Alcohol Boat: Commonwealth Press's Beer Barge

This was one of the best events I have ever been to.

There was no other way to start this post. It simply was awesome. The ingredients for the perfect Friday night in April? A Gateway Clipper boat + dozens of craft breweries lining the first and second decks + local bands + a top deck that offered some pretty stellar views of the city + the brilliance and hard work of Commonwealth Press.

The crowd was great. The event had actually sold out twice due to a server crash, so instead of telling 300 people they didn't actually have tickets, Commonwealth Press chartered a second trip on the same boat. So as soon as our cruise returned around 9:30, the dock was filled with another crowd ready to set sail on the alcohol boat.

The night was perfect. Better weather could not have been asked for. It's been so long since I've been on the river (I've been in it, a few times!), and I had forgotten the skyline's majesty as you approach the Point on a boat.

I hope (and expect) this will become a yearly event. My only wish is that it would be seasonally instead of yearly. But I'll take what I can get, and I'll be sure to be ready with my credit card the moment next year's tickets go on sale.

Surviving December: Whiskey Before Breakfast (& Pittsburgh Boozes)

Let's be honest. A lot of drinking happens in December. There are holiday parties with friends and for work. There are holiday dinners with family. There is New Year's Eve.

As I write this, I'm recovering from my work holiday party. Well, a work holiday party preceded by a day of whiskey drinking, which started before breakfast thanks to Pittsburgh's Wigle Whiskey.

Wigle Whiskey

2401 Smallman Street (in the Strip)

I never used to be a whiskey drinker. It's been a semi-new development over the past year. See, when your main mode of transportation is a bicycle, it's not terribly easy to get a case of beer from the distributor to your fridge. It's a whole lot easier to transport a bottle of whiskey, and thus I have become a whiskey drinker.

Yesterday morning Wigle released their first bottles of aged whiskey. I arrived with friends a little before 9 a.m. and got in a line that was already wrapping around the building. While waiting, we placed our orders for the whiskeys we wanted to take home. We were also served a delicious drink called the Bees Knees (Wigle White Wheat + cream + honey). I picked up one of each of the aged whiskeys (one regular, one cherry wood, and one maple wood). Anyone who, like us, got out of bed early enough on a Saturday to get their hands on these limited bottles was welcome to sign one of the small casks used in the aging process. It's nice thinking our names will be on that cask and that the cask will be a part of Wigle's history for (hopefully) many, many years to come.

My aged Wigle whiskeys, at home atop my fridge.

Now, if whiskey's not your thing, Pittsburgh has other options for local alcohol. Fortunately for me, two of those options (as well as Wigle!) are located along my route home from work. 

East End Brewing Company

147 Julius Street (Larimer)

East End Brewing may be located in Larimer (they've recently moved into their newer, bigger building on Julius Street), but they have a very convenient growler station at the Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip. They stay open til 6 p.m. on Fridays, which is the perfect for a quick stop after work to bring home a growler of one of my favorites (Pedal Pale Ale, Big Hop, Fat Gary...).

Arsenal Cider House & Wine Cellar

300 39th Street (Lawrenceville)

Arsenal Cider House is such a treat to have in the neighborhood. Really. The ciders are tasty and the fun of sampling and choosing which growler to take home with you is made even more fun when your growler is labeled with your name and a ranking. Last time, I received my growler with "Admiral Allison" on it. 

December is a long month. Thankfully, we've already survived half of it. As the rest of the month goes into the books, make an effort to drink locally. Wigle, East End, and Arsenal are only a few of the many ways to do so. With so many hardworking local businesses serving up homemade and homegrown brews and libations, there's good reason we've been described as a football town with a drinking problem. 

PGH CHEAP: Spending Little to Stay Cool

My. It's been hot, huh? As has been the case in most places across the U.S., Pittsburgh has been riding a heat wave. I'm writing this on Sunday, and our high is only expected to be 89 degrees. As Eric said while we walked back toward our apartment building this morning, "I never thought I'd be excited about temps in the high 80s."

I try not to complain about the heat. But Saturday it was brutal. I spent as much time as I could tolerate in my apartment reading and writing, but eventually I needed to seek out ways to beat the heat. So I made a list of inexpensive ways to cool off around town and set off by bike to the Carnegie Museum.

If this heat keeps up throughout July and August, I think I'll be using my Museum membership more and more for quick spells in air conditioning. I only had an hour to kill before I was expected at the pool, so I decided to check out the coolest exhibits I could think of.

First I spent a good chunk of time walking around in the cool darkness of the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems.

Glow in the dark rocks!

As might be expected, the orange gems and minerals were my favorite.

Gemstone dino!

The second stop on my visit was the most obvious choice of all:

Yes. To beat the heat, I spent some time pretending I was in the Arctic. Genius, I know.

On a day when it feels like it's over 100 degrees outside, it was easy to feel incredible jealousy of this scene.

