On The Road

Ok, part three is finally here.

We took a short flight on US Airways from Philly to Pittsburgh where they tried to get us to pay for everything from the first checked bag to the formerly complimentary glass of water.  Other than that the flight was ok.

We found the car in the long term lot at the airport and headed off to my old house!  We got there and I showed Karleigh around the house with all of my mom’s furniture from around the world and all the trees and greeness everywhere.  It was pretty much lunch time by this point so we headed off to Primanti’s for some tasty ’sammiches’.  Then we headed downtown to check some stuff out.

Luckily we had some really nice weather for our drive and the awesome entrance to the city through the Fort Pitt tunnel and across the Fort Pitt bridge.  We drove through Oakland (where PITT and CMU are) and then across the Hot Metal bridge to the South Side.  We went to the Southside Works to go to H&M and so I could not put enough quarters in the meter and get a parking ticket.  We had a good time at H&M and I got a new suit and then when outside and found my ticket on the windshield.  Ooops.  Oh well, it was only like $11.

We continued our tour of the South Side and went to Station Square where I found an awesome store to get some black and gold stuff with Pirates, Penguins, and Steelers logos for my car.  Then we took the incline up to Mount Washington.

Mount Washington, for those who don’t know, is the hill above the Monongahela River (one of the Three Rivers) that looks over the city of Pittsburgh.  And the incline is an inclined cable railway or funicular that goes up the side of Mt. Washington.  On top there are lookouts that stick out off the edge of the hill that give you an awesome view of the city.  Then we took the incline back down and headed off to my friend Mike’s house.

The next day we went down to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Art (same building actually).  Of course there were a ton of cool paintings and sculptures which I try to check out almost every time I make it home.  We also went to the new Dinosaur Hall which was really cool.  On the way out there was a wall with ribbons stuck in the wall that had wishes on them.  You could take a wish and then write a new one down on paper and stick it back in a hole on the wall so we each took a wish.  Mine says ‘I Wish I Knew’.
Also at some point in the museum there was a dead cat.  I have no idea why or what the theme of that exhibit was but it was hilarious.  Please enjoy –>

We did some other stuff over the next few days that I really don’t remember the exact chronological order to but it was fun.  We got dressed up and went to the Church Brew Works for dinner which is an old church with cool stained glass windows that is now a tasty restaurant.  We also went to the mall by my house and ate breakfast at Eggs ‘n-at.  And one night the remnants of hurricane Ike blew through and knocked out the power and a really big tree in the yard and a piece of the neighbors tree into our yard.  (Which I tried to clean up the next day along with mowing the lawn.)

It was a really good trip to Pittsburgh and a lot of fun to show Karleigh around.  And it was a good trip all over the east coast and fun was had by all.

Philthydelphia

When I told Mike I was going to Philly for almost four days he asked me what on earth there is to do in Philly that could take four days to do.  I wasn’t really sure but it turns out there is plenty to do.

On Monday we went and did some of the historical stuff.  We went to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and other assorted sites in that area.  We tried to go to the U.S. Mint but it closes at 3:00 and we were a bit late for that.

That night Karleigh’s nephew, Lincoln, wanted to play Twister so Karleigh, Lincoln, and Colby (Karleigh’s brother) played twister for a little while which was quite entertaining.  Fun was had by all.

On Tuesday we decided to go to Valley Forge.  First though, it was Lincoln’s first day of pre-school so while he was doing whatever little kids do, we went to visit Trader Joe’s.  I showed Alyssa (Karleigh’s sister-in-law) all of my favorite stuff there and I think she found some new favorites of her own.  After that we went home, dropped all off the goodies, picked up Lincoln and we took off for Valley Forge.

Alyssa borrowed a CD that gave an audio tour so after a quick stop in the visitor center we drove all over Valley Forge which was really pretty cool.  We skipped the twister that night and just watched Colby and Karleigh do a little sibling butt kicking for a bit which was also quite entertaining.

On Wednesday we went to the USS New Jersey.  The USS New Jersey is the largest battleship in U.S. history, the most decorated battleship in U.S. history and the last operating battleship in the U.S. fleet.  It was really cool.

The ship was commissioned one year after Pearl Harbor and it’s final decommission was in 1991.  It actually served off the coast of Lebanon during the whole Beirut fiasco of the late ’80s.  It was also the first U.S. naval vessel to fire a tomahawk cruise missile.

We took the guided ‘Firepower’ tour which took as all over the ship and even into one of the main 16″ gun turrets.  Those things are huge.  If anyone goes to Philly I serious recommend seeing it, it’s really cool and has a ton of history.  The ship is still floating unlike some other naval vessels that become museums which I think is pretty cool.

Since the tour took about two hours, Lincoln was pretty tired after all of the climbing and stuff so we went back to Colby and Alyssa’s place and chilled for a while.  We went to feed the ducks in a stream not far form their apartment and just kinda hung out.  Colby went off that night to work his rounds at the Emergency Room at some downtown hospital and we got ready to leave.

