Pittsburgh - We're feelin' it!

On our only full day in Pittsburgh, we started the day with breakfast with one of Tony's new coworkers from West Virginia. Very nice guy. Tony probably has about 4-7 nights in a hotel per month, and he tries to only stay at Holiday Inn Express. They are usually newer properties, always have free breakfast and he can rack up the frequent stay points. Anyway, so that is where we were having breakfast. Tony and West Virginia Paul went to their inspection and I went back to the room to work.

The back wall of the Church Brew Works

 Tony came back to the hotel after his inspection to pick me up. We headed across Pittsburgh to the Church Brew Works - a microbrewery and restaurant in a desanctified church. It was a beautiful setting and very unique. We were meeting with all other WGU (where I work) employees within Pennsylvania and one from West Virginia. My senior level manager and the CFO had flown out from Salt Lake City to be with us. They hosted the lunch and we had some great local favorites, including traditional and non-traditional pierogies. Tony took a nap in the car while we had a meeting with my colleagues.

Some of my WGU colleagues - Tammy (sitting in the front left) lives about 5 minutes from me! She and I try to meet for lunch every few weeks to see a live person (tricky when you work from home!)

After the meeting we headed off to PNC Park for the Pirates v. Cincinnati Reds, also sponsored by WGU. Pittsburgh has 3 rivers which meet in the middle of the city. The ballpark sits right on the bank of the Allegheny River and it is tradition to park on the far side in the downtown area and then walk across the Roberto Clemente bridge to the ballpark. We parked in the theater district and joined the rest of Pittsburgh in walking across the bridge. It gave great views of the river and the park as we walked over and enjoyed a few street musicians and lots of water bottle hawkers. It was predicted to rain that night, but the rain held off the entire time so it was the perfect weather for a game. 

Now, the Pirates are not OUR team, nor are they a particularly great team, but it was still a fun game. We were sitting in the bleachers low and a few balls came very close to our group! A highlight was the Mrs. T's Pierogie Race which was something to experience. Only in Pittsburgh! Tony loves Mrs. T's pierogies, so it was really funny to see. You can find a lot of videos of it on YouTube if you are interested! We left after the 7th or 8th inning and it was a really pleasant walk back to the car over the bridge.

The next day we headed back home and had a great, uneventful drive back across the state on the PA Turnpike. Hopefully we'll head back to Pittsburgh one day and see a lot more of the city.