Be back in 12 days!
A few weeks ago, Adam and I traveled up to Pittsburgh to meet our friends Carla and Aaron (who came down from Buffalo) to check out PNC Park and catch a couple of Mets games. We didn't see a whole lot in Pittsburgh (is there even much to see?), there was traffic and detours everywhere, and Saturday night's game ended early due to rain, but it was still a pretty fun trip! I can't wait until Carla and Aaron (hopefully!) move down to Baltimore!
Our first stop (as requested by Adam) was to head over to Primanti Brothers for some monster sandwiches.
I got the cheese combo sandwich, which was a HUGE amount of food for only $5. I didn't eat much of the bread or half of the fries, but it was still good. Kind of like cheese fries with slaw and tomatoes on top (once I pushed the bread out of the way). I suppose I could have just ordered the cheese fries and a side of close slaw.
We then wandered around the Pitt campus and drove over to take one of the inclines up the mountain for gorgeous view of the city. There are so many bridges! I mean, I know that there are three rivers that meet right there, but I could not believe how many bridges there were. And 90% of them seemed to be under construction or part of a detour.
After a trip back to the hotel to change and freshen up, we headed out to the ballpark. PNC Park is so nice, and cheap too! (And pierogies!!) We got great seats a few rows behind the dugout for the cost of an upperdeck seat at some parks! We got there early for batting practice to snap a few photos. Unfortunately, Carla and I didn't get any autographs, even though we were there ready with our pens! (I even brought a baseball!)
The game started late, and then ended up cut short by another storm. (Luckily, the Mets had just scored enough runs in the previous inning to get the win!) I also was able to get my order of pierogies in before the rain ended the game, which is one of the best deals in the ballpark. I mean, sure, I could buy two boxes of Mrs. T's pierogies for $4 in the grocery store, but they served you SIX of them, sauteed with onions and with sour cream on the side. YUM! Better than any other vegetarian option I've found at a baseball game.
Adam and I went back to the ballpark for Sunday's game (Carla and Aaron had to head home early), which was a much more appropriate day for baseball, weatherwise. We got there early, again with the hopes of getting autographs (no dice). But we did end up getting to watch RA Dickey practice his knuckleball! Adam shot some video of it on his camera and it was crazy! My bets are on RA Dickey for the first Mets no hitter. We were also able to get a shot of the racing pierogies!
It turns out that one of the Twilight guys was there filming scenes for a movie during the game. They actually were filming in our section during the 8th and 9th innings, which I found to be incredibly annoying. There were all these movie guys walking around with signs and cameras, and the people were going crazy trying to get a glimpse of him instead of watching the game. (Not only was this annoying, but potentially dangerous as we were in foul ball territory.) They kept having this section of extras cheer at inappropriate times, and eventually they got a shot of Twilight boy walking down the aisle, looking back and forth. When the game was over, we had trouble getting out of our section because they were still filming. And the Mets lost.
Oh well, I still had an order of pierogies at that game, too, so at least there's that.
Last month, two of my college roommates invited me up to NYC "for a weekend of spa pampering, Lilah gazing, yummy food eating fun" to celebrate my "pending nuptials." (Lilah would be the 5 month old daughter of one of these lovely ladies.) Of course, I said yes.
The weekend was perfect. I took the train up this past Friday afternoon, and other than a one hour delay before we even got on the train, it was smooth sailing. (Smooth training?) I took a cab up to my friend Lara's place, dropped off my bag, and took the bus over to the same yummy Italian restaurant I went to for my birthday. We were soon met by our friend Jill, her hubby and their baby girl. Dinner was a real treat, as we so rarely eat pasta at home. Dinner was over at 10:30 and we called it a night, because Lara and I had a Central Park run planned for the morning.
Saturday morning, we woke up a little after 7 and headed out for a run through the park at 8. I had a 4 mile training run on my schedule, and Lara had a 10 miler planned as part of her NYC marathon training, so I decided to give 5 miles a go and run half of it with her. We ended up finishing the 5 miles (actually, 5.2) in 55 minutes, and then I headed home to shower while she ran 5 more. We were starving by the time we headed over to Jill's for a lovely brunch.
(The mirror makes it look like there's twice as much food as there is... still, it was a quite impressive spread for just four of us.)