At eight the next morning we said our goodbyes and were dropped off at the airport to head off to Pittsburgh.  Thus ends part two of the East Coast Extravaganza.

Karleigh and I decided to take a trip back east to see her brother in Philadelphia and to see my family and friends in NYC and Pittsburgh.

Part one of our trip started with a three hour delay in Salt Lake City due to weather in NYC.  Followed shortly thereafter by moderate to severe turbulence through most of the flight and ending up in an eighty mile radius holding pattern somewhere over the PA - NY border while still getting bumped around at 40,000 feet.  When the fuel was running short we landed at the beautiful Wilksbarre-Scranton airport where we waited for the weather in NYC to clear a bit and for our stomachs to calm down.  I’m not sure what I did different but instead of just being sick to my stomach at 40,000 feet, my face actually went flush and I almost passed out.  The tingling feeling over my entire upper body was actually a welcome relief to the sickness in my stomach.  Anyway, we were eventually cleared, got more fuel, and hopped over to JFK.

The one bag we checked full of baby clothes to give to Karleigh’s brother made its to San Diego instead of NYC so while it would be there soon, we didn’t want to wait so we met my parent’s out front of the airport and went to a Brazilian churrascaria.  For those who have never been, it’s a ton of Brazilian food and tons of red meat.  Quite tasty.

After that we went for a drive around Brooklyn and across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan and around Time Square, past Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  Then back across the Queensboro Bridge and to my parent’s apartment in Rego Park.  We got back around one a.m. and my parents still had more energy than me or Karleigh.

I thought the sixty percent humidity in the apartment would make it hard to sleep but I passed out and slept pretty well.

We got up the next morning and headed out for Battery Park.  We took the subway down to Ground Zero and walked along the Hudson River down to Battery Park.  The lines to get tickets to get on the ferry to go over to Ellis Island and Liberty Island were too long so we got a good view of them from the pier then headed uptown to go to the MET.

We checked out a ton of good art in the MET along with some amazing sculptures and one amazing artist sitting there drawing the sculptures.

After that we met my parents in Central Park for a picnic then grabbed a cab down to Penn Station and caught the train to Philadelphia.  The train ride, like the plane ride, did not go as smoothly as would be hoped for.  We stopped in Newark and filled the train up with passengers from another train that was apparently disabled or something so that delayed us for a little bit but we eventually made it to Philthydelphia and Colby picked us up.

Not bad for being on the east coast for about twenty four hours.

In July I took a trip back home that ended up being slightly crazy, even by my standards.  When I got home I was glad I survived so I kinda forgot about even writing anything here.  Well, now I’m on another trip and figured I should backtrack for a second and write about my trip back home in July.

I decided to try and fly home to go to the Vintage Grand Prix in Pittsburgh with my dad so we could display the Karmann Ghia that me my brothers (mostly Adam) and my dad restored.  It turned out that Brook and Linwood were also going back east that same night.  So we all flew back on a very uneventful flight and my mom picked us up from the airport in NYC where I convinced her to come back to Pittsburgh (even though she had just gotten back from there) to go to the car show.  So after a brief hour or two outside the airport we went back to the airport and flew to Pittsburgh.

When we landed my dad picked us up at the airport in the Karmann Ghia and we went straight to Schenley Park where the car show was being held.  Well… we didn’t quite go straight there.  We overheated about a mile before we got there and had to stop and let the smoking engine cool off for a bit but eventually we made it.

The car show was pretty cool and there was a lot of interest in our car.  We talked to some other VW owners and eneded up giving a guy some spare parts from our garage after the show to help him with his restoration.  Mike and KT also came up with Howie and hung out for a while.  We also overheated the poor Ghia on the way home but made it without stopping.  That poor air cooled engine just isn’t what it used to be.

That night I went out with some friends and ended up staying up till around three a.m. watching some UFC fight then crashed on Mike’s couch for a few hours, got up, went home, woke my sister up and had her drive me to the airport to go to Maine.

I made it to Maine without any real problems and got to hang out with Alexis, Ian, Little Jake and the newly arrived Benjamin.  It was a lot of fun, and since I had taken a red-eye flight the first night, and stayed up way late the second night, I got to take a nap with Little Jake that afternoon.  But the relaxation would not last.  My dad called me to let me know that the flight I was planning on taking had been cancelled the next morning so I’d better try to get out right then.  So after a quick trip to the coast to see some lighthouses and a little more of Portland, I was dropped off at the airport where I waited for a few hours to finally make it back to NYC.

 
I got in to NYC, took the AirTrain to the subway and made it to my parent’s apartment around three a.m. where I was greeted and offered root beer floats as always.  I declined and crashed on the couch for a few hours then it was time to get up again and try and fly home.  By this time my plan was to fly to San Diego then back up to Salt Lake.

With my dad and his badges we made it through security rather quickly and I made all of my flights as planned and finally made it home.  I got to see a lot of stuff and hang out with a bunch of people on that trip but it was seriously exhausting.  But I guess that’s just the kind of traveling I do.