Take a Walk: Octopus's Garden in Friendship

On Saturday I had an hour to kill before meeting up with a friend for some North Side adventures. So I took a walk. (As part of my effort to walk around my neighborhood more often.) My destination was something I had passed by and heard about in passing, the Octopus's Garden in Friendship on S. Aiken.  Earlier in the day I had been walking around running errands and buying hot beverages and donuts and had the feeling of "I'm in love with this place" hitting me pretty hard. Hidden gems in my neighborhood like the Octopus's Garden definitely add to the love. For where I am in my life now, I can't think of a better place to live than in Bloomfield and on the edge of Friendship, Garfield, and Lawrenceville. Here are some photos from the garden. If you ever find yourself with some time to kill after grabbing brunch at The Quiet Storm or coffee at Voluto, walk down S. Aiken and enjoy the garden for yourself. 

30 Before 30: The Frick Art Museum (and Cars! and Plants!)

This is the first of two posts this week that brings me back to past. In one day I revisited two places that I first experienced on field trips - one in middle school and one in college. Though it may seem odd, I have not always been this PGH-obsessed. I am a born Pittsburgher, but I was quick to flee as soon as possible after getting a couple degrees from Pitt. In my youth (youthier youth; in my mind I'm forever in my youth), I did not appreciate Pittsburgh. Which is a shame, but I really missed out on some dynamic things. At least I'm appreciating them now.

Saturday afternoon Allie and I visited the grounds of Clayton, Henry Clay Frick's estate in Point Breeze. Though you have to pay to tour the house (which was part of my field trip in middle school), the art museum, the carriage house, and the gardens were free admission. So that's what we explored. No photos were permitted in the museum or carriage house. The art wasn't really my thing (I tend toward the modern and contemporary stuff), but the cars were awesome. Cars aren't my thing; we've covered this fact before. I could have easily seen myself behind the wheel of a couple of the smaller little roadsters. If you have a spare hour or so, it's worth a trip to Frick to see the cars and then wander around the gardens.

This is a playhouse. I wouldn't mind it as a real house.

The greenhouse and outdoor garden were abundant with growth. We figure that they use the produce at the Cafe. We didn't stop for anything at the Cafe while we were there, but I wouldn't mind trying out their tea service sometime in the not too distant future.

These are monster tomato plants. I don't think I've ever seen tomato plants this tall.

Tons of basil.

On the grounds of the Frick, a pet cemetery.

Eventually, I'll take the tour of the house again. But when looking for some free activities on a Saturday afternoon, the Frick provides three very different options.

30 Before 30: The Color in Frick Park

And we're back in the park! One thing I've learned to love about hiking (even urban hiking like this) is finding the spots of color peppered in among the green. So here are the bits of color I found while wandering the woods.

I climbed up a bit to get this, but it was well worth nearly twisting my ankle on the way down.

Spending a few hours away from things by getting lost in Frick Park (but not too lost, it wouldn't take too long to walk to the edge of this forest). It was just me, my iPod and my camera. It was glorious.

Take A Walk: Blocks of Penn

I've been meaning to take more walks. I feel like I've neglected nice walks when there's nothing else to do. So I made a point to walk down to Target this past weekend along Penn. There had been a few things I wanted to capture on a list in the back of my mind. So, with the sun beginning to set, I took a walk.

Sun beating down on Gross Street.

If I had money to spend on such things, this map painting would be mine. Maybe one day.

Mural on the edge of the Quiet Storm.

A gallery on the side of a building.

Mental note: Take a glass blowing class.

30 Before 30: Exploring Carrie Furnace

Last Wednesday, Carrie, Corey and I took a bike ride out to the Carrie Furnace with some other cyclist adventurers. The group ride was part of BikeFest, which there are still plenty of awesome rides to do before it ends on August 19! (Like the Underwear Ride, which is tomorrow and which I am still trying to work up the courage to do.) This post will mostly be a photo-dump of the ride and the tour of Carrie Furnace. This was a seriously awesome event, so thank you to the organizers for giving me a chance to cross off another of my 30 Before 30 goals!

The ride started out at the Pump House at the Waterfront.

Away we go!

The weather? Perfect. 

Once we got to the site, ZeroFossil, who is working to outfit the Carrie Furnace with solar panels for sustainable energy, had a bike set up to power the blender that made us some tasty margaritas. Here I am giving it a go, but the seat was just a bit too high for me.

Because the thing you want to do before you walk around a dangerous and unstable site like the Carrie Furnace is drink some alcohol. Cheers!

This place was more massive than I ever imagined.

There was so much good graffiti.

Guerilla artists built this deer head at the site using materials found on site. This thing reminds me of the Enchanted Highway sculptures in North Dakota.

After the tour, we biked back to the Waterfront and had beers and food at Blue Dust in Homestead. It was an awesome night of biking, adventuring, and meeting new people. BikeFest has been filled with opportunities to do awesome things and meet awesome people; go out and ride around before it's over!