We lounged around for a while before getting ready to head out to the spa for a lovely, relaxing afternoon of massages, manis and pedis.
After that spa visit, I knew I definitely needed to schedule a massage for the week of the wedding. It's amazing how much better I felt after that... so relaxed and recharged. It's almost a week later and I still feel much calmer.
We came back to Jill's for cupcakes and champagne (pretty much my favorite way to celebrate anything), and were joined by our other college roommate, Sara, for the evening. The four of us went to the Thai restaurant Sea in the meatpacking district, which was apparently bachelorette party central. There was at least one other bachelorette group at the restaurant and we saw several others (including someone with paparazzi, although we didn't get to see who) while we ate outside. The meatpacking district was totally NOT our scene, but we all love the other Sea in Brooklyn and this one was more convenient. After dinner, we wandered out of that neighborhood to find a quiet bar for one more drink.
The next morning, we went to brunch at Taboon in Hell's Kitchen. We started off with some amazing hummus, and we all ordered these delicious flatbread things that came topped with over easy eggs and your choice of toppings. (We all chose haloumi cheese, because how often do you see that out? Never.)
After brunch, we wandered around the upper west side for a bit before I had to catch my train home. No delays on the train... in fact, I got into Union Station a little bit early. Adam came to pick me up and we went out to grab some takeout from a local Mediterranean place. I even came home to a sparkling clean apartment... he's a keeper.
It was such a fantastic and relaxing weekend... exactly what I needed.
I'm finally getting around to posting photos from the other destinations of our California trip... Los Angeles, Carmel/Monterey, and San Francisco.
We didn't do a whole lot of sightseeing in LA (partially because the one day we were there happened to be the day of the Michael Jackson memorial), but we went hiking in Griffith Park and got a shot of me with the Hollywood sign. (Pardon my gross sweatiness... it was pretty hot and I had just hiked a bazillion miles)
In Monterey, we got up pretty close to a bunch of sea lions. Most of them were sleeping all piled up on top of each other, but this little guy was awake and alert. (And cute.)
After spending the afternoon at the Monterey Aquarium (awesome!), TS and our friends Bret and Emily went down to the beach in Carmel to throw a frisbee, watch the sunset, eat a picnic dinner, and make s'mores around the campfire. (Double awesome. I heart beach bonfires. I'd consider moving to California for that reason alone.)
The last stop of our trip was San Francisco. I don't want to inundate you with photos, so I'll show you one that captures something we sure didn't expect to see in San Francisco... or ever...
And to think, I started out the day saying "We're seeing Jonathan Who? I thought Randy Johnson was pitching. Now we're just watching two nobodies... it'll probably be a boring game."
Here are some of my favorite shots from our weekend in San Diego:
Our totally awesome hosts, Sarah and Rob, at the baseball game...
Sarah and I have been friends ever since we met in the 6th grade. She is one of my favorite people in the whole universe and even though we only see each other once every few years these days (what with living on opposite sides of the continent and all), whenever we're get together again we just pick up right where we left off. TS and I were so lucky to have Sarah and Rob to give us an insider's tour of the city... and free entrance to the zoo. :-)
This funky cactus was at the Cactus Garden in Balboa Park. It was HUGE. I took this photo while standing underneath the cactus.
I've never heard the term "succulent" as much as I did in San Diego. Succulent. Succulent. It's a fun word.
Here are TS and I waiting for a real sunset... one that disappears over the ocean. (Instead of over some random buildings.)
Sarah, Rob and I still waiting for the sunset. (You might not be able to tell here, but Sarah and I are freezing because the temperature had just dropped about 20 degrees.)
And finally, the sunset...
(Believe it or not, I actually put all my photos from my trip (and anything else since last October that was still on there) on my computer within a week of getting home. Now I am just in the process of organizing them all. Here are a few from our trip.)
While in San Diego, I went to my very first In-N-Out Burger.
I got a grilled cheese, TS got a burger "animal style," and we split fries.
They really put a lot on their grilled cheeses... I had to figure out the best way to approach it without dropping half the toppings.
I think I got it.
And a nice cold root beer to wash it all down.
(More vacation recaps to come... including photos from the no-hitter we saw in San Francisco last Friday!)