Pittsburgh Paradise

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It's not that an 11 hour drive isn't enjoyable, but when the half way point is a place that has never been explored why not make an overnight pit stop? When driving too and fro from Kentucky, Derik and I have found ourselves curled up trying to stay warm in my Honda Civic, we have overnighted at his Grandparents house, and we have powered through and crushed the entire eleven hour ride in the past, but this time we were going BIG. Why not for the beginning of the new year? We reviewed the map and decided on the perfect half way point - Pittsburgh. We had made several plans in the past to make it our stopping point and for one reason or another it has always been pushed to the side but not today!



We began our journey with a nourishing meal at Waffle House. With our bellies full we headed off to defeat half of our journey home. I must say that driving from Cincinnati to anywhere always just seems like a straight shot and makes for a very simple drive and for once it felt rather quick. Our first destination was a recommendation from FourSquare. Ranking it one of the top Must Dos in the area we bee lined it directly to the Mattress Factory. Founded in the late '70s, the museum hosts artist from around the world. These artist reside on the premise and are given the freedom to truly express themselves and they do indeed do just that. Arriving with an hour to spare, we grabbed our ticket and began our exploration of the three different buildings which were filled with unique "art" installments. Perhaps I'm not modern enough, or I don't have "the eye" for true talent but for the most part I just didn't get it. Don't get me wrong, the place was totally worth a go, each room has a interesting, unique but debatable art piece in it, one whole building was dedicated to intertwined black yarn (don't dig to deep, that really is what it was). My personal favorite was a room that had walls of mirrors and the ground was poke a dots, there were two rooms and one was lite with black lights and the other normally but had manicans in it. I don't know what kind of emotions these rooms were suppose to bring out in me, but it was a great place to take advantage of the Selfie Stick!



Check out: http://www.mattress.org/ to find out more about this unique place



When we had completed our tour through the Mattress Factory, we drove the short distance to a place that Derik had talked about from nearly the begin of our trip. No it wasn't another museume, or any brewery, or the Pittsburgh Penguins, Steelers or any other sporting team but rather a California Burrito. Now I had to wrap my brain around this longing for something called a California Burrito while in Pennsylvania. I mean the idea alone is interesting to me but I suppose I seek out international food right here in New Jersey so I shouldn't' judge. However a California Burrito is a burrito filled with meat, sour cream, guacamole, salsa and fries... yes FRIES! That just seems odd and undesirable. But not one to judge a persons foodie favorites we hopped over to El Burro where he purchased the first California Burrito that has lived up to his expectations since leaving California. I still found it an odd dish but hey it made him happy.



Burritos Galore: http://www.elburropgh.com/



After Derik's foodie needs were quenched we headed over the Duquesne Incline to see what has been claimed as the best view in Pittsburgh. The old school Cable Car runs throughout most of the day and provides you with a short trip up to the top where you can than check out the cool little museum that also shows you the wheels and cogs that pull the cable car. We parked right as the sun was nearly gone, and once on the lift got an awesome view of the city below. For a few bucks (cash only) definitely worth taking a quick trip up.



See below: http://www.duquesneincline.org/



The Duquesne Incline was just a short distance away from our hotel so we dropped off our stuff and hoped on the shuttle bus which took us out to The Church Brew Works. Okay talk about possibly the coolest brew works on the planet, as it may sound this one is in a church. There is a lot of really cool history behind the place which you can read about on their website, but the spark notes version of it is: The church was erected in the late 1800s, was subjected to some unpleasant mishaps like fire in the early 1900s, and became a brewery in 1996. Now it serves amazing food and very nice beer. I have to say I was starving because I didn't indulge in the California Burrito earlier so when I saw Rattlesnake Periogies as the "special" for the day I was all over it. I ordered that along with the beer sampler and we were pleasantly surprised to find it all to be rather delicious. I would certainly recommend this joint as a Must See while in Pittsburgh.



Brewing Techniques at: http://www.churchbrew.com/



When we had finished up our meal we began walking to the strip, which if you don't know is about 2 miles away... in January. Perhaps not the wisest idea but when you don't see a taxi eagerly waiting to take you to your destination and calling one (in our minds) would take awhile why not walk. I mean when its cold you walk fast and when you walk fast you warm up right? Well not so much but we made it to the strip without incident but once there we were highly disappointed by the night life, or lack there of. It took forever before we saw another human and before you knew it there were a few restaurants that all looked unoccupied. In an attempt to warm up we hopped into a Saloon were I got a jalapeno, cheese stuffed pretzel and a beer.



We were killing some time with the intended destination being a Comedy Club. We eventually reached the destination and I was so dissapointed by the lack of laughing that occurred at the Comedy Club that I would officially put this on the utter BUST list of our trip. Seriously you would think one out of six comedians would be alright but frankly they were so bad and distasteful that I am blocking this whole experience out of my memory right... NOW.



That was our last stop for the night, except for the pizzeria that was grabbed a slice at and waited for the taxi that came in 2 minutes (taxis here arrive in record time!)



The following morning we headed back to the Strip where we intended to grab some breakfast and find us some Steeler's stuff. I must preface, I AM NOT A STEELER's FAN! But my mother in law is so we wanted to get her as many Steeler's ornaments as we could, and what better time than a week after Christmas. Ornaments galore and for half the price SCORE. And we really did score, we found more Steeler's ornaments than I could have ever thought existed!



We weren't quite ready to leave Pittsburgh just yet so we decided to head over to Carnegie Science Center. I don't care that I am 28 years old, that place is super awesome. Sure Derik and I were probably the only people in there without kids, but again I... Don't... Care. It is so cool! You walk in and there is a whole section on water, and then live critters and space and natural disaster and the list goes on and on. There is a robot that shoots basketballs and has an incredibly high accuracy rating. There are multiple shows you can go to like What is Space can Kill You (EVERYTHING) and how do we taste. There were multiple times that I wanted to race my hand and volunteer but I just thought that would be odd so I calmed myself and learned all about taste! They even have a submarine there that we were able to walk through. Overall the Science Center was hands down my favorite experience!





Learn something fun at: http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/





Famished from all our learning, we hopped over to Burgatory. Some folks we had spoken to the other day recommended it and with the location to the Science Center so close we decided to stop on by. Plus the Pittsburgh game was going on (GO JETS!) and who doesn't love a burger. And MILKSHAKES! I can tell you that this girl loves milkshakes. Before placing any other order, Derik and I decided to split a cookie monster milkshake, or some other crazy name and can I just say best decision ever. It was so good which lead me to believe that everything at this place was going to be delicious. And the truth was... it was all great! We split chili with jalapeno corn bread and we each made our own burger. He got something with a lot of meat on it and more meat and probably some cheese. I on the other hand decided on the delicate crab burger... wow was it delicious!





Scan the menu at http://www.burgatorybar.com/



With our bellies full to the brim it was time to set off on completing our journey back home. Pittsburgh was an overall success. I'm not sure if there would be any real reason for going back, I'm sure we have missed some Must Sees but what we saw was pretty cool and I felt like we accomplished a lot. Thanks Pittsburgh for being our perfect half way point, and now we are off!

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