Pittsburgh and Home

We arrived home Thursday evening after a pleasant, fast run from Pittsburgh.   We had enjoyed a few days with family and friends.   We had lunch at Square D on Braddock in Regent's Square one afternoon.  Excellent hamburger as well as a wide range of other breakfast-like foods.   We ate out Wednesday evening at Istanbul Sofra, a lovely Turkish restaurant also in Regent's Square.   It has captured an essence of Turkey in the dining room, and gave us the opportunity to have branzino cooked the Turkish way we had enjoyed in the fish restaurants there.  Worth looking up if you are in the East End of Pittsburgh.  John also had lunch with a friend in Peter's Township at Aladdin's.  A pleasant Greek-Mediterranean place with a good salad he craved.

Pittsburgh was lovely, though wet.  The city changes every time we visit.  Right now there is massive construction of bridges on the main arteries, but that will finish soon.  New buildings are going up everywhere and the city has a spark that it had lost for a few years when the steel industry collapsed.  Now it is far from steel.  

Columbus to Pittsburgh

Our dinner Saturday night at The Guild House was lovely.   We had a very intimate room for the ten of us celebrating my sister-in-law's birthday.  Friends and co-workers made up an excellent group of conversationalists.   We had picked the wines in advance, a Snoqualmie syrah from Washington state and a Drouhin white burgundy.   These went well with the variety of main courses ten friends picked:  Ben had Dover sole, John had skate.  The other mains ran from vegetarian lasagne to filet mignon.  Desserts were equally good.  A great way to celebrate, helped by our cute waiter, Nathaniel.

Canal Boat reconstruction--Ohio and Chesapeake Canal

Sunday we dawdled across eastern Ohio heading to Pittsburgh.   We stopped in Roscoe Village, an old early 19th century canal stop and major station on the Underground Railroad before the civil war where local citizens helped fleeing slaves on their way to Canada.  Not very good coffee. No raves here, though the service was good at the local coffee shop.  From there we headed to Dennison, an old Pennsylvania Railroad site, now a museum.  We had a good salad lunch at the Dennison Yard restaurant overlooking old trains.  Then to Pittsburgh and visits with friends.  

John lunched with a friend yesterday at Aladdin's, a Mediterranean place on Rt 19 south of Pittsburgh in Peters Township.  Ben explored Shadyside and spent time with cousins. Today we visit friends for dinner in Greentree.  Today, Ben has lunch with a good friend of 40 years while John recuperates from a case of laryngitis that has laid his speaking abilities low.

To Columbus to Party

May 14, 2016--Columbus, Ohio--Today is my sister-in-law's birthday, so Ben and I drove yesterday through rain, at first, then gorgeous weather in the West Virginia mountains to Columbus.  It was a grand day of stress-free travel, heading West without the Pennsylvania Turnpike's trucks, on mostly deserted interstates and good state roads.  Stopped in Frederick for Ben's favorite XX-dry skim cappuccino with art at a new-ish place, Gravel and Grind, which is a combination café and bike shop.  The barista did a fine job. 


Then through the big gap and the view of the mountains looking East.   Lunch in Morgantown, without the students from West Virginia University when it's in session,  it's a pleasant mountain town.   Then through the Appalachians to the Ohio flatlands.

Hi There!

We're staying comfortably at a Vicitorian BnB, the Neil Avenue BnB built in 1893--making it younger than our house in DC by a year.  It's very period.   Today we enjoyed a quick trip around Ohio State's campus, shopping at the North Market, which is similar to the big market in Baltimore, but larger than our Eastern Market, then coffee at Le Chocoholique in the Short North.  Lunched at cousins' Mad Mex on High Street and headed off to the Billy Ireland Museum of Cartoons.




A great show of cartoons by Dedini, who did them for Playboy and the New Yorker for many years including a  couple we thought wonderful:  The first is captioned "Hi There."  

Tonight dinner at the Guild House where we have already chosen the wines.   A group of sister-in-law's friends.

The menu and the restaurant look lovely when we stopped in earlier this afternoon.