Pittsburgh!

The trip was fun! Pittsburgh is much cooler than I thought it would be. Actually I barely knew anything about the city except that it bleeds black and gold. It turns out that besides Steelers fans, Pittsburgh is filled with bridges, churches, french fries, and craft beer. Yes, please!

Check out my pics! The rundown:

1. Drive wasn't bad at all. Decent rental, good tunes, and AC that didn't slow the car down. I'd say travel time was about 20 hours in total, including stoppage time.

2. One of the stops was to Troegs Brewery in Harrisburg. We didn't do the tour, but we did partake in the sampler. We thought it would be a shot glass of each beer on tap, but to our pleasant surprise we got about 4oz per glass. And it only cost $8!!

3. Cool architecture galore!

4. The Andy Warhol Museum was very cool as well. We couldn't take any pictures inside, so I found this video to share one of my favorite exhibits. It's called Silver Clouds. I giggled the whole time.



5. BEERBEERBEER! There were so many to choose from! Ones to mention are Stone 14th Anniversary Empirical IPA and my new favorite, Rogue John John Juniper. We also drank $2.50 Genesee Cream Ales to even things out.

6. I keep writing "we" without sharing who WE were! Thanks to Rocks and Bakes for coming with me on another baseball adventure. I had a blast! You're both great company!

7. FOODFOODFOOD! Pittsburghers (is that what they are called?) put french fries on everything, even salad. YES. SALAD. I will prove this once Bakes uploads her pictures. Granted we were at a place called EatnPark, but still.

Primanti's puts fries and coleslaw right on their sandwiches. It was good, but the Rutgers Grease Trucks are better. I definitely recommend Fathead's for their million item menu and craft beer selection.

8. The bar crowds were either really young or really old. People between 26 and 40 did not seem to exist in Pittsburgh. If they do, they were at home with their spouses and children. Or, you know, just drinking at a different bar. We did hit around seven though...

9. I am really good at this. Punching: $3.


10. We stayed at the Doubletree in Bigelow Square, but pronouced it dooblahtra to make it fancy. They had cookies.

11. Rocks showed me how to do different types of planks. My abs still hurt.

12. Last but not least, the whole point of the trip...BASEBALL!

The Pirates kind of stink, but PNC Park does not. While it's small and has a similar layout to all the newer stadiums, the view makes it worth the trip:


I must say the ballpark isn't very Piratey, though. They didn't even sell eye patches! What the fuck?? The things I really did like were they named the bridge leading into the stadium after Roberto Clemente, his and Honus Wagner's statues, and the tribute to the Crawfords, Pittsburgh's Negro League back in the day.

I am so glad I watched Ken Burns' Baseball documentary before this trip (I still need to write about that!). Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige were two of the best baseball players of all time. Unfortunately, MLB wouldn't allow blacks to play in what the owners called "a gentleman's agreement", an unwritten "no negros allowed" policy. Ignorant fucks. Paige eventually did get into the majors in 1948. Gibson would have too, but he died a few months before Jackie Robinson went to the Brooklyn Dodgers. More on this when I write about the series, but cool to note - Gibson was called "The Black Babe Ruth", but fans who watched them both play actually called Ruth "The White Josh Gibson."

Hmmm...what else is there to say about the Pirates game? It wasn't that good, they lost against the Astros 2-5. I'm glad they won the next two. Their mascot is a parrot. Most teams have a silly race between innings, usually with more mascots or a video representing something basebally or from the team/city. For example, at the Cyclones game they had hotdogs. Relish was a fast one. Mustard let me down:


In Pittsburgh they have perogies. I had no idea what the correlation was so I looked it up. It's as easy as Mrs. T's sponsors the race. They have names too: Jalapeño Hannah (green hat), Cheese Chester (yellow), Sauerkraut Saul (red) and Oliver Onion (purple). Told you it was silly.


Well I guess that's it!!! I'd definitely recommend a quick visit to Pittsburgh. If it was closer I'd totally go back during football season. Shit must be insane.