day 5: touristy treats

Yeah, I know yinz take the Gateway Clipper Fleet for granted, but living in land-locked CO, I thought the girls would enjoy seeing PGH by boat. The littles stood at the dock railing waiting impatiently -if they could have gotten any closer to the water, I'm sure they would have been happy. Squeals of joy & excitment when they spotted the Liberty Belle "I see the boat! It's here It's here!" Squealing so shrill I thought one of them had fallen in the water -talk about near heart attack. Once on board, the girls weren't so excited by the actual site-seeing (duh). Nikki & I enjoyed it though. Oh fair metropolis, how I miss thee.











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Fiona was mostly interested in the popcorn












Holy Carp, Batman! And I always thought carp were bottom feeders...who will win this survival test?

flashback

on the drive home from PA I discovered the XM channel "Boneyard" . It was like a trip back in time...if only there were a station like this back in the day. C'est la vie. We listened to it for just about the last 1/2 of the drive -until Nikki said "Mom, you've been listening to this for, like, 9 hours" & then asked if she could put in a CD. For sure there are the station favorites -Rush, Metallica, BuckCherry(?)(really??), etc etc. that got annoying at times, but overall it was a nice mix of 80's metal. And they played an old Metal Church tune: "Beyond the Black". It was one of those "OMG I had forgotten all about that band!" moments.

day 4: visit with the Bakers

We finally made it to our dinner plans.... Wednesday nights with Joe & Kim is just one more reason I miss Pittsburgh. The much anticipated visit from "the girls" was not disappointing for girls or boy...they had a blast, short but sweet. Hopefully do it again next year.

a little light sabre action b/t Darth Joey & Maddie


why do I have this happy look on my face when I have in my hands this toy that I have never played with before today...boy toys goooood



Fi looks like she's playing Marco Polo



"Nikki do you want to wear this mask?" is what we finally were able to decipher from the pint sized Darth Libby with the warped munchkin sounding voice



fun with spin art


ooooh more boy toys...I had a difficult time getting Lib to actually leave when it was time to go because she kept finding more boy toys



little man Joey...the source of much "don't get to do this in Colorado" boy fun!

flashback

day 4: more Pittsburgh

We went to South Side Works to shop at H & M, as I had promised Snick (no, we do NOT have one in Denver...wah!). Our good friend Sean went with us to hang out. The littles tried to get him to play hide & seek -"hey! you can't find me" - in the clothes racks but he was proccupied w/ his text phone.


After H&M we walked back this litte tunnel to discover these cool mosaics & this "secret" water fountain. You know, the girls & water...always a recipe for disastrous fun.






When we realized we had been back there a while, -& I had missed a couple calls from Chris regarding our evening plans- we mosied back out in public & the girls found this fab interactive fountain. Maybe it was the time of day, maybe the location, or the fact that it had just downpoured an hour earlier, but there were no other kids playing in the water. Not a problem for these tykes...more water for themselves. Here they are still kind of dry so we could go do our dinner plans.

the longer we waited for Sean to meet back up with us, the harder it was to prevent them from getting wet. Yeah, impossible to stop the sopping wet fun. I felt bad for the kids leaving The Cheesecake Factory, all dressed up with their parents, not allowed to join in. This was an excellent fountain...if it were me, I'd make sure my kids were dressed to play in the water after dinner!

"what will happen if I put this flower head on top of the fountain, I wonder?"

Big sister, not dressed for the activity, looks on with amusement

day 3: Pittsburgh. Finally!

Freshly bathed & showered, we went for a bite to eat at Primanti's in Cranberry Township -this location is a bar/restaraunt. I've only ever been to the original location in the Strip (as seen on Food Network), the Oakland location & the Southside one. I have to say that Primanti's in the Strip makes a tastier sandwich. Could be the atmosphere, could be that I wasn't eating my buzz away at 2am after leaving Metropol (that was ages ago!) No, I took my parents there last year for lunch, & it was just as tasty as at 2am. Looking over the menu, I saw that there are, like, 20 locations now -Primanti's has become a chain!

Anyway, we stayed that night & the next with our good friend (& Maddie's Godmother) Chris. Unfortunately she had to work the days we were there but we enjoyed our short visits in the evenings. Maddie and Olivia discovered the humor of I Love Lucy -a marathon on TVland was enough to keep them awake & on mountain time.

day two: St Louis, MO

We decided to stop at the Arch b/c I found out the week b4 that we could actually go up to the top. 630 ft up to be exact. Pricey ($30) for the short length of time it lasted (~30 mins bottom to top & back down) but it was a fun experience. The museum was free & very nice. Would have been better to explore w/o pre-schoolers & had Nikki not been tired & ready to get back on the road. Patting a horse named Jed (with carriage) at the riverside was a great way to end the day (and free!) as the girls then pretended to be horses all the walk/run back to the car.







Lib enjoyed shimmying up the wall of the observation deck by herself to look out the windows

the tram door was about the height of Snick when she stood on the threshold -see, here she is standing down from the threshold as we wait our turn to ride back down

the tram up to the top was comprised of separate 5 seat pods that looked like something straight out of Space Odyssey
"Don't touch the statue!" speaks the voice of authority from a nearby ranger after I jokingly tell Snick to get cozy w/ Thomas Jefferson & she starts to link her arm through his.