A Weekend with Mom

While I was studying in Pittsburgh this summer it was difficult to be away from home. My dad had recently passed away and sometimes I just wanted to be with family. Luckily my mom decided to come visit for a weekend. It was a nice change of pace. She got a hotel in Oakland and we stayed together. My mattress at school was like lying on a brick wall, so the hotel bed was much appreciated.

After torturing her by having her walk up the hill to my dorm so we could get some of my stuff, we set off to explore the city.

The night she arrived we had the very convenient hotel shuttle service take us over to Shadyside where we had dinner and margaritas at a nice Mexican place. After dinner and after quickly exhausting our shopping options we headed back to the hotel to catch up on some much needed sleep.

The next day we started off by visiting the Phipps Conservatory and walking through all the gardens there. They were having a “Glass in the Gardens” display this summer that we thought was pretty neat.

A glass sunflower at the entrance of the Phipps

One of the spinning pieces of glass art

The Cathedral of Learning!

Cool looking glass people “walking” through the garden

Smile!

The hanging glass artwork that reminded me of the Bushnell in Hartford, CT

Someone offered to take our picture

Then we decided to go downtown and see if we could find anything else to do. Instead we ended up going for a nice walk as was generally my experience in Pittsburgh. I would often go out in search of something to do and, with the exception of a few times I stumbled upon something unexpected, I would end up finding restaurants and shops closed up earlier and just walk my feet off.

Sitting downtown at what I call the “glass castle building”

Our one unexpected find at Point Park

People working on an amazing sand sculpture

On this particular weekend after having enough of the aimless walking, my mom and I decided to take a bus over to Station Square. There were a few little shops to look at and then we ended up meeting my friend from class for dinner. Although it was not quite what we expected (again) we were glad we went.

The fountains at Station Square

On Sunday, after a quick lunch at my favorite place to get salads, Hello Bistro, it was time for my mom to head to the airport. My mom is not the best traveler and she tends to get anxious about flying and dealing with airports. I was hoping this trip would go smoothly so I could encourage her to travel to Europe later this year to visit me, but of course she has the worst luck with traveling. Every time I fly, I walk right through security with no problems, barely any lines, and rarely encounter delays. For my mom that is not the case. She had a problem with the shuttle to the airport, multiple delays, and to top it off after finally getting home late at night, she got rather sick for the next few days.

Hopefully when she comes to Europe at Christmas, my brother will be her good-luck charm and anxiety-reducing travel-buddy.

Showing Mom the nationality rooms at the Cathedral of Learning

The Israel Heritage Classroom

The African Heritage Classroom

The Welsh Classroom

The Austrian Room

Three Rivers Arts Festival and Other Weekend Debauchery

Photo by: The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

I would say that my weekend started after the SLI Happy Hour (no alcohol involved) on Friday. Being our very indecisive selves, my friend from class and I started walking off from the picnic in no particular direction when we ran into one of his friends. After introductions and chit-chat, the three of us continued to wander around with no destination in mind. Eventually we decided to head downtown. This is when I discovered how awesome it is to have a Pitt Student ID that allows you to use public transportation for free. I can pretty much go anywhere in the county whenever I want. It is quite convenient really.

So we took a bus to downtown and then walked around aimlessly some more, but with new surroundings. We were definitely being those people leisurely strolling and talking and annoying the people walking with a purpose behind us, but it was great not to have to be anywhere specific. Eventually we found ourselves at the Three Rivers Festival I had been planning to check out this weekend anyway. We plopped ourselves down on the grass in front of a stage, thinking we would stay for a couple of songs, but ended up staying for the entire concert. The opener was a Pittsburgh band called Donora and the main act was Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. You may know their song “Home”. They put on a decent show and I had a good time. The best part of the whole thing being that all the music at this festival is free!

Yesterday (Saturday) my intent was to practice for my Irish fiddle lesson in the morning and then go check out Bluegrass day at the festival. I found that I did not have access to the Music Building at the University of Pittsburgh and was unsuccessful in finding I place where I would be able to play and have wifi for my Skype lesson. I think perhaps I was being a bit optimistic in how much I would be able to practice while studying Estonian. In the end I decided to cancel my lessons while I’m in Pittsburgh (to be honest, I can’t afford it anyway).

I ended up meeting up with my friend for lunch and then heading downtown again. Although we did head to the festival, I didn’t actually end up hearing any of the bluegrass music, but it was a good day regardless. We did quite a bit of walking…which makes me feel slightly better about the way I have been eating lately. After looking at some of the artsy booths at the festival and hanging around downtown a bit more, we decided to explore the South Side a bit. We found (while walking up and down Carson Street about five times) that the South Side definitely has a different feel than downtown. I think I like it better. Eventually we found the Irish pub “The Claddagh” I had been hoping to locate and then sat on a bench listening to a live band and watching some ridiculously adorable kids (and one mother) playing in the fountain.

A considerable amount of indecision later, my friend and I ended up in a country bar with an eclectic mix of people. It wasn’t my favorite place, but it wasn’t too crowed and allowed us to keep to ourselves for the most part. We stayed for a short time and then waited to catch our bus back.

My plan for today is to get my homework done for tomorrow and then head to the session at “The Claddagh”. My teacher, Brian Conway, contacted someone in Pittsburgh for me, and this person then invited me to play at the session. I know absolutely no one, but you can’t go wrong with an Irish pub and a bunch of fiddles (perhaps a guitar, a tin whistle, and a bodhrán too). I’ll bring my instrument in the hopes of knowing a tune or two, but I expect to mostly listen.

All in all I’d say this is turning out to be much more interesting than my usual weekend in Connecticut.