Making a Pitt stop

 

The view that was worth a five-hour drive to take in

Am I in over my head? After covering topics such as customs, housing, and travel, General Services training has moved on to the subjects of acquisitions and procurement, an area of expertise in which I have zero experience. Is the government really willing to entrust me with thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to negotiate contracts and secure the best deals? If so, it may come to regret that decision. The online trainings are made even more unbearable thanks to classmates who not only have extensive contracting experience prior to joining the State Department, but are more than happy to demonstrate their knowledge by asking endless series' of questions that sometimes stretch the class time to the breaking point and beyond.

Which is what happened last Friday, meaning we didn't get out and on the road until after 1615 hours (at least half an hour after I was hoping to have left), and therefore didn't arrive at the Hyatt Place Pittsburgh-North Shore hotel until 2130 that evening. Yes, we went to Pittsburgh for the weekend, our first jaunt away from Falls Church since we returned here from Ethiopia at the beginning of July, and the first trip of any import since my daughter and I embarked on a road trip last fall to Cooperstown and Gettysburg. I have a lot of pent-up travel frustration as a result of the coronavirus, and with foreign excursions still out of the question, domestic trips are the only outlet for the time being. Why Pittsburgh? Two reasons, actually. One, PNC Park (home of the Pittsburgh Pirates) has been described as one of the most beautiful ballparks in the nation. And two, the city seemed comparatively close to northern Virginia, around 3¾-4¼ hours away by car, according to Google Maps. As it turned out, however, while the ballpark more than lived up to the hype, the drive in our rented Hyundai Elantra morphed into an endurance test, thanks to our later-than-hoped for departure, rush hour in several locations en route, and heavy rain (with lightning) at both ends of the drive. That, and the miserly desire to avoid having to pay any tolls on Pennsylvania turnpikes. I got what I paid for.

It was still overcast on Saturday morning when I went out for a stroll following breakfast. The Yinzer 4.12K run was passing by the hotel as I stepped outside:

The Hyatt is located close to the Allegheny River and PNC Park, the proximity to the latter being the reason I chose to stay there. By the river is a statue of Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski, depicted as he circled the bases after hitting the game-winning home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series:

Looking toward the Roberto Clemente Bridge:

A statue of the great ballplayer appropriately stands at the entrance to the bridge. I'm just old enough to remember his tragic death on New Year's Eve in 1972, in a crash on a plane he had chartered to bring supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. I also had his 1973 Topps baseball card, the last issued during his career. "Had", as years later I foolishly allowed my mother to give away all my baseball cards, just before the market in these childhood collectables took off. Which is one reason why it's still necessary for me to work, instead of getting to enjoy an early retirement lounging on a beautiful beach in Okinawa:

Willie Stargell. As a junior high school student in Orange County, CA and a Los Angeles Dodgers fan, I used to have friendly arguments with my next-door neighbor, Mike Loop. Mike's favorite team was the Pirates, and Stargell was his idol. Even then I knew "Pops" was one of the best players in the game, but there was no way I was going to give Mike the satisfaction of telling him that. I backed Steve Garvey instead, just one of many bad choices I've made in life (though in my defense Garvey was a decent player, just not a very good husband):

The great Honus Wagner deservedly stands in front of the main entrance to PNC Park. Just before sitting down to write this post, I learned that the ultra-rare T206 Wagner baseball card sold yesterday for an incredible $6.6 million. No wonder I never became an investment banker:

I returned to the hotel to retrieve Amber to further her education in art appreciation - Shu-E, on the other hand, decided to stay in the room and relax. Here my daughter is posing beside Wagner, whom she had naturally never heard of:

One Pittsburgh favorite Amber is aware of, however, is Andy Warhol, and it was the Andy Warhol Museum (a short walk from PNC Park) that we visited on Saturday morning. This native of the Steel City needs no introduction - you know him for his paintings, silkscreens, photographs and films. Think Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Campbell's Soup, Edie Sedgwick, the Velvet Underground and 15 minutes of fame:

