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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Animals will strike a pose for talking heads and rock and roll
I had a solid reason for going to Pittsburgh on Labor Day Weekend (more about that toward the end of this page) and I started thinking about this trip by looking at my options on how to best get there. First I looked at Amtrak. I have a soft spot for trains and taking the Pennsylvanian was my first choice and the first one I had to dismiss, unfortunately I could not spare the time for the all day, nine hour ride each way from New York in my new, more complicated schedule. My next thought was to fly one way to Pittsburgh (I was meeting family there who could drive me back home), but the cost of the flight and the far, far more expensive prospect of parking at Newark Airport P4 or at La Guardia made me rethink and eventually pass on that option (parking alone more than tripled the cost of flying). That left driving west across Pennsylvania as the best remaining course of action, and something which was grueling but (discounting the actual six hours spent on the road) was not all that terrible. And six short hours later I was here in Pittsburgh, taking pictures of its incredibly well sited top tier skyline on a perfect late summer afternoon.
That first picture of Pittsburgh from the banks of the Ohio River was taken from right here at the Fred Rogers Tribute to Children Monument in front of the football stadium in Pittsburgh, a great place to start the slideshow even if its not where I started this trip (more about that toward the end of this page). The monument (designed by Louis Astorino) frames a view of the river with a giant ten foot statue of Mister Rogers himself, who (and I’m not completely sure about this) was probably not quite that tall in real life. The statue (by Robert Berks) has a bit of a crazy looking smile thing going on, although once I got used to it, I found it more authentic and endearing than expected. The monument had kids crawling over it and audio of Mister Rogers playing throughout, a good idea and one that more monuments should probably consider.
We’ll finish up the Mister Rogers portion of the Pittsburgh Slideshow at the quite nice Heinz History Center, where my preschool self likely would have ruptured a vein in his head with excitement in seeing these set pieces from the show in person. I’m not sure at the time I ever even comprehended that any of this was (or even could have been) a real thing I would ever see in my lifetime and even now, with my preschool self being a distant fading memory, it was still pretty damn cool thing to see in person.
I did not drive six hours to Pittsburgh specifically to go to the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh (more about why I drove six hours to Pittsburgh toward the end of this page), but it might be a reasonable and understandable statement if I said I did. The Cathedral of Learning is not a cathedral, but it is a fun building with a great lobby and a free observation deck right in the heart of the Oakland neighborhood. This time I intentionally skipped all of the nationality rooms (which can feel tiresome after the first few) and instead focused on everything else instead.
My favorite room in all of Pittsburgh is the Cast Hall inside the Carnegie Museums, where you can gaze at (but not touch) facades from all across the world (or, to be more specific, just from Europe). It’s amazing to me that this exists and even more amazing to me that more of them aren’t everywhere. With laser scanning and 3d printing, accurate replicas of buildings could fill gallery after gallery and even museum after museum with fragments of architecture from all across the world. Seems like an idea just waiting to happen.
The Carnegie Museums are unique not only for their wondrous Cast Hall but also for the fact that the museum is really a combination of two museums in one building- an art museum and a natural history one- and both are quite good. In one gallery you can see dinosaurs or rocks, in another you’ll see a Monet or Van Gogh. The experience can be jarring but only if you overthink it, when you’re there walking through it makes you somewhat wonder why more museums aren’t mash ups like this. Maybe in the future we’ll see things like a sting ray touch tank at the Met or a planetarium at the Guggenheim. Suddenly the future is starting to sound more interesting.
Famously when Andrew Carnegie was on his death bed, he called for Henry Clay Frick to come visit him so that they could resolve their differences. Frick refused and instead told Carnegie that he would see him in Hell. Henry Clay Frick was not a good guy (or even an ok one), but he collected art and his recently reopened home in New York is a gem in a city full of great museums. Pittsburgh may not be New York, but the Carnegie Museums are world class and Frick’s house (now the Frick Pittsburgh) is a pretty interesting place to visit. The small (but solid) art museum, greenhouse and car museum was free to visit, something that I’m pretty sure Henry Clay Frick would not appreciate if his (now) 176 year old ass was still alive.
Mister Rogers, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick were not the only famous dead Pittsburghers (or quite possibly Pittsburghites) in this slideshow, and our next stop (at the Andy Warhol Museum) proves that. This museum alone could be considered a reason to go to Pittsburgh (for me though it wasn’t, more about that toward the end of this page) with a well presented and comprehensive collection and archive.
The Andy Warhol museum may be the star museum of the North Shore, but up the hill in the Mexican War Streets Neighborhood is The Mattress Factory, one of my all time favorite museums. It’s hard to describe exactly why I like it so much but that’s not going to prevent me from trying anyway. The Mattress Factory has a certain danger to it, kind of like an old school version of PS1. Once there you’ll quickly find yourself in creepy basements or walking up non code compliant stairs or all by yourself in a Yayoi Kusama infinity room. The whole museum is (kind of) like a funhouse run by insane people, a phrase I mean as the highest compliment imaginable.
Just a block or so away and still in the Mexican War Streets Neighboprhood (named after the fact that it was developed during the US Mexican War, not that there is an ongoing street war there taking place there with Mexico) is Randyland, a free folk art installation with all of the promise and all of the drawbacks of a free folk art installation. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s free and was a great place to go to decompress after a visit to the Mattress Factory.
Downhill from the Mexican War Streets neighborhood is the North Shore where, on Labor Day Weekend, the fine people of Pittsburgh descend upon Heinz Field (actually its Acrisure Stadium now) for their annual Kickoff and Rib Festival. Unlike other BBQ Festivals I have been to in the past, this one was a lot less complicated. While the one in Washington DC requires you to buy tickets and Ribfest in Chicago requires you to buy vouchers to buy ribs, the one here in Pittsburgh was free to enter and easy to navigate, even if they were lacking a bit in places to sit down and eat. Plus the ground floor concourse of the stadium was open to wander about, and it was great to see inside Heinz Field (actually its Acrisure Stadium now), a place (an a non-football fan) I have almost no chance of otherwise seeing.
Perhaps the only aviary better than a local aviary or a county aviary or a state aviary is this one, the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. And it is a nice aviary, probably the nicest one I have been to as far as aviaries are concerned, even if it looks like that one bird is getting ready to murder me.
As nice as the National Aviary was, it was not the reason that I drove all that way out to Pittsburgh. More about that next.
We are at PNC Park (often voted as one of the best MLB stadiums in the country) to see my second ever Banana Ball game. If you are not familiar with Banana Ball then my description will sound like I’m just making up random things as I go along, but trust me, it’s a real thing.
This game featured the flagship team (the Savannah Bananas) versus another one (the Texas Tailgaters) although the game at times was kind of secondary compared to all of the other things going on at the exact same time. In between actual baseball is being played, although the rules are notably different with fun features like a two hour time clock, a called out if a fan catches a ball and no walks and an environment that encourages trick plays and allows pitchers on stilts. All of this happening at the same time can sometimes be exhausting, but every minute is memorable, never boring and always fun.
