Mile 3510: The City of Bridges
Here’s a conversation I’ve had multiple times in the past few weeks:
Person: “So, where have you been so far on your trip?”
Stacey: “I see you haven’t been keeping up my blog or you would know that already.”
Person: “Yeah, I’m not really into blogs…they’re just not my thing.”
Stacey: “Ok, that’s cool. Do you want to be on the blog?”
Person: “OH YEAH!! Please, take my picture. When will I be on? Can I pass your link on to my friends? I’m ALL ABOUT the blog!!”
And that is how I’ve been increasing readership here at the Extravaganza. Take pictures of your narcissistic friends and post them on the Internet. Just kidding guys…you’re only mildly self-centered…not totally narcissistic! 🙂
While I’m typing to you all today from our nation’s capital, I think I need to get caught up on the past few days. After departing the culinary dream that is Montreal, I set off for Waterloo, Ontario to attend the belated wedding reception of my dear friends Matt and Jen (message to Andrea & Jason: Matt got your message and will call you soon).
Matt and Jen
Matt and Jen got married a year ago in Madison in a very small ceremony but since Jen is Canadian they decided to have a party a year later on their one year anniversary in Ontario for Jen’s friends and family. Since I am currently a woman of leisure, I tweaked the Extravaganza itinerary a bit and was able to make the party. A few of the pictures 
follow…unfortunately my attempts at candid photography failed miserably so these are a little posed. Oh well, what can you do? Though I was loathe to depart the amazing hospitality provided by Jen’s mom Judy, I’ve got a schedule to keep so ran for the border…unfortunately it ended up taking an hour to get across. Not so bad I guess…the other three border crossings last week were a piece of cake. I’m going to blame it on Niagara Falls. In fact, I think I’m going to blame everything bad that happens on this trip on Niagara Falls.
My next stop on the tour was Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (actually Sewickley) to visit my old friend from DC Erik and his wife Leah. Though they won’t admit it, I actually came at a very inconvenient
time as Leah was in her last week of graduate school so she didn’t have much spare time. This actually proved to be just fine as I enjoyed a couple of days of downtime to get caught up on the blog, do some laundry and just relax…although Erik did try to kill me by making me run in 90 degrees and
217% humidity. I’m still plotting my revenge. On Monday night we met up with Erik and Leah’s friends John and Heidi for a mini-tour and historical overview of the Pittsburgh area. Our first stop was the West-end Overlook for some amazing views of the city. We then moved on to the Duquesne Incline…a trolly that takes you up the side of a hill across from Pittsburgh for more great views. 
There’s a nice bar a few doors town from the top of the incline so we had a beer and snacks and enjoyed the beautiful (and now much cooler) weather. As much as I’d love to take credit for this beautiful night shot of the Pittsburgh skyline, I cannot. John, an avid photographer, was kind enough to take it for me and give me a lesson in how to change the manual settings on my camera to get better (read: actually recognizeable as pictures ) night shots.
After a quick tour through the Strip District and Heinz History Center Tuesday afternoon, that night we headed to a Pirates game where we met my old friends and colleagues from San Diego…Gary and Shushan! Gary is doing a graduate program at Carnegie Mellon which is what brought them to Pittsburgh and Shushan is working as a star network administrator for Carnegie Mellon. Since I hadn’t seen either in several years it was awesome that we were able to meet up for some baseball watching (read: gossiping about everyone we know in SD). A good time was had by all despite the fact that the Pirates lost.
Shushan, Gary and friend Drew
Erik and Leah
I have to say that I was quite impressed with Pittsburgh. Going in I had no knowledge or expectations but think they are doing a great job of transforming an old, grimy steel city into a cool place. PNC Park has an awesome location right on the water with amazing views of the city’s many bridges. And on that note, I will leave you all with a few things that I did not know about Pittsburgh and maybe you didn’t either?
3 Things I Did Not Previously Know About Pittsburgh
1. Pittsburgh is informally know as the City of Bridges. There is some debate surrounding this fact, but most Pittsburghers will argue that Pitt is either the #1 or #2 city for number of bridges in the world…the other being Venice. Most of those arguing the #1 position say that Venice cheats by including footbridges in their count. Clearly, that is improper.
2. There have been many films made in the Pittsburgh PA area, such as: Angels In The Outfield (1951), Night Of The Living Dead (1968), Slap Shot (1977), The Deer Hunter (1978), Knightriders (1981), Flashdance (1982), Night Of The Living Dead: The Remake (1990), Silence Of The Lambs (1990), The Mothman Prophecies (2001) and many more.
3. The “Big Mac” was invented in the Pittsburgh Area.
Tags: 4 - East Coast
Stacey
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Ok Stacey, I would like you to know that I am now COMPLETELY up to date on your blogs. And, not just because my picture is on it. I’m now going to send Vivienne and Sarah (from the bbq) the link to it too! And again, not just because my picture is on it 🙂
I’ll have to tell my grandparents that they are on your blog…I’m not looking forward to explaining what a blog is though!
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Thanks for all the info & pix. I didn’t know you could have 217% humidity. That would be like a super sauna HUH?
August 3rd, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Yeah, we totally had that conversation. And here I am! It was awesome hanging out and getting to experience our first Pirates game with you (if not for the Pittsburgh hairstyles alone). 🙂
August 4th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Pitts. is WAY prettier than I every imagined…I felt honored that we got a message from Matt via your blog! Just to let you know what a nerd I am, I check the blog every day!
August 5th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Hi Stacey, The Pitts pictures look awesome, I agree with Andrea, much prettier than I would have imagined. Sorry to hear that I missed such a wonderfully humid run…darn.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
[…] with the highest number of unique appearances on the blog – Matt and Jen: a. Mile 3510 for their wedding reception in Ontario b. Mile 10,143 in Montana and c. The Final Mile in Madison […]