Pittsburgh!

I flew into Pittsburgh this morning. I don't know why I insist on putting myself on flights before 8am. It really is a dumb idea. Flying JetBlue out of T5 at JFK was a nice treat. It's kinda like a giant mall with gates and people leaving. As I passed the gates for Barbados, Aruba, and Jamaica I really felt like a dope for choosing Pittsburgh.

The flight was rather uneventful. I snoozed most of the way, except for when the dope behind me kept grabbing the back of my chair when he'd get up. Seriously, it was an hour from take off to touch down. Who needs to get up that often? Thanks to DirecTV on JetBlue, I dozed to some Hitler show on the History Channel. I woke up very angry.

After landing I hopped a cab and enjoyed my first views of western Pennsylvania. Darnell was my cabbie and was very open about his love of Pittsburgh. We talked a lot of sports and he got me to the hotel quickly. He'll be picking me up in the morning too. This is what happens when you're a good tipper.

The Westin in downtown Pittsburgh is a very nice hotel. I walked in around 10am and they gave me a room, which was VERY nice of them. I was exhausted (see: stupidity of an early flight)and was able to take a nice nap after getting upstairs.

Step one (after waking and freshening up) was to find a Primanti Bros joint. I mean, I'm in Pittsburgh, I HAVE to have to check it out, right? I went to the one in Market Square (which will be nice after it's done being renovated I assume) and it was a tasty sandwich. I had the Pitts-Burgher Cheese steak (see what they did there?), but what makes this sandwich joint unique is that they put the coleslaw, tomatoes and french fries right on the sandwich, which is wedged between two big slices of Italian bread. I topped it of with a pop. (yeah, I know).

After grabbing a few pops (I can't NOT laugh when someone says that and means soda) I stopped by the hotel and then went out for a nice long walk around the city. My destination was the park at the point of the 3 rivers, but much of that park was being renovated as well (seriously, LOT of construction in this town at the moment). They have the outline of Fort Pitt, which was destroyed by the French back in the 1700's, and that was cool to see. I walked over the Fort Duchshene Bridge and then up to PNC Park (home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who seem to be the farm club of the Yankees and Red Sox). I loved the fact that they had some of the ballpark opened. The seats and everything were fenced off, but I was able to walk on the path behind the bullpens and around that area. Very cool of them to keep that opened in the off-season...at least for my purposes. I walked back to downtown Pitt over the Roberto Clemente Bridge, then back up to the hotel.

Now it's time to prepare for the game tonight - Ducks vs Pittsburgh. Here's hoping for a good contest! I've heard great things about Pittsburgh fans in general - I'm very curious to see how I'm treated, especially on the heels of the game in New Jersey.

More later!

Pittsburgh Planning

My 2009-10 Ducks tour continues through Pittsburgh this year. I decided to make the trip out to see the Igloo (Mellon Arena) before the Penguins move to their new home next season. I'm flying out of JFK on Monday morning (11.16.09) and returning the next morning.

Using Starwood points (Sheraton) that I earned on my trips to Buenos Aires and buying a few more points, I was able to get a room at the Westin in Downtown Pittsburgh for only $70 (the price of the extra points I needed for the free night). I'm flying on Jet Blue and am looking forward to checking out the JFK terminal that they're always bragging about...

Now I just need to get my ticket to the game. I'm amazed at how expensive the tickets are there, especially compared to getting tickets in the NYC area...