We began on the 7th floor and worked our way downstairs, with the top story focusing on Warhol's early life and upbringing, and his start as a commercial artist. This is a folding screen from the 1950's, commissioned by a department store in New York:

An early foray into soup cans, from 1961:

The classic album cover for 1967's The Velvet Underground & Nico. Warhol's involvement with Lou Reed and his bandmates may have been greatly exaggerated, but it was his patronage of the band that enabled the Velvets to gain a higher profile and led to their first recording contract:

Tunafish Disaster (1963):

Naomi and Rufus Kiss (1964):

Marlon (1966):

Elvis 11 Times (1963):

Amber didn't notice the man impaled on the post until I pointed it out to her. She didn't appear traumatized by the this or any of the other examples from Warhol's Death and Disaster series of screen prints being exhibited at the museum. All those anime アニメ and manga 漫画 that she avidly consumes appear to have toughened her up, it would seem:

Recognizing and recalling 80's fashion and music icon Grace Jones was a reminder of how far I've come in life, as well as the effects on my mind and body from having made it to this point:

Another classic album cover:

Suffice it to say Silver Clouds was the highlight of the Andy Warhol Museum for my daughter:

One exhibit at the museum focused on Jean-Michel Basquiat, an American artist who collaborated with Warhol in the 1980's:

I remember when this happened:

A sad reminder that not much has changed in American society when it comes to police brutality:

Warhol was an avid collector of things:

Examples of the medical corsets he had to wear after being shot in 1968:

Statue of Liberty (1986):

Dennis Hopper (1971):

Love him or loathe him (and I lean toward the former), there's no denying the influence Warhol had on American art and popular culture from the early 1960's to his untimely death in early 1987. The Andy Warhol Museum does an excellent job celebrating Pittsburgh's coolest native son:

After a morning spent at the museum, my daughter and I returned to the Hyatt, where we persuaded my wife to venture outdoors, first by having lunch at the nearby Second Tier Brewery Pittsburgh:

The pulled pork sandwich was surprisingly filling, which actually turned out to be fortunate when Amber and I weren't able to eat that night at PNC Park:

Fortified, the girls and I ventured down to the riverfront:

Shu-E is becoming more and more reluctant to be photographed as time elapses:

Crossing the Roberto Clemente Bridge:

Looking back at PNC Park while walking over the Allegheny:

Turning west after crossing to the other side, we walked toward Point State Park, where the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers meet. On the other side of the Allegheny stands Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL, and the Pittsburgh Panthers college football team:

The cooling mists emanating from the Point State Park Fountain were much appreciated by Amber on what had turned into a hot and humid afternoon:

The 1764 Fort Pitt Blockhouse is the only surviving building from Fort Pitt, a key British fortification during the French and Indian War, and later the western headquarters of the Continental Army during the American Revolution:

Like a modern-day cathedral, this glass edifice dominates The Plaza at PPG Place:

An unusual-looking bike rack:

We returned to our hotel in the late afternoon, and then shortly after six o'clock Amber and I headed out to PNC Park. I had researched online where to find the best seats in the ballpark, and Section 316, Row C, Seats 12 and 13 did not disappoint at all. Look at that skyline!:

Mike Loop would've been proud of the souvenir I purchased. The two of us kept our masks on throughout the game as we had no idea who among the 24,081 fans in attendance had been vaccinated:

The start of the game as we witnessed it from our seats. The Pirates were playing host to the Milwaukee Brewers. As the game the night before had been rained out, a make up game had been played earlier in the day as part of what had become a doubleheader. Under rules that Major League Baseball had instituted the previous year during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, doubleheaders are only seven innings in length. It's a development that's unpopular with many fans (though my daughter didn't mind!), and recent reports indicate the damage will be undone following the end of this season:

In addition to the views, PNC Park is also noted for its 5th-inning pierogi races. Extremely long (and slow-moving) lines at the concession stands meant Amber and I couldn't get anything to eat while at the ballpark. No hot dogs, no beer and no perogies:

 

