Pittsburgh Visit

Susan and I went to Pittsburgh for the last week in May to visit with Julie, Tommy and Adam. They live in Mt. Lebanon on Pittsburgh's south side and we stayed in a hotel within a few miles of their house. Susan has not seen Adam since he started walking so it was a special vacation for her and she got to spend some quality time with him.

The day after we arrived Tommy and Julie took us to the Fairmont Hotel where Tommy works for lunch. I put a blue outline around the Fairmont Hotel to show what the hotel looks like from our seats at PNC Ballpark.

The restaurant, Habitat, has an open kitchen. This image shows the view of the kitchen from our table.

Our appetizers were Edamame and Naan bread with hummus, carmalized onions and cucumber dipping sauces.

A couple of the chefs preparing our lunch.

They are getting ready to bring our food to the table. The sweet potato fries are fantastic, as was all of the food.

This is how the hotel describes the restaurant on their website: Experience the signature appeal of Habitat - one of the best downtown Pittsburgh restaurants, with an international approach to domestic fare. Savor a distinctive experience that is internationally inspired yet home grown. Indulge in a contemporary twist on conventional confort foods. Using local ingrediatent to update traditional dishes from around the world, Habitat defines regional cuisine. The restaurant also features a spectacular chef's table next to a dynamic open kitchen, as well as an elegant bar.

We took in a Pirates games while in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, the Cubs won this particular game but the weather was fantastic and the ballbark is beautiful.

Susan and I walked around the park to see what we could find in the gift shop. The red square near the center of the picture is what Tommy, Adam and Julie looked like from the other side of the ballpark. We had nice seats on the club level where we could go inside when we needed to cool down and sit on comfortable couches while watching the game on TV.


The Strip is a revitalized section of downtown Pittsburgh. I saw this mural on the side of one of the buildings.
One of Tommy and Julie's favorite places to eat breakfast is DeLuca's on The Strip. The food was great and the place was packed. They serve Chocolate Chip pancakes with ice cream on them for breakfast. That should give you a clue that this is not healthy fare, but it was fun.

We went into a candy store and found this chocolate sculpture of Rapunzal.

The Pennsylvania Macaroni Company is also in this section of downtown. This is just part of the board identifying the variety of cheese for sale.

There was a wonderful spice store that we spent quite a bit of time in looking at everything.

One afternoon was spent at the Pittsburgh Science Center. I really enjoyed this place. Some of us tried our had at performing surgery; Susan and Tommy toured a submarine and Adam enjoyed walking up and down the ramps. In this picture, Adam is putting balls into a vacuum tube, which lifted them into a holding tank above his head. When the weight of the balls reached a certain point, all the balls would drop and the kids really liked that.

Tommy and I both tried to get a picture of the tentacles sticking out of Adam's mouth as he ate Calamari at Buca diBeppo's. Adam is not a picky eater to say the least.

One of our favorite places to walk around while we were in Pittsburgh was Giant Eagle, a grocery store that thankfully was located right across the road from our hotel. The store is awesome and pictures would not do it justice, but I did take a picture of the wine kiosks having never seen one before. In Pennsylvania, you cannot be wine in grocery stores but they do have these kiosks that are run by the State Liquor Control Board. You have to show ID and take a breathalizer test before you can purchase the wine.

We had a very good time on this trip and look forward to visiting again.