Last weekend we were in Pittsburgh for a family Christmas dinner. It snowed and sleeted on us most of the way there. Here were the highlights.
Dinner: dinner was at a restaurant called Roman Bistro. The food was good and the waiters were nice. One weird aspect: one section of the restaurant has NFL helmets on the wall. Twenty-seven of them, for some reason (there are 32 NFL teams). My cousin and I determined which teams were missing: Oakland, Washington, Dallas, Cleveland (natch), and Pittsburgh. Yes, for some reason a Pittsburgh restaurant decided to decorate with an NFL theme but ignored Pittsburgh's NFL team.
My uncle's house: I'd never been to this uncle's house before. It's very nice, has an address that I bet doesn't map correctly when you call 9-1-1 (I made a mental note to never have a medical emergency while there), and has a very large mirror behind the toilet, so you have to watch yourself pee. (I guess one might argue you don't have to watch, but I dare you to not watch. It's impossible.)
Cousins: I met two of my cousins' long-term boyfriends, and my youngest cousin was very nice to my kids, which they really enjoyed.
Pittsburgh street parking: only a dollar an hour! I felt like needlessly parking on the street, it was such a good deal.
Tunnels: we went through Fort Pitt Tunnel (twice), Squirrel Hill Tunnel (twice), Liberty Tunnel (once), and Duquesne Tunnel (once), all for free. (Also, Wheeling Tunnel in West Virginia, twice.) Our kids loved all of it. We also went over more bridges than I could possibly mention. My wife said, "This is like New York City on the cheap." (Earlier this year we spent over $50 on tolls entering, circling, and exiting New York.)
Primanti Bros.: one of the first sandwiches I ever pinned on Pinterest (I'm confident in my masculinity) was a Primanti Bros. sandwich. Alas, it wasn't as good as I was hoping. I like coleslaw on a sandwich, but I wasn't a fan of this coleslaw. My wife noted that the hot sandwich meat heats the coleslaw, making it dangerously similar to sauerkraut. She also said, "My burps taste like French fries and I think, 'I didn't eat any French fries,' because I forget that they were in the sandwich." Criticisms aside, I'm not prepared to declare myself done with Primanti Bros. I'll give it another try next time we're back.
PNC Park: we stopped by the ballpark. Because it was about 18 degrees, we thoroughly browsed the team store. That's when Jerome Jerome the Metronome (age: five) had to pee. The workers said, "We don't have a public restroom." And that was the extent of their help. While ballparks tend to be surrounded by businesses these days, a December Saturday finds most of them closed. The workers explained, "The water's turned off to the stadium for the off-season." So these ladies are peeing in a bucket in the back room? I understand if they have a policy, and I even understand why they might not relax the policy for a five-year-old when the store is completely empty, but I don't understand their complete lack of concern or assistance. We know nothing of the neighborhood, while these ladies know it intimately, but we get an attitude of, "I don't care where you pee but you can't pee here." I was going to loudly tell Jerome, "You're going to get your first opportunity to pee on a building," but my wife took him outside. It being Pittsburgh, she found a bar that was open, no thanks to the Pirates team store employees.
Tanger Outlets, Washington, PA: a large ad read, "H&M: Coming Soon." My wife said, "I hope 'coming soon' means 'already open.'" But it didn't. It meant "coming soon." (Crazy, I know.)
JC's 5-Star Outlet, Columbus, OH: on our way through Columbus on Friday, we saw that the JC Penney outlet store was closing, so we stopped on our way back. It was a little more primal of a shopping experience than I typically enjoy, but not yet at I'll-cut-you-for-that-blouse levels. So many housecoats. Maybe if JC had a more-modern sense of fashion, his outlet wouldn't have to close. And I'm concerned that no one specified the maximum number of possible stars. Sure, they want me to assume it's five-out-of-five, but with the way they never come right out and say it, I'm not so sure it's not out of 100.
via oneofthebest
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire