My exploring days are over!

You've probably gathered that I like to poke about the nooks and crannies of the city. On many occasions Zach has commented that we are in parts of the city we probably have no business being, but....my curiosity always gets the best of me and I proceed anyways. However, I think I've finally learned my lesson. My older sister was visiting last week and I took her to check out an area of town. It was dusk, but I was lulled into comfort because I wasn't alone, and there was a cute young couple playing frisbee with their dog and a hippie looking college student guy with a messenger bag riding his retro bike around. Those are the types of people I associate with good areas. So my sister and I wandered a bit away from them, feeling so safe and all. As we turned to head back towards where cute couple and college boy were, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. You know how sometimes you see something but it takes your brain a few moments to really register what you've seen? So it wasn't until a few steps later that I realized what I had seen was a man, wearing a black ski mask, hiding in the trees. I couldn't help but look back at him a few times as we ran away and each time he tried to ineffectually conceal himself more and more behind some tiny trees. I warned the cute couple of what I'd seen and my sister and I sped off in our car. Then I called 911 and met with some police officers to give them a better idea of where I'd seen this guy. Unfortunately, by the time all of that was done, I'm sure the creepo was long gone. I couldn't sleep that night thinking about what he might have been up to or the fact that he was probably hiding the whole time we were walking around right by him.....

Long story short, no more exploring for me (unless I'm with a group of people, big manly people). It's just not worth it.....not to mention my paranoid brain can't handle it. I could fill several blog posts with the things I'm afraid of, but they range from being stalked by my neighbor (he wasn't, we just happened to cross paths often) to being kidnapped at the grocery store to being terrified of ice cream truck drivers (I won't go outside if one is on my street) to someone trying to steal my unborn baby when I was pregnant (don't call me crazy, it happened to a women in Pittsburgh while I lived here.) If I were rich, my first expenditure would be a personal bodyguard....seriously. And maybe some therapy :)

So now I have to post some pictures from a past, and last, "exploring" weekend. 

Friday Night - Explored along Route 28

Learned that when city stairs are closed to public, there's a good reason. Had to climb muddy hill sans stairs.

Found this cute spot

Took pictures of my daughter being a goober

Saturday Morning - Explored abandoned steel mill - near Munhall

Trekked to the coolest abandoned factory place with some girlfriends to test out our cameras. You can find lots of pictures from that on my photo blog here.

Saturday Afternoon - Made Zach explore West End neighborhood
I cannot even begin to describe how much Zach hates going on these little excursions. We did encounter some pimply 14 year olds doing drugs and drinking on some of the steps, so I'm glad he was with me. 

Took a picture of the mysterious "stair people" (see far right side of the picture below). There are many houses throughout Pittsburgh that aren't on roads. They're on the middle of hills and the only way the occupants can access them is the public city steps. Even their mailboxes are located on the steps. As these people came out to confront me for taking pictures of their house, I thought about getting chatty and asking them about life on the stairs, but instead I smiled awkwardly and booked it out of there. Again, there are more pictures from this trip as well on my photo blog here.

Seeing as shortly I will be moving to the city with the 2nd highest violent crime rate in the United States, consider yourself lucky that you won't have to see many more posts like this from me! I will at most only be exploring my backyard :)