Stroll the Cemetery: Winter 2013

Technically, this stroll took place at the every end of 2012. But, it'll hit the internet-waves in 2013, and I'm way more inclined to live in the present rather than in the past. The cemetery in the wintertime is boring. Sheeeesh. Walking through (with great care and caution; the pathways were a bit icy), it was hard to believe that this was the same place that was bursting with amazing color just a few months prior.

The cemetery was eerily quiet. It was cold, but not terribly unpleasant. The snow was falling lightly. For as much as I hate winter, this wasn't the worst way to spend a few hours outside of the apartment. Enjoy the photos I took along the way.

The infamous grave looks ever goofier in the winter.

Last year's purchase of good winter boots has finally come in handy.

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.

EverythingBetterPGH - Instagram May 2012

So, yeah. Here's the thing. My life feels completely out of control right now. I've had several action-packed weekends and work has somewhat exploded and my brain feels like it is in a million places at once. I take off for DC on bike in...just a little more then FOUR days. Like last year, I feel totally unprepared, but at least I have half the trail already under my belt, so I'm less nervous this go-around. Still though, I need to do the following before Friday night: go to REI for last-minute camping supplies, go to grocery store for initial foodstuffs, get Red all nice and tuned up, and figure out what exactly I'm packing. I know I'm going to leave Pittsburgh (okay, Homestead) by bike and turn up in DC a week later. But I still have no idea how I'm actually going to execute such a plan.

What I'm saying: I don't want to abandon EverythingBetterPGH this week, because I doubt I'll be posting much from the trail (though if I am, find me on twitter or instagram (username: everythingbetterpgh)). So here's a sorry excuse for a post. Some instagram photos I've taken over the past few weeks. Enjoy.

This is Mae. She is a dog. She is a pretty awesome dog. She is owned by Sarah.

Slowly, I am making my way through Fallingwater Rising. It's intimidating, but informatively juicy.

This is a perfect sky, in honor of the perfect weather we had all weekend.

Here I am on the South Side. I am a sucker for powerlines.

You may not be surprised to find out that I am currently working on a PGH puzzle. Here we have the top of the PPG Building.

My First Motorcycle Ride: Seeing the City a New Way

You may recall that I was going to make a concerted effort in April to do new things, and then keep a list of them so I wouldn't forget them at the end of the month. I wasn't wholly successful in meeting my goal, as I often wimped out and just went to new restaurants. But a wonderfully willing and motorcycle- owner friend name John helped me close out the month of April doing a new thing that I never actually thought I'd want to do.

I'm the sort that considers a motorcycle a death machine, but I've been trying to do more things that scare me or make me nervous lately. I trusted John to take good care of me and not let my last moments be the seconds before my head splattered on the pavement. And we made an adventure out of it. I picked four different outlooks in the North, West, South, and East and we figured out our routes on the go.

John wasted no time in getting me acclimated to going fast. We zipped down the 40th Street hill and across the bridge and onto 28. It was scary, but awesome. And I was immediately hooked. Our first outlook was the Troy Hill cemetery. Going up Troy Hill Road I could watch the skyline in the reflection of John's shiny helmet. The cemetery probably wasn't the best place we could have chosen, but if I have the opportunity to rope a cemetery visit into an adventure, I will.

From Troy Hill we got back onto a numbered road (here's the thing about not owning a car: I don't know anything about our highways - I just know they are numbered and fast and not safe for me to bike on) and flew across the West End Bridge to the West End Elliott Overlook. I don't think John had ever been there, so I was really excited to share of one my favorite outlooks.

Back down a hill we went, and then up Mount Washington we climbed. At the outlook we stopped at on Grandview Ave, we could already tell we were in for a amazing sunset. The PPG building was glowing and orange. The weather was so temperate and clear. We got back on the motorcycle and headed to our last destination.

I've only recently found out about this gem in Schenley Park, and it was a spectacular sunset to end our adventure with. We sat in the grass and watched the orange sky turn slowly into night.

We were nearly back in Bloomfield when I shouted to John and asked if we could go down Bigelow into the city. He obliged and that little addition to the end of the ride was definitely the most thrilling. I won't tell you how fast we were going, but know that the city was coming at us very very quickly. From the city we took Liberty back up to Winebiddle and hit nearly every greenlight until we got to Bloomfield proper.

I survived my first motorcycle ride. We celebrated at Brillobox.

April Showers? No, but Downtown Flowers!

