Pitt: part 2

So this is really more like part 1, but I'm considering Monday's post as the
first.

My older sister and her family live in a small town outside of Pittsburgh. This was only our second trip into the city of Pittsburgh and we did it up in true tourist fashion over the memorial holiday weekend.

We started off in my niece's neighborhood and animal house inspired 4-story house {inhabited by 5 college girls for the summer, you can just imagine~ or maybe you can't, eek!}. This is a house across the street from the house that my niece is living in for the summer. This area is comprised of blocks and blocks of row type houses. Some are very cute and some....not so much.

Next stop, the U of Pitt Cathedral of Learning. What a gorgeous building! We went to the top for a view of the city. My niece actually has classes here. The girls outside. From left to right: sister Jenny, my little one, niece Sara, moi, my mom. Hubby was taking the picture and I have to note here that he is a complete and utter SAINT for putting up with all of us women all weekend!

From there we hit the shadyside area. Walked up Walnut street and checked out a few shops, then had a drink at the Shady Grove. I love this area.

Next stop, the one hour clipper cruise along the three rivers surrounding Pittsburgh. I highly recommend this boat ride at sunset, it was beautiful seeing the downtown lights come on as the sun sank down for the evening.
We ended our first day with dinner at Gino's Cafe in the little Italy section of Pitt. They had the best Italian wedding soup, yummy!

The next morning we hit the Obama's favorite breakfast spot in Pitt, Pamela's Diner. Their specialty is crepe~style pancakes stuffed with fruit and a bit of sour cream and brown sugar. It was HEAVENLY and I could kick myself for my not snapping a pic of my plate before I devoured the.entire.thing!

These pictures were taken right in front of Pamela's Diner in Oakland {near Pitt campus}.We got our cultural fix at the Warhol museum. I was actually a bit more intrigued with the Andy Warhol bridge.

Pittsburgh is filled with bridges, many are yellow, and they are all a bit different. They had hanging baskets of flowers on each bridge and all throughout the city. There are also a lot of churches in Pittsburgh.
And A.LOT of breweries. So why not combine the two and have a church brew works? Good food, good beer, and great surroundings.

A few other highlights were getting to see Sex & the City with my niece Sara {funny thing is we actually saw the first movie together there in downtown Pitt two years ago at the South Side Works theatre}. Note: the movie itself was NOT a highlight, yikes, but getting to see it with her was.

We hit a flea market in the strip district on Sunday morning and I found a couple of small goodies. My little fish insisted we get in lots of swimming at the hotel pool and we spent our last day with my nephew Andrew (can't believe I didn't get any pics of him!), driving him back to school.

I am blessed with a crazy, yet phenomenal family! We had lots of laughs and even some tears.