Recent Pittsburgh shots

Here are some random photos of recent strolls around Pittsburgh. The mural above is in Shadyside. The next one is of Cappy's Cafe, where we ate for the first time a week ago. It was good. It's always stood out to me, because my childish brain reads it as "Crappy's" every time I see it. We have almost always eaten breakfast at Pamela's when we go to Shadyside for breakfast or brunch. It was a nice change to try somewhere new. Plus, there was no line.

The picture below is of Bloomfield from the 4th floor of West Penn Hospital. I had a checkup regarding my hernia repair (still solid). I always like looking at the neighborhood from above. You can actually see our house's roof and chimneys in this picture (or at least the larger original).

This is in the Strip District.

45 minutes in two museums (musea, if your prefer)

Here is the last post from my urban hiking yesterday. Here are a couple of shots from the 45 minutes I spent in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Art. They're attached and the entrance fee gets you into both. We have a family membership, so it is easy and painless to go and gawk at art, casts of architectural facades, and long-dead animals for a short amount of time. Above is an adolescent tyrannosaurus rex. Below are a set of plate armor from the 1500's, a sculpture of the Buddha from the 13th century, and a close up of a favorite part of one of the paintings in their collection. The artist escapes me right now, but I'll update this when I remember. Perhaps Bethany knows and will comment before I can update.

Urban hike to Oakland

As I can't really do much exercise yet because of the surgery and recovery, I went for a nice urban hike. I wandered from Bloomfield into Oakland and back. Total of 4.4 miles, not including inside distance walking inside of the buildings. I stopped into a lot of businesses I'd never been in. I also went inside a big old catholic cathedral. I made it to the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History a bit under an hour before closing. I'll post pictures in following posts.

The GPS got pretty confused a couple of times. For instance, on Craig St. below. I promise you that I didn't run around in circles in the middle of the street.

The GPS unit doesn't really like urban areas so much with all the buildings and whatnot. I did go into a few shops here. I perused some great antique books at the Caliban Book Shop and Townsend Booksellers. Both had some wonderful old texts. Caliban has a small corner devoted to music, which they call Desolation Row CDs. Perhaps it's a separate business that rents the little nook. In any case, I got the new Animal Collective and Blitzen Trapper CD's. Jury's still out on both. I've only gotten one quick sort of background listen in. There is a nice little Indian grocery and a Middle Eastern grocery and food counter along the route.

Leaving Bloomfield heading toward Oakland, one must cross 'the Gully.' It's where the water once ran out of the hills toward the rivers before this place was fucked over by having a city put on it. I get really sad sometimes when I imagine how beautiful this area was before it was concreted over with Pittsburgh. It makes for a nice city, but damn it, I'd much prefer the original hills and the spectacular confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers without taming from the dams. I bet the gully was a wonderful wetland and riparian area.


From the second floor of the building that houses Dreaming Ant, the sun paints a nice glow on the buildings of Oakland.