Pittsburgh: America's Most Livable City

Pittsburgh was recently selected by Forbe's magazine as America's most livable city.  As many of you know, I have been considering moving to Pittsburgh to go to school.  Jess and I decided to check it out for ourselves to see just how livable Pittsburgh is.

We flew from Chicago to Pittsburgh on a Saturday.  The flight went just fine for Logan.  When we got to Pittsburgh, we found out they left our bag in Chicago and it would be a few hours until it arrived, but the airline said they would deliver it to our hotel.  Once we got to our hotel, we all fell asleep.  Logan must have been pretty tired because he slept about 3 hours that afternoon.  I was more than happy to nap during that time.  I'm not sure what Jess did because I was sleeping.  We explored the area around our hotel, and again found a mall and shopping areas.  In our hotels on this trip, we booked suites with kitchens so we could do our own cooking and save on going out.

Sunday, day 2 in Pittsburgh, we attempted to find a church.  Google led us to one, and the church's website posted a starting time of 1 pm.  We of course chose the late start time.  Unfortunately, the ward website did not list stake conference dates.  When we got to the building, we noted how small the ward must be because there were only a few cars in the lot.  Turns out, stake conference ended an hour prior to our arrival.

So, we made a lunch and went into nearby park to enjoy the greenery.  Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas are very green with lots of trees.  It is very pretty.  And some trees had just started to change color.

Jess caught me eating lunch.  My peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwich was very good. 

Jess truly enjoying herself out in nature. 

Logan truly enjoying himself out in nature.

Where does the path to nowhere lead...

To a waterfall of course.

On Monday, day 3, we decided to go to the zoo.  Naturally, I was too busy plotting the most efficient path through the zoo to look up for this photo.  Turns out, the zoo did that for us already as there was only one path through the zoo.

Jess liked the lion.  Most lions I've seen in the zoo sit around, but this one got up for us and even roared.  The roar was actually very impressive and I can't imagine hearing that in the wild.

The elephants were gathering while Jess posed for this picture.

Whoa!  What a long fish.

The polar bear was my favorite.  They had an underwater viewing area and the polar bear was very active.  He kept playing with this blue ball.  He would take it onto land, throw the ball in the water, then jump in after it.  He definitely knew how to have a good time and woo the crowd.

This was actually the pool at our hotel.  We decided not to go for a swim.

After a long day at the zoo.  Jess and Logan both got tired of posing for pictures.

On our way out, the Tiger decided to give us a quick show and he paced around his pen.  It must have been feeding time.

 

We speculated that bus parking is reserved based on matching tree color.

Tuesday, day 4 in Pittsburgh, we stopped at Carnegie Mellon.  It is another university I am considering attending.  The campus is much more urban than Northwestern, but still a very cool campus.  They also have great museums there.

We naturally had to do our best dinosaur impressions.

This stegosaurus, along with many of the dinosaurs in this museum, were actually found in Utah. 

T-Rex is always impressive.

Just don't disturb them during dinner.

Jess admiring a Monet in the art museum.

This buffalo had a mohawk.  Turns out, he used the same hairdresser as Logan (see previous blog entry "The Golden Mohawk").

Wednesday, day 5: our visit to the botanical garden and conservatory.  Logan was excited as ever.

Gargoyles were on display that day.  

But Jess wouldn't let me keep one.

Jess by her favorite orchid.

As long as Logan was fed, he was pretty happy.  I think he was getting hungry in this shot.

This was one of four butterflies left from the hundreds that they had in the conservatory a few weeks earlier. 

Watch where you step!

Logan was happy to leave, but probably not related to his experience at the gardens.

On our way back that night, we drove around Pittsburgh for quite a while.  This area has a lot of hills and the usual trustworthy google maps does not portray that on a 2D map.  So, it tooks us quite a while to find the Grandview Park.  And when we got there, it was in a seemingly dodgy neighborhood, so Jess wasn't about to spend more than 5 minutes there.  But I did convince her to at least get out of the car to take some pictures.  No one tried to recruit us into their gang while we were there.  Whew, we were perfectly safe.

Logan getting a snack in before bedtime.

Our flight out of Pittsburgh was not until 5, so we decided to catch a Pirates game at PNC Park before we left.  We actually stood in line for tickets next to a guy who had coupons for free tickets, which he gave to us.  Thank you complete stranger.  We also got free Pirates shirts when we got in.  Turns out when the team isn't very good, there are a lot of incentives to go to the games.

 

So, here is the inning breakdown.  1st inning: Logan undecided on whether he likes baseball...

2nd inning: Still undecided...

 

3rd inning: Logan doesn't like baseball when he is hungry and tired, so Jess went to feed him.  I watched the game.

4th inning: Logan finally "enjoying" baseball...

5th inning: Still enjoying the game...

6th inning: The opposing team, the St. Louis Cardinals, hit a homerun.  The Cardinals ended up winning.

7th inning: Logan still really enjoying the game.  We couldn't stay longer because we wanted to beat traffic and get to the airport on time for our flight.  It was a fun game.

So, is Pittsburgh the most livable city?  I'd say it has a shot.  It is definitely livable.  We really enjoyed this city, the zoo, museums, gardens, the university, and the baseball game and made a lot of fun memories.