2015 - Pittsburgh Summary

Duration: 3 days (Labour Day long weekend, left on Saturday, returned on Monday)
Cost: $420.xx in accommodations, $4 for the audio guide at Nationality Rooms.
Distance Driven: 1,120 km (Toronto, Erie, Linesville, Pittsburgh, Linesville, Toronto)

Highlights (in no particular order):

Nationality Rooms, this was a bit of a surprise for me. Allison's coworker suggested this place and I did see reviews on it, but I was unsure of how interesting it would be and it turned out pretty interesting. Only cost $4 for an audio guide, map, and key to access the rooms and just go and explore and have fun guessing what the rooms might look like.

Bicycle Heaven, a museum that houses bicycles but is operated out of a warehouse would raise some questions on how good it would be. Turns out, there is no reason to be concerned and you should pay them a visit if you have the time. As a bonus, it is by donation, so you can visit for free if you choose not to donate.

View from Mt. Washington, very nice views of downtown Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. Make sure to visit during the day and night if possible. Free to visit, you can take one of two inclines in the area (Duquesne or Monongahela), or you can hike up as well.

Lowlights (in no particular order):

None.

Must try food places:

Fat Head's Saloon, with advertising that says that their sandwiches are as big as your head, you would think that their quality would take a hit, but nope! Worth a visit if you are in the area and there is a public parking lot just across the street. Make sure to put your name down early because you may be in for a bit of a wait but it is worth it.

What would I change?

For us, I think the flow of things worked out well. While I could have planned out the return trip a little bit better (instead of repeating day 1), I think it worked out well in the end. I think the duration there was fine for us since we aren't really museum people.

2015 - Pittsburgh Day 3 [Pittsburgh]

We switched up the breakfast this morning and just got cereal instead of their usual meat/egg/biscuits with gravy items.

Holiday Inn breakfast.

Heading home today and grove city outlet is our first stop. We didn't find much even though it is labour day weekend in USA as well. I only bought a pair of shorts at Columbia for $12. Allison didn't buy anything. Frankly, I think we are both a little disappointed by our findings in this mall. We have been here before and we never really got much.

We tried to head to Compadre's for lunch because it was recommended by my coworker, but unfortunately it wasn't open today probably due to the long weekend. We ended up stopping at a McDonald's since we saw an ad for their buttermilk chicken sandwich. It was actually surprisingly good in my opinion for a McDonald's sandwich. I wonder when it will come to Canada.

Buttermilk Crispy Chicken sandwich at McDonald's.

Next up is the spillway. Yes, we did this two days ago, but I thought we should visit it one more time since we wouldn't be back any time soon. It was a bit more of a success today. There were more fish but it isn't the insanity that I expected. If you want to see more fish, throw larger chunks of hard bread to eat vs sliced white bread. Since the hard bread doesn't dissolve as quickly, you will see fish swarm and fight for it longer, leading to larger packs of fish.

Linesville Spillway.

After the spillway we went to Hank's again for custard and we got the smores this time. It was okay, I think the pretzel one was better. Note that they close during fall/winter.

After that, we headed home and we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us. We didn't see anything else and we got back home just in time for dinner.

Thanks for joining me on our little roadtrip to Pittsburgh. Hope you enjoyed it.

Until next trip!

Tomorrow, a summary of our Pittsburgh trip.

2015 - Pittsburgh Day 2 [Pittsburgh]

Breakfast was quick and was nothing special. Typical Holiday Inn breakfast, it looks pretty standardized, something that I miss about going to new hotels is what their breakfast might be like. There is a variety of cereal, bread, yogurt, fresh fruit, a pancake maker, eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy and a few other things.

Our breakfast at Holiday Inn.

Our first stop is a viewpoint from Mt Washington. You have the option of taking one of two inclines (Duquesne Incline or the Monongahela Incline), driving up and parking on/near Grandview Ave (which is what we did) or hiking up. We parked near the Duquesne Incline and it provided we with a very nice view of the city from just across the river and you can see a lot of the major points of interest such as Heinz Field, Carnegie Science Center, PNC Park, downtown Pittsburgh and more. A definitely stop in my opinion if you visit Pittsburgh. We will try to see what it looks like at night tonight since we missed the chance yesterday. The incline is very inexpensive at $5 round-trip if that is the route you choose.

From Mt Washington with Duquesne Incline in the foreground and downtown Pittsburgh in the background.

Next stop, bicycle heaven, a bicycle museum dedicated to bicycles. Initially I wasn't planning on visiting this site, but since we had time before the Nationality Rooms opened, I decided that we should stop by for a peek since it is free and just a short 10 minute drive from Grandview Ave on Mt. Washington.

