Visiting the 'Burgh

We left the house around 9 this morning looking to beat the lunchtime crowd at Primanti Brothers.  The back roads part of the drive was pleasant, right by Smicksburg and through farming communities.  Once we started the interstate part of the journey, there was of course plenty of construction and congestion.  Leaving at the time we did though, we probably missed most of the city traffic.

When we arrived in the Strip District, we missed the street Primanti Brothers is on at first.  The markets were bustling and I was enjoying the sights.  On our second trip around the block we approached a parking lot and rolled down our window to pay a man who we thought was a parking lot attendant.  It turns out he was actually homeless and told us we could park there (even though the signs said "Private Parking" and something about towing).  Well, we didn't get towed and we got to park for free except for the dollar that we gave the homeless guy.  Inside, I ordered a roast beef sandwich and Ryan ordered a cheesesteak.  I thought the sandwich was really yummy but Ryan was "not impressed".  There were colorful murals on the wall of famous people that I assume have visited there, because they are not all Pittsburghers.  Joe Montana's picture is even signed.  We got out of there for less than $20 and had full bellies.

Our next stop was the Andy Warhol Museum.  We crossed over the Andy Warhol bridge and ended up missing the museum parking lot, but parked in a parking garage for less than it would've cost us at the museum anyway. (Museum parking is $6, the parking garage only cost us $4!)  It was $12 a person to get into the museum and we were actually permitted to take pictures inside.  We spent two hours in the museum and I probably would've spent more if Ryan hadn't been getting restless.  I didn't get the chance to watch any of the movies but there was a temporary Keith Haring exhibition that I did get to see and I liked Warhol's Silver Clouds installation, which I had never seen before.  There seemed to me to be more of other people's work on display than Andy's, though.

After the museum, we were off to the Pittsburgh Mills.  We were not looking to spend lots of money, and none of the clothing stores there really carry my size, so we mostly just walked around window shopping.  Our only purchase in the main mall was two Double Chocolate Chip Frappucinos at Starbucks.  Ryan did make a purchase at Best Buy, we looked around at Petsmart, and then we had an early dinner at Applebee's.  Neither of us was really too hungry yet so we got off pretty cheap there too.  After dinner, we were homeward bound.  Now we can say "I've been there".