Afternoon on the North Side

On the same afternoon that I had my first iceball from Gus and Yiayia's, Corey and I spent some time just meandering about through the Mini Maker Faire, through the park, through the War Streets and and through Deustchtown. It was mostly done on a whim (we had planned to attend the Maker Faire, but only checked out the stuff outside), and it was quite the enjoyable whim to be retold with photos.

Have you ever seen this fountain near the Children's Museum? I don't think I had ever noticed it before. I work in an office with a (baller) view of the PPG fountain, and this one kind of puts it to shame. It wouldn't be able to double as the location for a skating rink though, that is for sure. (Ouch.)

Part of my excitement about going to the Mini Maker Faire, was the possibility of lunch from a food truck. And we had options of hot dogs (Franktuary), grilled cheese (Oh My Grill), or pierogies (PGH Pierogi Truck). We both went with grilled cheese (finally - after wanting a taste of Oh My Grill since summer's food truck round-up). Help keep food trucks in Pittsburgh a growing trend - check out Pittsburgh Mobile Food's site for information on how to get involved or for announcements of awesome food truck events.

The Mini Maker Faire was pretty interesting, for the little of it we ended up seeing. (We had to decide to pay to get into the Children's Museum or stay outside where it appeared free. We chose to keep it cheap.) We spent the most time learning about a couple projects going on at HackPGH.

Small version of a lighting project JackPGH will soon be displaying at their location.

After checking out the Faire, we walked on over the to park.

And then we walked through the War Streets. (Someone please buy me a house in the War Streets.)

Finally, we walked down the main drag in Deutschtown to check out if the Priory Bakery was still open. On our way to find out, Corey spotted this gem of a t-shirt hanging in the window of the neighborhood Goodwill. After doubling over in laughter on the other side of the street for a good three minutes, I immediately made the decision to purchase it. (Of course I did. Not even my dad was surprised when I showed him the picture below later that evening.)

In other news, the bakery was open and I bought some cookies. They were delicious.

Thanks for a lovely afternoon, North Side. Hope to be seeing you again soon.

Keeping it Local in Lawrenceville on a Saturday Night

I've been in self-imposed isolation for the past week and a half due to my lovely poison ivy legs. But, with the weather being fortunately cooler, I dragged myself out to get some grub at the first Pittsburgh Food Truck Roundup on Saturday night. We walked down toward the empty lot where the trucks were set up, and walked right to the back of a line. We weren't sure what line we were in. I don't think anyone knew what line anyone was in. It was very British of us all to be standing there in a queue, not really sure of what might be at the end of it. Eventually, I ended up with cheddar potato pierogies from the Pittsburgh Pierogi Truck and some honey lavender ice cream from the Dozen dessert truck. 

We hurried down Butler toward 39th just in time for my first visit to the Arsenal Cider House. This has been on my Pittsburgh to-do list for a while now, and I went with some seasoned veterans (Steph and her boyfriend Derek) who already had empty growlers ready to be filled. We sampled four different ciders (and here I thought they only had one cider at a time!) and picked two (one that was peach-like and one that was sour cherry) to take back to their house.

Steph and I sat in her backyard in Lawrenceville listening to LCD Soundsystem and drinking some pretty great cider until my legs started itch and I needed to make my way back to the comfort of the couch where calamine lotion and bags of ice were easily accessible.

I'm nearly out of the woods with this whole poison ivy nightmare. I've been able to bike more the past few days and spend more time outside without feeling like I need to scratch off the top layer of my skin. There's so much good stuff coming up with PedalPGH and Bikefest in the next two weeks that I would hate to miss.