Blogs from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, North America

The drive from Mylan Park in Morgantown WV to Fox Den Acres Campground in New Stanton PA, a short distance southeast of Pittsburgh PA, on Monday, June 11, 2018, was short and uneventful. Fox Den Acres is a first-rate operation with spacious sites, but I never learned to negotiate my return to the RV park without the assistance of the GPS. Natural barriers such as hills and rivers cause the roads to be curvy and to have numerous T-intersections. Besides, my week-long stay didn’t justify spending a lot of cerebral energy on map memorization. In addition to the two national memorials alluded to in the blog title, this area is replete with remnants of the construction of transportation mechanisms created by very innovative problem-solvers to get goods and people over the Appalachian Mountains. One of those ... read more

The confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers to form the Ohio River is known as The Point. The Point also known as the Golden Triangle, is the center and origin of Pittsburgh. In the Colonial era, the confluence in the western frontier was known as the Forks of the Ohio. It was a highly contested area during the Colonial era. The British and French vied for control of the Ohio River basin and its connection to the Mississippi, culminating in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Replacing a frontier trading post, first the French Fort Duquesne (1754) and then the British Fort Pitt (1758) rose at the Forks of the Ohio. Pittsburgh takes its name from fort Pitt, which had been named for William Pitt. The area was heavily industrialized during the 19th century as ... read more

We made it to the RV park which was about 50 miles from Pittsburgh near New Stanton. Bonnie got all packed and I took her to the airport on Saturday to fly back to Boise. She is going to see the doctor and get her knees fixed. I went to the Wyndham Downtown hotel in Pittsburgh to wait for Tad's arrival on Saturday night. I had an awesome view out the window of our room of Heinz Stadium and the bridges over the rivers. Got to watch fireworks at the stadium later Saturday night as there was a college game being played. Sunday we went down to the Strip Area for breakfast and some Steeler shopping. We were going to have breakfast at "Pamela's Diner" but the line was huge so we did some shopping for ... read more

The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburg officially consist of four museums. Together on Forbes Avenue in the Oakland Neighborhood are two museums in one: the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. (The Carnegie Science Center and the Andy Wharhol Museum are elsewhere in he city.) Steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Institute in 1895. The Art Museum was first. Carnegie wanted to bring then-Modern Art to Pittsburgh as well as to assemble copies of famous architecture show to Pittsburghers who did not have the means to travel to see them. It was the first US art museum to emphasize contemporary art. The Natural History museum began when Carnegie funded paleontological expeditions in Wyoming. In 1899, an expedition discovered a complete Diplodocus skeleton. "Dippy" remains a featured attraction and the museum's mascot. ... read more

Hello friends and family, I figured I would write a brief update to let you know of my plans for the next two weeks. I will be traveling after Thanksgiving to Toronto, to catch a flight to Rome, where I will stay for a week or so. Then I will take a flight to Prague for a week and finally return back to Toronto and drive back to Pittsburgh. I don't know if I will have a lot of time to update this blog, but the quality of my pictures this time should trump anything I took pictures of in Georgia (despite the fact that there is no doubt Georgia is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever visited). I am looking forward to touring Rome, as well as a day trip to Florence, ... read more