Pittsburgh

A few weekends back, I skipped my own graduation so I could attend my sister's in Pittsburgh. Despite living in Pennsylvania's other big city for four years, I'd never before made it to the Steel City. My family and I drove there from Wisconsin.

The first thing that struck me about Pittsburgh was how green and hilly it is. Visitors approach the city by passing through a narrow tunnel that opens into a high bridge, which feels like it is at eye level with the tops of the city's skyscrapers. Below are the rushing waters of the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio--Pittsburgh's famous three rivers.

Up close the city is cramped and rusting. It is finely wrought and reminiscent in its architecture of Philly, but past its heyday and in decline (also much like Philadelphia). With my sister as our tour guide, my family traversed one of three identical yellow bridges, dined downtown at "Meat and Potatoes," wandered Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh's overlapping campuses (including Pitt's towering Cathedral of Learning), and lingered amidst the orchids and butterflies of the Phipps Conservatory. That's about all there is to see in the city, my sister said.

She graduated the next day on CMU's campus. We had an apartment cooked dinner that evening, then my family and I began the twelve hour return drive to Wisconsin early the next morning.