Who am I? Todd/Slibocker
What am I? Human, hypothetically
Where am I? Lying in bed on the 6th Floor of the Marriott Courtyard across from the convention center in Pittsburgh writing this blog.
How am I? I'm tired, need to sleep
Why am I? Oh man, you probably wouldn't like my answers to that one.
Woke up this morning, got in the car and drove 100 miles to Pittsburgh. Made it to PNC Park (the baseball stadium) at 9:58AM for a 10AM tour. Just a tad (or Todd) close. Tour was good, very nice ballpark. I've been chatting up a lot of folks this week so I talked with our fellow tour folks for suggestions of things to do (there were only 5 others on the tour, so it was really cool, heck Cleveland only had 4 others yesterday on the tour, seems to be a trend). PNC is nice, one of the nicest in baseball, incredible views, but more on that soon.
From there, we headed through the city to the south side of the city across a bridge where we took this incline ride. Lunch was had first as we were starvin' We found a place right near the incline in the cool little mall (more on that in about 3 sentences) Basically, a cable car without the cable up the side of a steep hill. Great views and some pix that will go up this weekend. Back down to the mall, where, shockingly, stopped in a bookstore. Bless my heart, this was a discount bookstore, so you know I bought yet more books. I think I'm a book addict. I'm starting to get a little concerned here. There is a name to this mall, and when Marlene gets off the phone with her bro, I'll type it right here: Station Square (she's off the phone)
From there, we decided to head into Pittsburgh proper and check in. Jane, our daring little GPS unit (yes, we named her, hey, you got a third voice in the car talking to you, you give it a name - we have an english voice on the gps, I dig the foreign accents) steered us to a different hotel, but we used our senses and ignored her. Hotel is very nice. Well worth staying, but I'll give those reviews in the last blog for this trip (prob Saturday). Tired of driving, we started walking around the city.
Pittsburgh reminds me of NYC, if NYC were set up as a miniature train set. Everything looks bigger than it should be, but really isn't. Translation, we walked around the entire city, over the bridge back towards the ballpark, along the river there, back into the eastern part of the city called the flats. The views were really cool, expect pix from this too. By the way, felt much safer in this city, as there were, you know, actual PEOPLE on the streets. Zombie alert has been canceled. It was mad hot out there today, like 95 or so, but I ignore reality and Marlene grudgingly plays along so we walked everywhere. In the flats, we hit a few stores where oddly, kitchen utensils were purchased. Attempted dinner Lidia's, but it was too early. Turned into a blessing in disguise.
Totally geeked out at a store that had one floor of music and cool promo posters and one floor of comics, where a U2 promo was acquired and a best of the Police cd for tomorrow's trip home, (this is in the addition to the Best of Genesis cd set that was purchased yesterday). I was good, I only bought one comic item (really not a comic, just a book of various stories from Peter David). Walked back to the hotel, and we were hungry. You know how people say you should never eat at the restaurant next to the hotel? They are LIARS! Ignore them, they know not of what they speak...
The name of the restaurant is Sonoma Grill, if you leave now, you'll be there in time for dinner. Go. Now. Hands down the best meal of the trip was tonight. They had this really cool thing where for $75 a person (sorry Mom) you get four courses (including a different wine with each course). The catch is you have no idea what is coming, for the food or the wine. As I'm used to not having any idea what is coming in life in general, I was all for it. Marlene, being married to me, is also used to not knowing what will happen next so she was in too. First course was a specialized sushi roll that was made from the fish of the gods of which I don't remember the name of. Next up, we had a salad with heirloom tomatoes and citrus which made eating a salad a good experience for a change. Next up, duck (Wanna buy a duck? A what? A duck. Does it quack? Of course it quacks! - End tangent). The duck was better than some filet mignons I have had. Dessert was just cruel. A sampler of the first 5 items on the dessert menu including: Creme Brulee, Chocolate Tart (Marlene had most of that), a cheesecake, a strawberry creme tart, and a pineapple sponge cake item. One of the best meals of my life. So go now, seriously. Heck the chef even came out and asked us what we thought of it. I'm considering naming my first born after him after tonight. The problem is, his name escapes me so I might have to call the kid chef.
After ingesting 90000 calories, we made straight for the gym at the hotel where I jogged in place on one of those silly treadmills, much rather run around the city, but I wanted to stay close.
Crap, we did a lot today. Tomorrow, we attempt to go back to the lovely and inviting Garden State.
We'll see how that goes...
