48 Hours in Steel City

At Mt. Washington 

We've been  in Pittsburgh only two days but have seen and done so much. We spent Friday night with our old friends Linda and Ed.  Linda made us a four star dinner accompanied by their always excellent wine choices.  We were out early Saturday to walk along "the Strip", an old waterfront industrial area now reclaimed as a market. Lots of restaurants, funky shops, fresh produce and almost anything else you'd want. We ran into Dan Hahn, youngest of Linda and Ed's boys there. He treated us to drinks al fresco and regaled us with Pittsburgh info.  Totally charming.

The area was full of people, both tourist and locals. Next up was running into the new Steelers draft pick, TJ Watt.  He was also out to see the sites in his new town.  He was very gracious and personable.
We saw the city views from the top of Mt Washington and had a great lunch at the Shiloh Grill.
We are in Pittsburgh for my  niece Emily's graduation from Pitt, so Saturday night a respectable number of our family assembled for her departmental graduation ceremony. It was in Fitzgerald Fieldhouse, or as Carole refers to it, enemy territory! Nice ceremony, not too long and enjoyed by students and attendees both.

Celebratory dinner at The Church Brew, a converted RC church where the brewery works are actually set up on the altar. Beyond strange!  Fortunately I had my back to that view, nice meal and celebration.  Were all proud of Emily, she has worked hard and will attend Jefferson next year for a Masters program in Clinical Laboratory Medicine.  Sunday was the full school graduation of 3000+ students.  The speaker was S. Ephata Merkelson (Lt. VanBuren from Law and Order) who gave a heartfelt speech.  We bugged out early as we were heading toward Cleveland and wanted to go in daylight. For all I know they could still be reading graduate names at the ceremony!