Pittsburgh, PA - PNC Park

On Thursday we drove from Washington, DC to Pittsburgh.  We checked into our hotel and then decided to have dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant.  Pittsburgh doesn't seem to be the best place for Mexican food as we both had very poor to mediocre meals.  Later in the evening we went to Rita's Ice for the 4th time in 4 days.

On Friday we drove around some of the outlying Pittsburgh suburbs.  We then worked our way towards downtown to take the Incline up to the top of Mount Washington which has spectacular views of the Pittsburgh skyline and offers views of the football and baseball stadiums.  The Incline is a very old cable car that was originally used in the late 1800's to take commuters from Mt  Washington to downtown Pittsburgh.  At the base of the Incline there were all sorts of shops and restaurants that we looked through and there is a Hard Rock Cafe where Tina purchased a couple of pins for her collection.

From the Incline, we then drove across downtown to an area known as The Strip for lunch at the original Primanti Bros Restaurant.  Primanti Bros are known for their sandwiches which are stuffed with coleslaw and french fries.  The Strip is just a few block from the downtown area and has many shops, open markets, and restaurants to explore.  As we were eating our lunch, there was heavy rain and thunderstorms so we did not get a chance to walk around.  We then worked our way back to downtown through the pouring rain and found a parking garage to park for the game.  Most of the downtown parking lots are $5 to park on game days and it is a very short, beautiful walk across the Clemente Bridge to PNC Park.

View of PNC Park and Clemente Bridge from Parking Garage

The rain was letting up by the time we walked to the stadium and the skies were lightening.  We circled the concourse a couple times mostly just for shelter.  The views inside and outside the stadium are spectacular.  This is one of the best, if not the best, stadium in all of baseball.  The game started about 45 minutes late due to the rain, but once the game started there were no weather issues.  The game was very exciting and the Pittsburgh fans were very loud and loyal despite the Pirates recent struggles.  The Pirates lost to the Cincinnati Reds 11-8 as the Reds scored 3 runs in the ninth.  They have a perfect amount of between inning activities to engage the fans including a 'Pierogi' Race and a 'We-are-Fa-Ma-Lie Feud' game that was amusing and entertaining.  The night time skyline views from the park are truly spectacular, but couldn't be captured on film.