One of the reasons I love Pittsburgh: Seasons. I know this isn't unique to my lovely city, but it is an important thing to me, and I don't think I could live in a place that didn't have all four seasons. Granted, we didn't really have a winter this year, but spring has sprung and it has put me in the best mood. Regardless of the lack of snow and bitter cold, the city was still gray ol' Pittsburgh winter. The bursts of color as the trees start coming back to life and the flowers popping up in a variety of shades are putting the energy back on the streets. People are out walking around. Everyone's eating lunch outside. It feels good out there. So good.

I spent a bit of my lunchbreak the other day admiring the tulips growing between PPG buildings in Market Square.





And then I explored the cloisters at Heinz Hall for the first time. Always look up when you're in the city; you never know what you will find up there.

Happy Spring, Pittsburgh!!

Sad Little Dead Computer

Friends! The ultimate trauma that I have been dreading has finally happened. My trusty computer crapped out. Not completely (which is the good news), but it needs to go away to the computer fixer geniuses for about a week (which is the bad news). My dad has loaned me a laptop, but it's only real function is to provide me with a link to the internet. I've got nothing to edit photos with, so until the ol' gal is back in working order, this blog might be a little visually dull. (Blogger is being crazy; I have no idea why this is centered!)

Which is a shame, because this month has already had it's share of picture-worthy moments. So, hold those thoughts and bear with me as I get through this very bleak time.

I will tell you that I am working on logging all the new things I do in April. They will be revealed closer to the end of the month. April also holds several very awesome events; the 28th is literally morning/afternoon/evening/night/late-night jam-packed with very different/Pittsburgh-esque events. Go out and enjoy this lovely weather.

Le Magnifique: Pittsburgh's Newest Statue

Unveiled a few weeks ago now, the Mario Lemieux statue outside of the Consol Energy Center is our city's newest tribute to a Pittsburgh hero. There's a lot of debate about the statue itself, whether it should've been just Mario instead of Mario breaking through two of the Islanders defenders in 1988. Either way, it's good to have something on the ground in Pittsburgh that will remind us all of Mario's love for our city. I remember being in Boston at work and watching a clip of Mario's speech made before a raucous crowd at the Igloo, telling the fans that the Penguins were staying put in Pittsburgh. Where they belonged.

The day the statue was unveiled, I walked up to the Consol during my lunchbreak. It was the first of a string of beautiful late winter/early spring days. Fittingly, the temperature was a lovely 66 degrees.

Here are a few shots of the statue.

Mario, and the deconstructed shell of the arena where he made so much magic happen.

Mario, and the shiny new beautiful building that will house the Penguins for many years (and hopefully many Cup wins!) to come.

Pedestrian Pittsburgh: The Staircases of Polish Hill

[Pedestrian Pittsburgh is a collaborative effort between Eric Lidji and me. We're gonna walk all over this fantastic city. Check out his blog for his account (which will be much more elegant and whimsical than my account that follows).]

When you put a neighborhood on a steep hill, you end up needing a transportation system to get people from the bottom to the top and back down again. It might seem too basic to be considered a transportation system, but really that's what staircases are. They are a pain when you have to climb several to get to where you're going, but they are way less of a pain than the alternative - scaling the hill without it broken up a bit.


Our plan on possibly the most beautiful January day on record was to walk up or down all of the staircases in Polish Hill. Why? Why not? What else are you going to do with your time?

This staircase is all the way at the back of Polish Hill. On the other side of that wall is Bigelow Boulevard.

From the top of the staircase, you can see Polish Hill, Lawrenceville, Troy Hill and beyond.

But, if you look down, you'll see some lovely little chickens!

The day of our walk it was sunny and almost 60 degrees. Fuck winter, indeed. (Of course, it's now freezing and snowy and blustery, so that whole mild winter thing is probably over. SAD. FACE.)

Definitely my favorite staircase, and maybe Eric's too, was this one above. It's hard to see before most of it is covered in the weird gully-forest overgrowth in Polish Hill's odd little gully. But where it looks like it turns to the right it actually also continues straight, making a big, somewhat unnecessary loop. Though I guess it is not entirely unnecessary for the people who live in the three or four houses it services, which is a nice part of Pittsburgh's charm.

This is one of those snapshots of Pittsburgh that I just absolutely love. Rickety houses teetering comfortably on the edge.

The best part of walking the staircases were the small discoveries along the way: the unnecessary loop, the stickers and graffiti, the chickens and the view. Polish Hill is a treasure trove because the people who live there, have lived there, or have climbed up and down the staircases on trips to the neighborhood have left little remnants of themselves behind. I like wondering who put up these little birds outside their cage or who spray-painted this excellent orange creature on our last staircase of the day. I'll probably never find out, but that's okay so long as there are continually more things to find and enjoy.

You can see more photos from the walk on the EverythingBetterPGH Picasa Page.