a very pittsburgh weekend

When we first decided that we were moving to Pittsburgh, I remember feeling a little embarrassed that it wasn't a more exciting exotic locale. It wasn't overseas or a hip city, it was PITtsburgh. On first glance, it's not the most attractive place. Dirty and crumbling are good descriptions. There are areas that I thought looked scary and unsafe when I first moved here, only to realize that those were actually the nicer areas. HOWEVER....there is so much to love about this place, some of it is harder to find but it's there. This is not a superficial place. People don't really care about appearances, which can be obnoxious when your neighbor has a broken hot tub on their front lawn or uses their front yard as their personal garbage can, but it's also refreshing. The people here are gritty, but they're real, and I love it.

We had a good "pittsburgh" weekend, which is why I'm on this train of thought. Zach and I haven't spent lots of time together lately. We've been busy, we've had our own agendas each night, so I decided early in the week that we would spend the weekend together and not make plans with anyone, whether separately or even as couples. I prepared myself to graciously fend off all the party invites that were sure to come our way :) Seeing as there were no invites to fend off, my family weekend or bust decision didn't end up being quite so noble... my friends must have known we were having a family weekend, yeah, that must have been it....:)

We swapped babysitting with friends and Zach and I went out to eat at a Thai restaurant, my favorite food in the world. Something about having to go up an old stairwell to get to a restaurant lets me pretend that I'm trendy and urban, and I love pretending that.

The North Side is one of my favorite areas of Pittsburgh. There are amazing historic Victorian homes, as well as Heinz Field, PNC Park, Carnegie Science Center, The Children's Museum, the Andy Warhol Museum, and the Mattress Factory (an art museum, no mattresses!) But it's also one of the more dangerous areas of Pittsburgh. It seems like most of the shootings I read about happen in the North Side, during the day. Someone shot and robbed a mailman in the middle of the day not too long ago! Which is sad, because it really has so much to offer, I wish it was a safer area.

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Saturday our agenda included the Mattress Factory and Children's Museum. On our way there, we passed this home....Little discoveries like this, that's what makes me love this city. I feel like I get out a lot here, but I'm always finding something new that adds to the uniqueness of this place.

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So the Mattress Factory....Zach took some convincing to go, since he was pretty sure it was a mattress store (that would be The Original Mattress Factory). It was a very, um, interesting place? I like to think I'm open minded to the whole pushing the envelope of what is and isn't art, but I had a really hard time knowing what was supposed to be an art piece and what was a garbage chute. Turns out it was an art piece, oops, not a place for Aubs dirty diapers....On each floor we had to read instructions and study a map to know what the "art" was, and to know how to "experience" it correctly, because some things you couldn't just look at, you had to pause and turn just so. Some of the art. Notice Zach trying to experience one of the pieces. Notice also the red light one. That was a pitch black room, the floor was covered it water, with a red door opening at the end that was glowing red. Not scary at all. Another one of the exhibits was completely dark, no lights at all. We walked down several black hallways until it opened up into a room that had at least 2 chairs in it. I could only tell there were chairs by feeling my way around. But after finding the 2nd chair I turned and ran, because what if there were more chairs that WEREN'T EMPTY? It was definitely a go once for the experience kinda place for us. Aubrey wanting to hold a decapitated mickey mouse head that was part of an exhibit helped me make that decision. While it was a weird place, I do love that there are artsy people here that are into that, that Pittsburgh is diverse enough to have that sort of crowd, I just don't care to be in that crowd :)

The trip to the Children's Museum after was a more wholesome experience. Aubrey had a blast and Zach had a blast watching Aubrey have a blast. And I loved watching Zach have so much fun seeing Aubrey having so much fun.

Oh Pittsburgh, you're a funny place and you've been good to us.

(I just liked how this house looked all smashed between it's neighbors)