A Plus Attitudes

Today was a beautiful day in Pittsburgh, PA. My cycling partner and life partner, aka, my hubby, had the day off, so we took our bikes to the streets of the Burgh, as we local Pittsburghers sometimes call our city. We covered about 30 miles and managed to pack in a day full of fun, food, and exercise in the sun.

We first started out on the trail at Second Ave, next to the County jail(or as we say in Pittsburgh, the gel), and just below Duquesne University.

We headed east on the trail to the Hot Metal bridge(Pittsburgh used to be a big Steel Town). We crossed the bridge into the South Side and picked up the Allegheny Passage Trail that runs along the Monongahela(aka the Mon) River.

The trail took us into Homestead's Waterfront where there are over 70 stores and restaurants and a water park called Sandcastle. We stayed on the trail and eventually ended up at the backend of the famous amusement park, Kennywood; which also happens to be our turn around point.

We ran into an obstacle along the way. A tree had fallen onto the trail between Waterfront and Kennywood. Oddly, my husband and I heard the tree break about a week and a half ago as we were biking past it. Fortunately, it didn't fall then. Later that week, we had some heavy thunderstorms and winds, so that must have been what caused it to eventually fall.

We were able to squeeze past the debris. We tried to move some of it out of the way, but it was too heavy.

After we turned around at Kennywood, we headed back into Pittsburgh and over to the Strip District for some lunch and brews at Cafe Notte. The Strip District is basically Smallman Street and Penn Avenue. A strip of warehouses turned into shops and restaurants run along those two roads, hence the name: Strip District. There is essentially a Little Italy in the Strip District where you can find practically all things Italian from espresso to Parma prosciutto. That's pretty much where we hung out.

Although, the pizza at Cafe Notte was good, they went overkill on the cheese. I normally don't eat  cheese, so I scooped mine off. As you can see by the picture below, that was a lot of cheese! The beer was good. Their menu says they have 44 beers on tap. My husband ordered a Nitro Stout and the waitress came back out and said "we now have 43 beers on tap". LOL. We couldn't be too upset after that clever announcement, so he picked one of the 43 that were left.

Of course, you can't visit the Strip District without visiting Enrico's Biscotti for a delicious biscotti and cappuccino. We enjoyed ours on their narrow, but beautiful sidewalk patio.

And what city doesn't have murals? This one was on the side of a building in the Strip District.

If you like cycling and have never been to Pittsburgh, what are you waiting for? We have fabulous bike trails around the city, along our rivers,  and designated bike lanes within the city proper. We have excellent restaurants to please any palette, an incredible Cultural District complete with an Opera, Symphony, Ballet, multiple theaters, Carnegie Museum, Andy Warhol Museum, The Mattress Factory Museum, History Museum, Phipps Conservatory oh and how about those Steelers, Pirates and Penguins(who are currently in the finals and in the lead). Pittsburgh might be small, but it's a beautiful and friendly place to visit. So, put it on your bucket list of places to see and don't forget your bikes and helmuts(although there are plenty of places to rent a bike).

And who knows, maybe we'll see yinz(Pittsburghese slang. Watch Pittsburgh Dad on YouTube to hear our unique accent).