Go Steelers!

Okay I could really care less about the Steelers and football but I was in Pittsburgh so I thought I would be try to be cute. Yeah, yeah, I know, whatever Carolyn. At least I got a picture of the president in my post!

We just got back from our trip up to Pittsburgh, PA to visit with Tom's friend Brendan. Tom and Brendan have known each other for about 48 years and they are 50 this year so that's a long time. We haven't seen them in years. The last time we saw them was when we lived in Florida and they were on Miami Beach so we went to have dinner. That was like 6 years ago.

The trip from old Sylva, NC to Pittsburgh, PA takes about 9 hours. We started out early on Thursday. The drive is beautiful because you have to drive through NC, TN, VA, WV and then PA. The trip went smoothly. We really didn't stop anywhere but when we were in West Virginia we did stop to see the New River Gorge (see picture) which was fantastic. But the weather was actually cool. When we arrived in Pittsburgh in tee shirts and shorts, we were chilly. We arrived on Thursday and we had dinner and caught up.

On Friday Brendan and his wife, Janelle, decided to take us down to the what the call the Strip District in downtown Pittsburgh. It was so super cool. It reminded me of the fashion district in downtown LA that has tons of vendors but this district not only had clothes but home shops, restaurants and tons of grocery/food stores. I went nuts because as much as I like living in Sylva, it's not the most diverse place around. So it was a huge culture shock but I loved it. The Strip District is a few blocks long and just filled with so much stuff. You could find anything here. I was able to get some awesome spices at Penzey's Spices. I stopped by a Mexican grocer where they were making fresh tortillas. I got some tomatillo sauce and I finally found some flax seed or linaza to make tea. My granny would always make me linaza for stomach health and I can't find it here in Sylva. All over there were vendors selling every food imaginable. Hot dogs, sausages, pirogies, tacos, shish kabobs, sweets, kettle corn and so much more.

Now I joked about the title of my post but on every corner there were vendors selling Pittsburgh Steelers and Penguins merchandise. Yes, Pittsburgh has 2 world champoionship teams so I have to give it up to them but it was overkill. I mean you could get anything and everything with the logos on it. It was crazy. I was told that Pittsburgh people are HARDCORE about their sports teams and I saw it. I wanted to scream Cleveland Rocks! or something but didn't want to killed or beaten to a pulp.

My favorite places were, of course, any store that had food. Besides Penzey Spices, which is amazing, they had wine stores, Asian markets, Middle eastern markets, Italian markets etc. We walked into this amazing shop that had every single type of cheese imaginable. Unfortunately we were so far from home otherwise I would have indulged and bought pounds of it. On the other side of the store, I came across this wall of olive oil. Ahhh, a dream come true. I mean they must have had about 100 different types of olive oil. It was freaking amazing. Also, in that Italian market they had tons of fresh bread and fresh pasta! It was so cool. I told Tom we need to just drive up here with a huge cooler in the car, shop and then drive 9 hours back home. He wasn't open to that.

There were also some funky shops filled with cool things but I only shopped for food stuffs. These days I am tight with the money so I only buy the practical stuff. We walked for a few hours and hit up almost every store. It was a lot of fun. In our conversations, we were talking about the Food Network and food, of course. They mentioned that Lidia Bastianich had a restaurant in downtown in the Strip District. Now some of you may know Lidia from her PBS show a few years ago. She cooks some kick ass Italian food. So you know I was all over that! So after some shopping we walked more to get to the restaurant. I mention the walking because you all know I am lazier than sin and hate walking but I have to say that doing Wii Fit actually helped because I was able to walk for hours and not get winded and super duper tired. Thank you evil Wii Fit.

At Lidia's we had a fabulous lunch. They had a pasta tasting menu that included soup or salad and three all you can eat pastas. Now this isn't like Pizza Hut, this is so gourmet food. The pasta was fantastic. And the service was impeccable. There is nothing like good service and this place had it! It was a really really lovely lunch. After gorging ourselves on pasta, we walked back to the District and stopped at St. Patrick's Church. A little church that has been there for years. It was so pretty and the grounds were especially beautiful. Now I am always afraid that when I walk into a church it will be a scene out of the Omen when Gregory Peck is dragging Damien into the church to kill him and the kid is screaming to beat Jesus. But luckily, that didn't happen and I survived unscathed or would that be the church survived unscathed? LOL

After our lunch we went over to the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. The Phipps is right across the street from Carnegie Mellon University where Tom went to school. It is a lovely place. They had this awesome glass exhibit that was set in and around the various gardens. It was super cool. Click on the link and check it out. We spent almost 2 hours there just walking around and looking at everything. Afterward, we drove around Carnegie Mellon. What a great University. It is pretty cool. Pittsburgh is sort of cool because the architecture in downtown is really amazing. In and among the newer buildings there are those old buildings you only see in the Northeast. There is also tons of bridges and I just like it. I had been there one other time but we just drove in to see a friend of Tom's and then left so I didn't get to see a lot. I was glad to be able to see more of it and also see where Tom went to school. Since we met at the university of Miami, my alma mater, he knew where I had gone but I never knew what Carnegie looked like. All and all a good day. Later that evening we had dinner and their daughter came home with a friend and again we had a good time just talking and eating.

We left the next morning to get back home since Tom has to work and wanted some time at home. Again, our ride was uneventful. I was lazy and actually slept a lot and that got me out of driving. I felt bad for Tom because he drove the whole way home and I was a bad Carolyn for not driving. We had dinner on the road at this weird little steakhouse near the NC/TN border and when we walked in we almost walked out but we stayed and had a really good inexpensive meal. When we got home the cats were not really that excited to see us.

I went out to see the garden and it is now officially out of control. I have squash out the ying yang. Thank goodness Melody who house sits took a bunch. But the squash is HUGE. I mean almost football size huge. It's very strange. My tomato plants that a month or so ago I thought were dying are out of control. They barely fit in the garden. They still aren't producing but I suspect in about 2 weeks we will have our first tomatoes.

This week will be uneventful. I just need to catch up on reviews, giveaways and job hunting and, of course, gardening. On Friday Tom's nephew, Steve, is coming to visit for a few days. That should be fun because he is pretty cool.

My 100th post is soon. Hopefully this week. I am also hoping to get a new look for my website this month. I hired a designer and she is working on it. I am also having a special giveaway to celebrate my 100th post. It will be a Costa Rican goody bag. A cute tote filled with coffee, chocolate covered coffee beans, coffee hard candies and some of the coveted Salsa Lizano! So stayed tuned!!