Pittsburgh, PA 

May 15th, 2013



Pittsburgh is known as the "Steel City." Home of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

 This classy crosstown is surprisingly entertaining. The diverse food, the museums and just the look of the city-scape. Your eyes will glitter at the multicolored homes, nestled right in with skyscrapers.

 

 

 

Then, like a sword of knowledge aiming to the heavens is the Cathedral of Learning building.

 

 

The University of Pittsburgh 42-story Cathedral of Learning known as the "World's tallest schoolhouse," reaches a height of 535 ft. Constructed between 1926 & 1938, it's Turcated Gothic style whose vertical lines never meet, signifies that education never ends.

>Info from the back of a postcard<

 

 

 

 

 

~Pitt's, "The Strip District"~

 

This is a neighborhood that is rich with different culture and spans approximately one/half square mile.  You can shop, eat, buy groceries, find local art or pick up a Steeler's jersey. Jane, my travel partner and I had a bite at the well known PA Macaroni Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Campbell's Soup & Bananas

 

If you like the obscure, strange and just plain amusing art...

Be sure to check out the Warhol Museum.

It is seven floors dedicated to Andy Warhol's entire body of work.

Very cool!

He has always been one of my favorite artists.

 

http://www.warhol.org/

 

 

 

 

Mr. Bill Murray!

    Silver Gelatin print on canvas. 1987

 

Mr. Murray used to hang at Warhol's, the Factory/ studio in NYC in the 80's.

 

 

 

 

Strange but lovely Andy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Duquesne Incline is a must do!

 

http://www.duquesneincline.org/

 

 

This incline was built in 1887 and still operates today. The Duquesne has a height of 800 ft. and takes you to the top of Mount Washington. The fee per person is $5.00.

 

Climbing into the old wooden box and finding a seat is fun, but when the incline starts it's ascent... the views are spectacular.  Even better when you reach the top.

Me making light of the "Points of View" statue.

 

 

 

 

 -OPA!-

 

After a long and fun day, Jane and I decided to crash an annual Greek Orthodox, food festival downtown.

It was fantastic food! Home made everything and my favorites were the Baklava sundae and the honey cakes.

Greek Band, Opa!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History

 

 

 

http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/index.php

 

 

Picture from Carnegie.com

 

This, my friends, was a very special treat for me!

 



 When I was a young lady, still in high school. I went to science camp my Junior Summer...

Yes, I know what you are thinking... and yes, I am a totally proud geek, nerd, or whatever you

 want to call it. 

That summer, I started a reseach project that introduced me to the extraordinary world of Paleontology. During that time, I taught myself to set up grids and how to use a tripod to look for fossils. The area was dense with fossil flora and fauna.

 

That's when I discovered a very unique fossil specimen for that area. It is called a Pipestoneia douglassi.

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.2992/0145-9058(2007)39%5B83:PDANGA%5D2.0.CO;2

 

This fossil helped me determine what type of plants were being ate, in that area, at the time and thus painting a picture of the prehistoric biome conditions. Needless to say, I won  at the science fair that year and was awarded a scholarship for college.

 

The person who helped me identify the fossil is Alan Tabrum of the Carnegie Museum. He said that I had found something special and that it belonged in a museum. He then told me that he would catalogue it for me and keep it safe at the Carnegie Museum.

Well, since I was going to be in Pittsburgh, 12 years later, I decided to get in touch with Alan and see what had ever happened to that very special fossil...

 

I met with Alan on 5-16-13. He took me on a tour of the "guts" of the Museum. I learned that the fossil that I had found was located in the "Little Bone Room."

 

 To my absolute astonishment, Alan told me that not only did he have the fossil right there, but that it is still being studied. A recent paper was just published on vertebrate mammals in that area and they used MY fossil in the study. I have to mention, that I felt a fantastic sense of accomplishment to see my name on that little vial.

 

 It's not much to the naked eye, but under a microscope you cold clearly see that it was marked upon and studied thoroughly.

 

Alan then took me through the rest of the museum. We had lunch and a very nice visit.

Thank you very much Mr. Tabrum. What a great experience!

 

 

 

Big Bone Room

Mammoth Tusks

    Dinosaur eggs

 Rhinoceros knee caps

                Mirror sides of a fish

 Fossil Bank of the Carnegie

Mammoth

 Big elk

 Same T-Rex that they used for the outside of the Rockie Museum of Bozeman, MT.

 http://www.museumoftherockies.org/



 

 

I was able to visit the Art history portion before I left Pitts.

 Andy Warhol's of Andrew Carnegie

 

 

 

Van Gough

Monet

 

THANK YOU PITTSBURGH!

PS. Please feel free to comment and ask questions. I will respond to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the Cincinnati Zoo

5-8-13

 

 

 

http://cincinnatizoo.org/

 

What a wonderful place to explore for the day and learn about all kinds of amazing creatures. It was a gorgeous 84 degree day in May. Sunny and humid. The cost to get in was $14.00. per adult. Parking was $8.00. My friend Sara and I had Skyline Chili www.skylinechili.com for lunch at the snack bar.(Had to mention that, a Cinci staple!)

My favorite exhibit was the Polar Bears. The bears are so big, yet easy going and very funny. Their habitat was well designed in that you could watch them play above ground as well as see them swim below the water. (See video above.)

 

I want to share with you some of the great pictures that I took that day. I also want to encourage you to visit this fabulous zoo. It is ranked number 6 in a list of top zoos in the country by http://www.americasbestonline.net/index.php/pages/bestzoos.html

 

 

 

                                               If you get this, you're AWESOME!

 

 

 

 

My beautiful friend Sara  

 

 

 

"What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected."         
                                                                                                                                     Chief Seattle


I sincerely hope you enjoyed this small adventure of  mine. Please feel free to comet and tell me if you have ever been here. What was your experience like? What was your favorite animal exhibit?

Stay tuned for more Travel Kwest!