Just in case on one of my wintertime Canada journeys I need to know how to build a shelter out of snow, I watched this video about building snowhouses.

Jealous of how cool these dogs must be feeling in the snow.

After the museum I pedaled over to the Highland Park pool for a few hours of swimming and sunning. Entry also free; Pittsburgh pool passes are a beautiful thing. I passed out on my couch for a couple hours before meeting up with Ross to walk down to 36th and Butler for a pop-up beer garden, Tapped. We had a whiskey drink from Wigle Whiskey and an IPA from Full Pint. Cost $10. I had a hot dog from the Franktuary. Cost $3. It was all the money I'd spent all day, and I felt good about staying cool while keeping costs low. 

These pop-up beer gardens will be going on throughout the summer, and I will be making an effort to go to many of them. Such a nice (and relatively cheap) way to spend a hot summer night.

There's So Much Green: The Bloomfield Hollows

After throwing Marlana onto the rivers and filling her full of burgers, I took her on a walk through one of Pittsburgh's hidden gems: The Bloomfield Hollows. We met up with Eric and set out to explore what the Hollows are hiding.

Before we even made our way into the Hollows, Bloomfield-proper offered up this oddity: A giant crab on the facade of a building. Excellent.

The city steps leading down into the Hollows.

I've walked down to the Hollows via this staircase many times, but never once did I catch this little set of chairs. I love these little surprises.

Red truck bolted down to the edge of the Hollows steps.

There was so so so much awesome graffiti down in the Hollows. It was almost overwhelming how many things I wanted to examine and photograph. There were so many creepy/awesome graffiti faces. I was in love with them all.

There were also a bunch of little bikes like this set here.

Yup. It is indeed.

Normally, slugs totally gross me out. When I see them on the sidewalk, I seriously want to throw up and run away. But these 'lil slugs are kind of adorable.

At the end of the Hollows you wind up snaking through the back of the old Iron City Brewery, and you can glimpse inside one of the abandoned warehouses. Was very tempted to sneak under the fence for some urban adventuring. But who knows when my last tetanus shot was?

While we were walking through the Hollows Marlana remarked at how green it was and how lush of an area we were in despite being within the city. All cities, including Pittsburgh, have public parks that offer their denizens lush acres of green. But the Hollows are where green and graffiti meet, making it one of my favorite places to explore and wander and wonder.

Penn Ave Come to Life - Unblurred August

In my opinion, I couldn't live in a better area of Pittsburgh. When I was figuring out what neighborhood I would call home upon my return, I thought about Lawrenceville, Friendship, Regent Square, Squirrel Hill (only for a fleeting moment), and Bloomfield. Ultimately, I decided on a place in Bloomfield, and I couldn't be happier. I am five minutes from the beautiful mansions of Friendship. I am five minutes from yummy food on Liberty Ave. And I am five minutes from Penn Ave, a street that comes to life the first Friday of every month for Unblurred.

This past Friday was the first Friday of August. I'd missed the past couple Unblurreds for various reasons, so I was excited to have a free night for a stroll down Penn, ducking into galleries, enjoying free beer, and taking in some interesting sights.

I met my friend Dan at my place, and we decided to walk down Coral and avoid much of Penn until we got to The Cotton Factory, where awesome t-shirts, free East End Brewery beers, and Franktuary hot dogs were promised.

We each picked up $5 t-shirts. I wanted all of the t-shirts. Seriously. All of them. Especially the ferris wheel, powerlines, dinos, and ghosts ones. Oh, when will I be wildly wealthy?

Fun fact: On this day, I had Franktuary for lunch AND dinner. And it was great.

As we walked down Penn, I stopped often to take pictures of things. This might be my new favorite street art. But, I think that all the time. There's just so much to see and fall in love with on these streets.

During our Unblurred excursion, I was most interested in stopping into Assemble, a new space on Penn that I am very excited about. Their show, With What They Left, was great. It looked like someone ransacked a bunch of abandoned houses and recycled their finds as great installations and creations. I especially loved the back room, which you entered and felt like you were inside of somewhere about to crumble to bits. Wallpaper was stripped and handing from the walls and ceiling. The floor was littered with pages of a book, ripped out and strewn all over.

We also stopped into the new Mr. Roboto Project, which is now right up the street from me. It looks like they still have plenty of work left to go, but it's great to see the new location coming together.

We also ventured into Most Wanted Fine Art, and the picture above comes from there. We also popped into Garfield Artworks and Modern Formations. Once we were all cultured out, Dan and I strolled back toward my place, where we ended up joining some friends for a beer on a balcony. From there, I headed to Silky's on Liberty for a mini high school reunion.

That's the thing I love about being back in Pittsburgh. My night can be full of loud, interesting art, then go to a quiet gathering three stories above a main street, and then end sitting outside of a neighborhood bar, drinking beers and laughing about things past and present. A great end to a semi-stressful week.