It appear I'm a little behind in posting our trips or tours of
America's Rust Belt cities as last year we traveled to Toronto, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Toledo. This week we headed to
Pittsburgh, but no to complete another
rust belt city, but to watch a whole lot of basketball. The sight-seeing was a bonus!
After 4.5 hours on the roads, we arrived in
Pittsburgh around lunchtime, thus, once we settled in at the Donovan's place on the North Side of
Pittsburgh , we headed to the
Strip District to the
Primanti Brothers restaurant upon recommendation from Nan. From the outside, this was just like any other deli or diner; however, they were known for their
sandwichs topped with a tomato, cole slaw, and "potatoes" (which were essentially, french fries). I ended up ordering a turkey and cheddar sandwich that piled sky high, and I have to admit the cole slaw and french fry combination certainly add some flavor! We paired our sandwiches with a
Yuengling starting the trip off the right note!
After lunch, we walked around the
Strip District is literally a narrow strip of land in a flood plain confined by natural boundaries. Back in the 19th century, "the
Strip's location and access to transportation made it ideal for industrial development." However, today, it is really known more for its retail, produce, restaurants, and coffee shops. Too bad the market wasn't open during the week. Nearby, we crossed the
Sixteenth Street Bridge (#1 historical landmark) over the Allegheny River to check out what appeared to be a
Heinz factory and a development called
Heinz Lofts. The
Heinz Lofts are located in five buildings that used to be the
H.J. Heinz Co food processing operations.
We made our way over towards
Lawrenceville, a former steel powerhouse town, to check out the abandoned Pittsburgh Brewing Company building (#2 historic landmark). At this point, we conveniently walked up the road to the
Church Brew Works (#3 historic landmark). This place was incredible and exactly as it sounds, a brewery in the former St. John the Baptist Church. The Church was built in 1902, shut down in 1993, and reopened as the
Church Brew Works in 1996. Bill's parents were actually married here! As per usual, we hit the bar ordering up a sampler of their beers. While the beer names and glassware/logo received a big thumbs up, the beer just seemed to be lacking. Still well worth the visit. Here are our ratings for the visit!
After our refreshing stop, we headed to the
University of Pittsburgh campus to check out the
Cathedral of Learning (#4 historic landmark). This Late Gothic Revival Cathedral is the tallest educational building in the Western hemisphere. It's used for both educational purposes, study rooms, libraries, and boardrooms. Inside, we walked through their massive "common room" which reminded us of
Deering Library on
Northwestern's campus, and then we took the elevator up to the 36th floor (the heighest we could go) to get a wonderful view of some of the campus, more of Pittsburgh, and the
Carnegie Mellon University. The building actually rises 535 feet in the air and there are 42 floors including a webcam on the top!
Back on ground level, we walked through a little more of campus spotting the
Soldier and Sailors Museum, which is the largest memorial in the U.S. dedicated solely to honoring all branches of military (#5 historic landmark). As we headed back to the car, we spotted some of the
Carnegie Museums on Pitt's campus, which included
Carnegie Museum of Natural History,
Museum of Art,
Science Center, and the
Carnegie Library Music Hall. Famous
names adorn the sides of these buildings as a "useful and instructive form of decoration, placed where all may read."
After missing our exit multiple times and issues with our Garmin recalculating, we arrived at our last tourist destination for Wednesday's tour, the
Duquesne Incline, which is an inclined plane railroad scaling Mt. Washington (#6 historic landmark). It is 800 feet long, 400 feet in height, and is inclined at a 30 degree angle. The incline was completed in 1877 primarily used to carry cargo up and down Mt. Washington. It later starting carrying people. Up top, we timed it perfectly to discover some amazing views of the triangular central business district of
Pittsburgh where the Monongahela River and the Allegheny River come together to form the Ohio River.
The evening concluded with some beer and pub food with our hosts, Nan and Bill over at the
Penn Brewery (where I enjoyed a tasty
Penn Marzen) and
Monteray Pub. Cheers!
On Friday, we had a day off from our watching the
NCAA Men's Basketball games live in
Pittsburgh, so we spent the morning over at the
Andy Warhol Museum. The admission was a bit costly, but we figured a little culture couldn't hurt us, plus we enjoyed the
Warhol: Grand Slam exhibit we saw a few years ago at the
Cranbrook Institute of Arts. While we had grand expectations of seeing all the variations on Warhol's more famous commercial and fine art prints, the museum actually did a decent job of covering the entire spectrum of his art. We learned that he was born in Pittsburgh and took free art classes at what is now the
The Carnegie Museum of Art. Early in his career, he focused on photography and his drawings where he often traced photographs, but when we think of Warhol, it's his work from the 60s-70s that really made him famous. His initial pop art paintings that made him famous like the
Marilyn Monroe,
Elizabeth Taylor, and
Mao were on display in the museum as well as a few new ones for us like the
Dollar Sign. Warhol also dabbled in sculptures that he created by replicating well-known supermarket product boxes, including
Brillo Boxes and
Heinz Boxes. During this time, he also exhibited
Cow Wallpaper (which
we saw in the entrance of the museum) and
Silver Clouds, which was an odd exhibit of silver pillow-like structures floating around a room. Some of the areas in the museum that didn't interest us as much were the
Warhol and Cars work, his video collection, and the replicas of his
time capsules content created by sticking a bunch of his stuff from different time periods in cardboard boxes.
Beyond the stadium, as we walked along the river walk or the
Three Rivers Heritage Trail System, we found a
Korean War Memorial,
Heinz Field (home of the
Pittsburgh Steelers), and
Mr. Roger's Tribute to Children.
After the leisurely morning, we headed to
Rivertowne to start watching some of the basketball games. As soon as we saw the beer list, we knew this would be a good way to kick off our afternoon. Highlights included: Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Espresso Stout, Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout, Troegs Java Head Stout, Boulder Mojo Risin, and Southern Tier 2x Milk Stout. Cheers!
More photos from our trip to Pittsburgh in my
photo album.
Great timing! We are going to Pittsburgh in 6 weeks for my SIL's graduation from Duquesne. I will be using this post as a starting point for planning. Thanks
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