My Mom and little sister and I all have April birthdays so way back before our birthdays, we talked about getting together in Pittsburgh to celebrate together but it took till September to get our schedules all aligned. My parents are temporarily living it up in Pittsburgh in a downtown apartment right in the theater district so we decided it would be fun to play in the city for a few days. Honestly I have never left my kids and with all the moving stress and Garrett starting his new job I kept thinking it wasn't going to happen, but in the end, my awesome friends came to the rescue and my amazing husband stepped up to make it one of the best weeks ever!
After arriving at 2 AM on Thursday after flying for seriously all stinking day long, Abby and I crashed and slept in as late as we wanted!! Well actually first we stayed up giggling like we were 12 again for quite some time:) Seriously I don't know what it is about sleeping in the same bed as my little sister that just made it seem like we were in our shared room growing up again and being dorks together. It was so fun! So after we finally woke up around 10:30(sigh) we took this really fun double decker bus tour of the city and learned all about the history of Pittsburgh. For instance, did you know that Pittsburgh holds the record of the most bridges in any city in the world? 462, which is five more than Venice, Italy. Who knew? Anyway after that we had lunch at this amazing little restaurant two doors down from my parent's apartment where we had the best bruschetta I have ever eaten in my life. The restaurant used all local organic produce. SO good. Then that night we went to a little burrough as they call them in Pittsburgh for an Italian Fest. Basically like Little Italy. The food was so yummy!
They had live music playing and tons of vendors so we got to share and try everything. Some highlights were homemade meatballs, canolli, and Spinach and feta grilled pizza. After we were sufficiently stuffed we went home and went to bed.
On Saturday we spent the morning at the Strip district which was one of my favorite places. We ate breakfast at Pamela's which is famous for their crepe style pancakes. Apparently the Obama's recently went there and were so impressed that they flew Pamela to the white house to teach their chef how to make her pancakes. So yummy! Honestly the strip felt like being back in London. Every Saturday morning we would go to portobello road and shop and this place was so similar. I love the little shops and markets with all the fresh produce. This was a fish market that had tons of fresh fish.
This was inside the chocolate shop. Umm need I say more? I am pointing to a vintage Guittard chocolate sign. I wanted to buy everything! I bought the kids some presents along the strip and we shopped for a while before heading to the German settlement called "Economy" for their Oktoberfest.
Abby is showing her muscles by crushing the apples in the cider press. This place reminded me of Nauvoo with all their little demonstations. I loved the blacksmith shop the most which is also one of my faves in Nauvoo. The bakery was also a hit with hand churned butter and fresh baked bread.
That night my amazing Dad scored us 5th row seats right behind home plate at the Pirates game. This is the view just a couple blocks from their apartment on the walk to the Pirate's stadium. I loved that we could walk everywhere!
We made it on the jumbo screen twice and the little girl in front of us told me we were on tv too.( her friend had texted her). While the game was very entertaining, the true highlight of the night was the buffet that was included with our fancy seats. Are you sensing a theme on this trip? The buffet was amazing and then when we came back to our seats we got to order any ball park snacks for free. Seriously that is how all baseball going experiences should be! Plus they won so that was even better!
Since it was the last home series of the year, they had "fan jam" after the game which was a concert by Steve Miller Band. My Dad was so excited when he got the tickets because he was thinking that it was Dave Matthews Band, who I love, but he had gotten mixed up. It's okay though, it was still fun. Let me tell ya Steve Miller is no Dave Matthews though:)
The next day was another adventure as Abby and my Mom, and I drove out to see Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright. I have always wanted to see Falling Water since taking interior design classes in high school and college plus my great grandpa apprenticed under FLR so that made it all that much cooler.
This is a picture on the front bridge walking up to the house.
This is the entrance to the house. One of the themes of the house was horizontal lines so the rock is all going horizontally throughout the house.
This is the amazing view from the overlook in the woods. The Kaufman's who built the house also owned 1500 acres around the property. The grounds were so beautiful with leaves just starting to turn gold.
Every room had it's own balcony throughout the house and the point was to draw the Kaufman's outside as much as possible. Even the family room had a special staircase going down to the river. The glass staircase opened up to act as their air conditioner and to bring the sound of the river into the home. It was so cool to finally see such an amazing piece of design in person.
After Falling Water, we went shopping on the "south side" at H&M, another love I discovered while living in London. There it was Abby's mission to get me some clothes that were actually in style:) She did well. That night we went up the Dusquesne (pronounced dukane) incline. It was basically a trolly that goes up the side of the mountain that the steel workers used to ride to get up and down from the steel mills to their houses. The view was so amazing!
This is a picture of the incline so you can get an idea of what it looks like.
It was fun to ride at night with all the lights of the city.(Notice the stylish outfit:) When we arrived at the top we went to an amazing fish restaurant that was at the top of this huge building so the view was even more amazing. We seriously could see the entire city from our table. Oh and yet again the food was amazing!
The next day was our last day so after all our hard work we decided we needed a spa day:) We got so spoiled and got highlights and haircuts and manicures. My Mom's hair stylist struggled though so after three sets of color her hair was finally right! Unfortunately that ate up a big chunk of our afternoon so we only had time to run home and get ready for another amazing restaurant before going to WICKED!
This restaurant was Italian and it is right across the street from the theater so it was totally packed! Everyone there was going to Wicked that night so about 10 minutes before the show started, everyone got up and left.
I was so excited to see Wicked again eventhough I saw it in May. It turned out to be the same cast but the Glinda was an understudy. I could listen to Elphaba's voice for ten straight performances and never get tired of it. Seriously she is amazing! We had awesome seats right behind the orchestra so it was a totally different experience than the first time I saw it. It's crazy to be so close that you can see the actors spit while they sing:) So THANK YOU to my fabulous parents for an amazing week of fun and spoiling. I really needed it and though I missed my family terribly I loved every minute of it!