Front of Bicycle Heaven.

Bicycle Heaven is a museum dedicated to bicycles with free admission (donations are welcome), it is a very neat stop, and frankly, I'm surprised by how large it is and the variety of bicycles and random things that they have. They are also a bicycle repair shop, so if you have any issues, you can let them have a look. Don't let the small storefront kill your excitement because the main display is upstairs and you are in for a treat even for people like myself who don't know much nor care much about bicycles. I did not know that there would be so many types of bicycles and how some are so rare that they cost over $40,000! We spent about 30 minutes here and worth a stop if you have time to spare.

Bicycle Heaven!

Bicycle Heaven is located at the corner of Columbus and Metropolitan and is part of the warehouse-looking buildings. Well worth a stop in my option.

Bicycle Heaven.

The Nationality Rooms was next and is a series of rooms in the University of Pittsburgh that is dedicated to what classrooms would look like if you were in different countries (hence the name). They are actually used as classrooms, so sometimes you may not be able to step inside them. Luckily, since it was a Sunday, we had full access to all the rooms. $4 will get you an audio guide, map, and room key which you need to access the rooms on the first floor (there are rooms on the third floor but they are all open and have a switch to play the audio guide in the room itself). The map explains where the rooms are and what nationality they represent.

Nationality Rooms.

Nationality Rooms.

Frankly, this was more interesting than I expected. It was fun trying to predict what the rooms would look like, although by the time we were on the third floor, we just popped into the room, took some pictures and left. The reason is, since the audio guide is built into the room, you may walk in part-way through the audio guide and need to wait to listen to the parts you missed. I liked when we had control on the first floor. I thought this was a neat stop and worth visiting.

Nationality Rooms.

Conflict kitchen is where we stopped for lunch which is just across the street from the Nationality Rooms and features food from nations that USA is currently in conflict with and it is currently Cuban food. The food was good and the price was fair. I thought the drink that I got was nice and refreshing although the portion size is a bit small (I like drinks to be big). The menu is on their website, so check it out if you are concerned about what they might be when you go. But, fear not, there is a Chinese stand and a stand with gyros just next door if you find out it isn't to your liking.

Conflict Kitchen

Beef on the left, pork on the right, fried plantains, and a drink.

Initially we were going to do the Carnegie Museums, but Allison wasn't feeling well, so we ended up going back to the hotel to rest. While she was resting at the hotel, I decided to go visit the local casino since the hotel actually offers $20 of slot play per guest (check Holiday Inn's website for details). I was initially going to take the shuttle but since I did not know how long I would be, I decided to drive. There is plenty of street parking available on Allegheny Ave, near Maolis Way and it was free on Sunday (I'm not sure about other days). It is about a 10 minute walk away which isn't bad since I had no idea what the cost of parking is at the casino and it is nearby a couple fast food chains (McDonald's, Subway, Wendy's to name a few) if you wanted to stop for anything.

I probably spent about 1.5 hours to 2 hours before I got back to the hotel (including driving, wandering around, time spent at the casino). Of course, I didn't win anything with my $20 slot play, well, actually I walked out with $2 if that counts. Headed back to the hotel to see how Allison was doing. She seemed better and we decided to head out for dinner at a restaurant near the incline called Shiloh Grill.

Salad de la burgh from Shiloh Grill.

I ordered a salad, which, not surprisingly, has french fries in it again!  Allison got a specialty seasonal burger. The food was good, nothing memorable. It did provide us with free parking which is nice since you can just walk out afterwards for a view since it is just off Grandview Ave. Also, there is a very popular ice cream shop that we saw after we finished our meal but I said that I had a different one to visit afterwards, so we didn't get any there.

Specialty seasonal burger from Shiloh Grill.

After some pictures near both inclines, we stopped by Page Dairy Mart, a VERY popular local ice cream shop that is known for their soft serve ice cream. We both thought it was strange that as we followed the GPS instructions, the city was disappearing, street lights were becoming fewer and it just seemed like I was going somewhere where I wasn't supposed to.  Fear not though, you really can't miss this stop if you headed there in the evening like we did. All the glowing neon lights and the massive line is something that you can't miss as you drive towards it.

Downtown Pittsburgh at night.

Downtown Pittsburgh at night.