They may be blessed with one of the best playing sites in the game, but the Pirates leave a lot to be desired when it comes to playing on that field. Holders of the unenviable record of 20 consecutive losing seasons from 1993 to 2012, the 2021 edition of the Bucs currently sits in last place in the National League Central, with a record of 42-76, 29½ games behind the first-place Brewers. Although they had trounced Milwaukee 14-4 in the earlier game, the lost the nightcap to the Brewers 6-0, thanks to some poor fielding (and a 6th-inning home run by Milwaukee's Rowdy Tellez that cleared the ballpark and ended up in the Allegheny River). Wrap, box score and highlights:

My daughter isn't a baseball fan (she struggles to understand the many nuances of the national pastime), but she enjoyed both the game, and the fireworks show that took place immediately afterward:

The two of us had some post-game snacks at the hotel café, though when Amber woke up on Sunday morning she found eleven insect bites on her left arm from having sat outside in the patio while eating. Yours truly only had a couple of bites on his right leg, and following breakfast went back down to the Allegheny waterfront, this time walking west in the direction of Heinz Field (i.e. away from PNC Park):

Looking across the water toward Mt. Washington's steep slopes and the funicular railroad:

Art Rooney, founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers:

Three Rivers Stadium was one of the hideous "cookie-cutter" stadiums of the late 60's-early 70's, gone but not missed:

Andy Warhol may have been Pittsburgh's most fashionable product, but the city's most famous son is Mister Rogers:

I grew up watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which is why I found this statue to be an affront to my cherished childhood memories:

The last place we visited on our brief sojourn to Pittsburgh was the National Aviary, the largest such establishment in the United States, and the undoubted highlight of the trip for Amber:

Shu-E, as is becoming the norm in her old age, elected to stay in the car while we were in the aviary, citing the weather (she's averse to sunshine) and the cost of the tickets (she's averse to spending money) as the reasons for passing (though she ended up exploring the surrounding park while we were inside the aviary). Here are some of the birds she missed seeing as a result:

A White-Cheeked Turaco:

A pair of Red-Billed Hornbills:

My daughter got a kick out of this penguin eyeing us while underwater:

Photographing a couple of Victoria Crowned-Pigeons:

Some Malayan Flying Foxes just hanging around:

Amber learned the meaning of being a canary in a coalmine:

My daughter couldn't get over the aviary's café providing a turkey croissant among its offerings:

Having finished up at the National Aviary just before noon, it was time for the long drive back to Falls Church. Soon after leaving Pittsburgh, we stopped for lunch at the Burgatory in Murrysville, where I had the elk burger:

Our last stop before reaching home was an unplanned visit to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stoystown. We had driven by it late on Friday while on our way to Pittsburgh (the result of taking Highway 30 in lieu of the turnpike), and decided it would break up the monotony of the long return drive on Sunday:

The visitor center overlooks the crash site:

The field where the plane came down:

The boulder marks the impact zone:

It was by sheer coincidence that our visit to the memorial coincided with the same day the Taliban entered Kabul, bringing to an end yet another folly of American adventurism overseas. I'm old enough to remember the fall of Saigon in April 1975, but the same apparently can't be said of our ruling class. Thousands of lives - Afghan, American and others - wasted, along with $2 trillion. Will we ever learn? Considering the patriotic paraphernalia and books with titles like Let's Roll on sale at the shop in the visitor center, I really doubt it. 

 

A hedgehog wandered around the crash site while we were there

Short though the trip was, for me at least it felt good to travel again. The plan is to get out of town at least one weekend each month, as well as to start going on day trips once our car finally arrives from Addis Ababa, until we depart for Beijing next summer. Hopefully by then international travel will have resumed, though I remember saying that last year around this same time (and the Delta variant is turning into the Joker in the coronavirus pack). I'll do what I can travel-wise, and make the most of the time we have here in the U.S.

Next on the schedule is...well, you'll just have to wait and see. Keep checking this blog and in the meantime here's Bill Mazeroski ending the 1960 World Series: