My Little Homage to Pittsburgh

I freaking love my city. Especially in the Summertime, when everything is green and there are people boating on the rivers and we can sit outside and grill out and go to Pirate games and to Kennywood and to Sandcastle... and otherwise just not freeze our butts off. If it were Summertime all year round, I would never leave.

Okay, throw some Fall in there too, because I love love love all the pretty colors and the fall-y smells and the crisp autumn air. And FOOTBALL SEASON. I really miss Steeler Sundays. There's just something to be said about the sea of black and gold at church on Sunday morning, the priest letting everyone go a few minutes early and ending mass with a little "Go Steelers!" (And then of course some prayer and what-not.) Not to mention all the Steeler jerseys swarming the grocery stores after church, sharing the pre-kickoff excitement and gathering last-minute goodies for the game. It makes you even more anxious to get home and turn on the TV to watch them Stillers!

And Spring is okay too I guess, when the buds start appearing on the trees and the birds return and everything slowly becomes green again. For any Pittsburgher, it is a symbol of hope after a long, cold, gray winter.

Ooh, Winter. Pittsburgh Winters are nasty. The one thing I don't miss. Well, except for when we get good snow days when we can't go to work or school. I will sit inside by the fire all day anytime and watch the snow come down outside. But then it needs to go away. Oh, and at Christmas time. My favorite. It's not Christmas without a little nip in the air and the promise/hope of some snow on the ground.

My city  is so beautiful. I miss it so much. I appreciate it even more now that I have moved away. Even things that used to annoy me, like the traffic, are now even somewhat endearing to me. ("Ohh, Squirrel Hill tunnels... you are backed up again, for nothing. Ahh, Pittsburgh.") <--- That's me talking to myself, while sitting in traffic.

So now when I go home, I revel in all the things that bring back fond memories, I do all the touristy stuff, and I enjoy every last minute that I have in my Hometown. My heart will always be here. <3

Duquesne Incline, since 1877

PPG

where magic happens

boats outside PNC

beautiful ballpark, ominous skies

We won! (Back when we were actually in contention for 1st place in NL Central, not so much anymore)

 

End of Summer

I\we haven't written anything in a while so I figured I'd enlighten you all (Sally & Townley) of some of the notables of the past several weeks. Well, as summer wound down, so did Kristen's spirits about teaching again. Going back to work was not very exciting for a girl who loves to wake up and do nothing - and take all day doing it. In late July, Kristen flew home to visit family & Pittsburgh for a week. I worked. She said she might post pics of her trip one day, but we'll see.

The first weekend of August, we had signed up for a beach clean up with Landshark Lager's Fintastic Voyage down in St. Pete. Being the awesome guy I am, I surprised Kristen with a night in a boutique hotel in downtown St.  Pete for the night before the beach clean up as a anniversary present (it'll be 2yrs of dating coming up soon - not sure how she's stuck around this long). Luckily, I finished up work a bit early that Friday and we got down there in time for happy hour & dinner on the St. Pete pier. After dinner, we headed to a "block party" for the Tampa Bay Rays game that took place right next to our hotel. They had live music, street vendors and all the bars on the block opened doors to invite all of the spectators in. Good times.
The next morning we woke up and headed a few miles over yonder to the Landshark beach clean up on Treasure Island beach. It was kind of fun. Everyone got a trash bag and when you turned it back in full of trash, you received a tshirt & free beer coupons. So, we had our free drinks and enjoyed the day at the beach.

The last few weeks haven't been too exciting. Kristen, unwillingly, got herself ready for the start of another school year. After the first week, before the kids even started mind you, Kristen had already started her countdown to next summer. Speaking of countdowns to next summer, we finally have a date set for our wedding... June 29, 2013! And we put a deposit down on a reception site. We'll post more on that later because Kristen & I haven't actually seen the place in person just yet, but we've seen pictures and we're 99.9% sure it's the place.

I think that's all I have for the time being. Here are a few pics from the past few weeks. Someone (me) forgot the camera, so please excuse the cell phone pics.

view of the city from the top of st. pete pier

self portrait at the block party

 

beach clean up HQ

the cannons were actually beer taps... obviously my favorite pirate ship of all time

giant inflatable water slide that we didn't go on b/c it cost $5 a ride