Our next tourist stop was at the Monongahela Incline, where we could take a semi-vertical train ride to the top of the hill for great panoramic views.

The ticket house is a neat old brick building & the tickets are pretty cheap.

My best friend Stepanie showed up!  She was driving back from her week long adventures in the UP of Michigan & met us in Pittsburgh to catch the game.

Up, up & away the train climbed at a slow and steady pace.

The views from the top are truly worth the trip- I loved seeing all the bridge spanning the Monongahela River leading into downtown Pittsburgh.

Reminds me and makes me a wee bit sad that Houston has no great river through town- like Chicago or Pittsburgh.

There’s even an observation deck that lets you walk out over the edge & get the panoramic views.

Yup, that’s my best friend sporting a Phillies shirt in Pittsburgh- they were actually in town to play the Pirates that night so we saw HUNDREDS of Phillies fans around town.

We could see the “three rivers” area where the Monongahela & Allegheny River met up and formed the beginning of the Ohio River.

On the far side of the river, in a neat looking park, some summer festival was going taking place.

We only had 1 full day to explore Pittsburgh, but we really  liked it!  I’m sure it’s quite different in the winter, but luckily we had amazing weather.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: It’s been 55-60 degrees here in the morning & I am LOVING the early fall!

We finally arrived at Station Square and knew we were back near civilization and right at the bottom of the Monongahela Incline.  We could see downtown Pittsburgh across the river & over another beautiful bridge.

There were lots of shops & restaurants, plus a little flea market type of area inside this building.

Down on the water front there was Bessemer Court, named after the old  exploded engine centerpiece for a variety of water shows.

We were glad to make it here finally & sat down outside in a nearby restaurant to enjoy the views of the area.

The train tracks run right along the waterfront & there were many people out taking their boats out for a leisurely Saturday afternoon.

There was a great deal of pedestrian traffic across this bridge & I would have loved to walked it if we’d had time before the baseball game.

Lots of restaurants, lots of tourists, great view, good people-watching & a perfect place to meet up with my best friend Stephanie!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: FINALLY finished updating all the links & doing most (but not all) of the clean up on the New Zealand page.  Just need to get a badge up on the homepage.

After our morning at The Strip, we rode the double-decker bus through downtown, across the Monongahela River and hopped after at area called SouthSide Works.  It seemed to be a newer part of town- with fancy chain restaurants and high-end stores.  There was a nice park area & families were out enjoying the gorgeous weather.

We decided it was time for another drink stop & the Hofbrau Pittsburgh looked like the perfect place.  There’s actually one in Houston & we’ve never been.

It was situated on the river, so we opted to sit out on the patio & enjoy some fresh air.

The thing about Hofbrauhaus’ is they are fashioned after their namesake brewery near Munich, Germany.  The inside reminds me of German tavern (as if I’ve ever been!).  They had some like music going and the beer brewing.

All the lovely ladies were in appropriate attire. We had another rounds of drinks & a little dessert to keep us going.

Then we made a fateful mistake.  Instead of waiting for the bus to circle around, we decided we’d just walk to the next stop.  It didn’t look TOO far on the not-t-scale map. Anyways, we ended up walking about 3 MORE miles, in the blazing sun, with temps in the mid-90′s, no water & no idea what was going on.   The first hour was pretty interesting & we passed some more “authentic” parts of Pittsburgh- such as these neat row homes.

We started seeing more neat grafitti on some of the walls & were just glad not to be wandering around at night.

We then ended up walking through an area that appeared have more of a college vibe.  I have no idea if we were near one at all, but there were lots of little nitch shops and casual bars.

Lots of people cruising up and down the street, checking out the shops, bars & crowds.

We felt like we were getting close to civilization again when we started crossing the bridges back towards downtown.

I loved all the old brick buildings & the random shops.  If I’d known the 2nd half of our walking journey was going to be so miserable, I’d have insisted we stopped and stayed in Margaritaville.

More very neat bridges- I was just amazed at how perfectly placed into town (or the town around them) they were.  No sweeping, long approaches or long spans leading up to the river.

This part of the walk was a blur- we were trudging through some very shady parts of town but at least felt like we were getting close to our destination of Station Square.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Grandpa turned 83 years old yesterday!  His  mental health has been in a severe decline the last few years, but he is still very happy to see me.