Making the Most of a Sunday in Pittsburgh

Recently, my husband, R.T. and I went to a friend's wedding in Pittsburgh.  Since R.T. was a groomsman, we had to be in town by Friday evening and were busy all day on Saturday.  The wedding was beautiful and we had a lot of fun seeing old friends and dancing the night away.  Check out the Big Dog in his hot orange and cream tux!

When we woke up Sunday morning we decided to make the most of our two hour drive to PA and take advantage of some of the local sites.  So we headed down to Station Square and decided on having lunch at The Island Cafe.  We both had delicious, messy and surprisingly affordable Greek paninis.  We walked them off by the river and took in the water fountain show for a bit.  And then it was time for a little ride.  On the incline train, that is.  When I say incline train, I mean literally a train that goes up a hill at a super steep angle. So we paid our $2.75 (cash only!) each for a round trip and headed up to Mount Washington.  I am just enough of a history teacher to get excited about the background of these incline trains, so of course it is worth mentioning.  In Pittsburgh's coal era, the immigrant population was booming and housing became an issue.  Workers needed to live as close as possible their jobs since they didn't have their own transportation.  So, many of the German immigrant workers lived on Mount Washington and they remembered the incline trains from their homeland.  Pittsburgh eventually built their own to be used as public transportation.  It was definitely a fun ride for us because we would see for miles, but imagine the incline train being your daily commute to work! 

I took this picture at the top before we walked a little further and got smoothies at a local coffee shop.  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh.  We made a fun day of it and got on the road soon enough to be back home before dark.