Skip to main content

Another beautiful day in Pittsburgh

I used to be pretty meh about spring, but this March, much like last March, was a pretty good month weather-wise. Of course, in comparison to the longest February of my and many others' lives, March really had nowhere to go but up. And considering the next few days are going to be in or near the 80s, I am hopeful April will turn out to be just as good or even better.
And with the good weather comes hours spent outdoors. For us, that means going to a park whenever we can. Since Jordan has been off since Tuesday, we have visited two of my favorite parks in and around the Burgh.

Boyce Park last year renovated O'Block Playground. There is now a large play area with slides, ladders and climbing areas, plus a half dozen swings. I like that everything is in one place, so I don't have to worry about my kid wandering off. And when she tires of that or just wants to explore, there are wooded trails we can explore. A noteworthy feature of this playground is it was designed for kids with special needs, so if you or your children use a wheelchair, you can access the ramps and platforms. My only (tiny) complaint) is the lack of seating. If I ever come into money, I am buying some benches for this place.

Another favorite park we like to visit is Frick Park, particularly "Blue Slide Park." Some days Jordan will slide down the slide for an hour or more, while I get to enjoy sitting and doing nothing. There are several different areas in that park, which means my kid never gets bored. But on a day like yesterday, when there were dozens upon dozens of kids running around, it is easy to lose track of your active child. This park too has many walking paths.

The best "Burgh" moment yesterday was when Jordan started playing with a leashed pug named Gunnar. At one point, the owner and his kid were heading for the ice cream truck and he asked Jordan if she wanted to watch the dog. She said yes, and happily played with Gunnar and walked him around. A few people came up to ask to ask if they could pet our dog. I just laughed and said he was not ours, but they could. Only in the Burgh would someone you just met leave their dog with your for 10 minutes. Ah, Pittsburgh.
Labels:

Comments

Mel said…
glad you guys are out enjoying the great weather. and yes, this city is like no other in so many ways! Happy Easter.
April 4, 2010 at 5:38 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer in review

This summer I made it a point to try to take at least one pic of Jordan whenever we went somewhere, which most often was a park. I wanted to capture all the great, fun things we did this summer, knowing that it was probably going to be my last summer not working for quite some time. So here goes. I have expressed my love of Frick Park, particularly Blue Slide Park, in other posts ; it really is one of our favorites. And this summer marked the first one I did not feel the need to follow J around like a little puppy dog. I actually let her run around and explore, though, admittedly, I would panic if more than three minutes went by and I had not seen her. In the pics above, J is at the end of the blue slide, and then hanging several feet above concrete (which scared the crap out of me). We also visited another section of Frick Park, the area on the corner of Braddock and Forbes, a few times. There is not as much to do as Blue Slide, but we go there to mix things up a bit. In the p...
2 comments
Read more

Let's build something together!

That is one of my favorite slogan's (Or is that a tagline? Over a year removed from a design firm, and I can no longer remember). It belongs to Lowe's, although I am more of a Home Depot gal. But suffice it to say if someone handed me a $5,000 gift card to Home Depot (or Lowe's), I would be ecstatic. If I had $10,000 to spend, you could hear my shouts of joy from miles away. The things I could do with that money. Well, the things I could have Brian do with that money anyway. I love walking around Home Depot and admiring the fancy bathroom sinks and tubs. I look at the lighting and think about where I would put each fixture. I touch textured and colorful tiles and wistfully look at the fancy kitchen cabinets. I admire the various carpet styles and blinds. I look at the fancy front-loading washer and wonder what it must be like to have a steam dryer. I even look longingly at the vacuum cleaners because I can no longer buy a replacement filter for my eight year old mo...
1 comment
Read more

If only I had taken pictures of my detoured drive

When I moved to the Burgh just over 14 years ago, I had a lot of anxiety about getting from "here" to "there." I found the city, which is triangular, and even some of the suburbs quite confusing. On top of that, a lot of the signs were of little help. Clearly they were put up by either natives who had no need for directions or people with a sick sense of humor who thought it would be funny to put signs in random places, leaving off important roads. At some point, I got over that fear of driving to a new building downtown. I don't recall when it happened, but eventually I just figured most of the city out; and when I had to head to a new place, I just drove around, no longer with a feeling of dread, knowing I would eventually get there. But on Sunday morning, that awful, long-ago feeling returned, thanks to the closure of the outbound Fort Pitt Tunnels. I had to pick my mother up from the airport, so there was no avoiding it. (For some reason, my family think...
4 comments
Read more