Pittsburgh Tough!

Both of us woke up feeling like we got hit by a bus from the Kenny Chesney concert and decided that getting on the road by 7am to Pittsburgh was not going to happen. We happily traded a morning trip to Heinz History and Sports Museum for a few extra hours sleep.

We got into Pittsburgh around 12:30pm in time for the Pirates game. For any of you that saw the movie "Jack Reacher", we parked in the parking garage that was used in the horrific opening scene. Its much safer in reality! You can see in the picture below of the view from the garage.

As we left the garage, we walked across the river on the Roberto Clemente Bridge as they close it down for pedestrians on game days. 

By the way, we are still making good on our promise to not eat at any chain restaurants. We do allow ourselves to eat non chain brand food at the ballpark. 

The day was moving along nicely until the 2nd inning when we had a torrential downpour of rain. Thankfully -again- we had packed our rain coats and an umbrella. We sat out in our seats and took the rain storm like champs during the 2 1/2 hour delay.

After the rain cleared, the game moved along quickly as it turned into a pitchers dual. This was great to make up for the rain delay! ..... Well, that is until the game went into extra innings. We had gotten to the stadium around 1:00pm and was now 7pm in the 13th inning with one more stop in Pittsburgh to make plus a 3 1/2 hour drive to Harrisburg.

FYI- I'm having too much fun with the panoramic feature on my phone.

We finally had enough and left in the 13th  after spending over 6 hours in the stadium and headed over to Station Square for dinner and a trip up to Mount Washington. 

As you can see, we took trolly cars (similar to the trolly elevator in Dubuque) to the top and took in the view. Yes, Hillary was terrified of the heights!

It was about 10:30pm by the time we pulled out of Pittsburgh. Much later than we wanted, but no big deal - we can handle it and it's vacation, right?! Well, if you ever have a chance to drive I-76 during late night hours through the Appalachian Mountains in more pouring rain...Pass on it!

We arrived exhausted but alive around 2am with morning plans that began with a 7am breakfast. Still not ready to admit that my itinerary was too ambitious!

Next up.....Philly!