While they are known for their soft serve ice cream, I don't know if I am a fan of it. I got the peach sundae and thought it was good and Allison was adventurous and got a flavoured soft served, it was good, but I'm not sure if it deserves the high reviews it gets. It is possible that I'm missing something since I am not generally a fan of soft serve. For reference, my go-to ice cream brand now would be Ben & Jerry's.

Me and my peach sundae.

We finished our treats and called it a night and concluded our stay at Pittsburgh. Tomorrow, we drive back to Toronto.

Come back for Day 3, our final day of our Pittsburgh roadtrip!

2015 - Pittsburgh Day 1 [Erie/Pittsburgh]

During Labour Day long weekend, from Sept 5 - 7, we decided to visit Pittsburgh.

Our first stop is lunch at Cloud 9 in Erie, Pennsylvania. After a long drive, it was good to get out and have lunch and stretch our legs a bit. We arrived at around 12pm and were the only ones there the whole time. We both ordered the half salad and half sandwich combo which were only $10 each! You get to choose from the lunch salad and lunch sandwich which there were a handful to choose from. I got the C9 Chef Salad with the Meatball Sub sandwich and Allison got the Peach Tree Salad with the Lamb Bacon sandwich (not on their website for some reason).

Peach Tree salad on the left, C9 salad on the right.

I thought overall, the food was good, the service was okay. I much preferred Allison's Peach Tree salad and Lamb Bacon sandwich although I thought the lamb bacon sandwich was a bit salty. I'd come back if I was in the area. Note that street parking is free on weekends.

Meatball sandwich on the left, lamb bacon sandwich on the right.

Our first attraction stop is the Tom Ridge Environmental Center for a quick walk. It is a neat stop if you want to learn about nature but I was only there for the tower. It is free to visit, so it may be worth it if you have young ones who like to learn about nature and wildlife. Personally, I wouldn't stop here if you are adults. The tower was okay, but there really wasn't much to see since the center is actually surrounded by an amusement park with water slides and roller coasters. It seemed very out of place. Because of this, I decided that we should just skip the bicentennial tower, which I initially planned to visit, and headed to our next destination, the Linesville Spillway.

Tom Ridge Environmental Center.

What is at Linesville Spillway that is worth a stop? Well, supposedly this place is so full of carp that it is possible to witness 'ducks walking on fish' because of how densely packed the fish are when people throw bread to feed them. While I did enjoy the stop, it wasn't anywhere near how densely packed the pictures made it seem, but it was still a good stop. There are a good amount of people and a truck that sell bread to folks who don't bring their own. The folks here were really friendly and even offered up two loaves of bread for us to feed the fish with. We probably stopped here for about 20 minutes. The spillway itself is by the bridge, just south of the little shop and the parking lots. I think this is a great stop for kids who are old enough to throw bread. It is free to visit and park your car with plenty of parking spaces when we arrived at around 2pm.

Carp!

While driving to the spillway we passed Hank's frozen custard shop and we stopped here for a snack after the spillway even though I initially had this stop as when we head back to Toronto. We ordered the regular sized special which was a strawberry sundae with pretzels this weekend. It cost $4.30 and it comes with two scoops of frozen custard, strawberry sauce and a lot of pretzels. I thought this was a great treat for a hot day. The regular size, in my opinion, is enough to share between two people. The place has been around since 1952, a testament to the quality of their treats.

Then, we drove the remainder of the way to Pittsburgh, about 1.5 hours and we tried to head to Fat Head's next for dinner, but it was pouring by the time we arrived and since we didn't have an umbrella, we didn't end up going and decided to head to the hotel and check-in instead. Holiday Inn at Greentree is where we stayed and I think that location is okay. I personally don't have issues with it being a bit further from the downtown area, but you do need to drive since it is a bit out of the way. They do offer a free shuttle though if you are interested. We tried to go to Central Grille but didn't end up finding it so we ended up going back to Fat Head's and after a 30 minute wait, we finally go seated and ordered right away. The food arrived quickly and it was very good. $12 got us a sandwich that is roughly the size of your head and a generous portion of chips. I was able to make it through the sandwich but left 1/4 of the bread and I didn't make a dent out of the chips at all. It is very big and very filling but also very tasty. I'd recommend stopping by if you get a chance. They do have a lot of specialty beers here as well.

Twisted Brisket

Chicken Little

Me with my chicken little.

After dinner, we were initially going to go visit the incline to see the city at night but decided to call it a day and that we would try it again tomorrow.  Our plan tomorrow is to visit the Nationality Rooms and the Carnegie Museums and the incline (both during the daytime and nighttime).

Come back tomorrow for day 2 of our Pittsburgh Labour Day weekend trip!