Destination: Pittsburgh (part II)

Duquesne Incline

Three months and one day ago, my daughter and I hit the road to start a six-day, 2,600-mile road trip to Pittsburgh. The purpose then was to help move some of her possessions across country and arrive in time for Simone to begin a summer session class designed to refresh her math skills before launching graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon. (See my earlier post, "Destination: Pittsburgh")

Today, Lori and I will get up way before the crack of dawn to catch an early morning flight that will take us to the Steel City. The dual purpose of our trip? To visit Simone and her partner, Kyndall, of course. But also to belatedly celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary in a place that's new to us.

The buzz about Pittsburgh is pretty positive, with more and more people and publications proclaiming its similarity to Portland. Both are river cities with lots of bridges and both have attracted significant numbers of young creatives who have helped transformed the local culture and economy.

We'll be eager to see Simone and Kyndall's rental house in the Lawrenceville area of Pittsburgh, and reacquaint ourselves with Quimby, their rascally but lovable Chihuahua-Pug mix. We'll be on our own to see a lot of the sights, including city parks, museums and the Duquesne Incline, a 133-year-old tramway that's one of the city's top attractions.

Evidently, Simone has been very busy with school and her part-time internship with Pittsburgh Public Schools, so we'll take whatever time we can get with her and Kyndall.

Photograph: http://riid.tripod.com/inclines.html