prom photos taken.  We decided to eat at the Grandview Saloon, where we were able to eat outside and watch the sun set over the rivers.  And, in Primanti Brothers-style, they put french fries in my salad!  Adam had a good steak and cheese, even though we were quite far from Philadelphia.  We took the incline railroad back down and there were more restaurants along the river.  There was a lot of construction and it was now dark out so we felt a little lost, but eventually we arrived at an entertainment complex, Station Square, complete with leaping fountains.  We ended up at Joe's Crab Shack, a cheesy theme restaurant with toys on the ceiling and souvenir cups full of frozen day-glo drinks.  We got back on the subway, back to downtown (it wasn't very fun waiting for the bus at such a late hour), and were very relieved when we were back at the inn.  We had to check out by 6 a.m. the next morning in order to be on our train, but the inn keeper sent us off with coffee and a bag of pastry.

On the train, we just watched the cows the whole way to New York City.  It was a mad dash to change to the Boston train in New York, but we made it and were back in Boston by 10 p.m.  We were very very tired.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylania -- May 2003; Day 6

After breakfast at the inn, we set out to walk two miles to the Carnegie Museum.  We weren't due to pick up our car until tomorrow (in order to maximize our car driving time) and it was a beautiful spring morning, so we hoofed it all the way.  It was a pretty nice walk, though a bit more strenuous than I was used to that early in the morning (with much much more walking to go for that day).  The museum, founded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie (or as they say in Pittsburgh "Car-NAY-gee", not the New York "Car-na-gee"), was interesting -- it was broken into two pieces: half art, half history.  We started with art.  There was a huge room where every square inch was covered with framed art, in the European gallery style.  Luckily, there was a helpful audio tour to help us understand what everything was.  My favorite was an Andy Warhol of Carnegie, reminiscent of the Marilyn Monroe painting in the same style.  After we had our fill of paintings, we headed to the history wing.  This collection was some serious competition for the American Museum of Natural History in New York: taxidermied animals, rows of birds behind glass, gems, dioramas of indigenous people.  There was so much to look at, so we just tried to pace ourselves.

After getting all museumed-out, we were on the hunt for lunch.  I had heard of a nearby sub shop where they put fries and coleslaw in the sandwich.  I asked around at the museum and the staff got all excited and said "You mean Primanti Brothers!"  They gave us directions to this little hole in the wall, within (short) walking distance.  The sandwiches were unbelievable good, but belly bombs. I had tuna (with fries and slaw) and The Hubby had corned beef.  We waddled out, too full to explore The Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh (a must see for our next trip -- they have 26 rooms authentically decorated to match different nationalities.  I think we thought it was just a few flags or something, but these are major achievements in design and detail).  Instead, we caught a bus downtown to begin our next walk.

The Warhol (a museum dedicated to Andy Warhol) was accessible via bridge (over the Allegheny River) from downtown.  Again, it was a pleasant walk.  We headed into this old warehouse.  There were six floors, each representing a different point in Warhol's life.  We headed up to the top and worked our way down.  The top floor represented his teen years with early sketches and influences (there was a Jackson Pollock), as well as his early work as an ad guy.  Another floor had silk screened canvases with subjects such as Elvis, to a car accident (a bit disturbing).  Two of the cooler floors contained a giant wall of camouflage and a room of silver Mylar balloons.  A room with every issue of  Interview Magazine  (of which he was a founder) helped us understand even more about his life.  We really enjoyed this museum and liked getting such a deep dive into the life and work of Warhol, especially as we were very interested in Pop Art.

We then walked back over the bridge and tried to catch a bus back to the inn, which was not as easy as in NYC.  Back at the inn, after brownies, iced tea, and a disco nap, we strategized dinner.  We were too tired to make it all the way back to Piccolo Piccolo Ristorante near the Warhol Museum, but we luckily found a cute Mexican restaurant in Shadyside, Fajita Grill.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize until we were seated that they didn't have a liquor liscense (which explains why it was so empty!)  We felt we had earned rather large margaritas with all that walking.  The big burritos with tons of guacamole helped make up for it a bit though.  After dinner, we were about to go on a drink hunt, but we were too worn out and crashed early.  So much for exploring Pittsburgh nightife!