Buildings, Ketchup, And Breathtaking Views

Whew! I am exhausted! It has been such a long day with a lot of walking and a little bit of sightseeing.

I woke up early to knock out a run before it got hot and the streets started filling with morning commuters heading into work. I ended up running a little over 4.5 miles (I was shooting for 5) but it was a very difficult run! I ran over by the University of Pittsburgh and there are quite a number of challenging hills to conquer. Some may call me crazy, but I actually like the challenge running hills provides. I mean, if I can’t do speed work, I need to challenge myself somehow, right?

I took a few walk breaks but they were more to just soak in the campus verses needing a breather. After my run, I showered, changed, relaxed, and ate breakfast before heading out to explore the city a little more.

My first stop was into Downtown Pittsburgh to see all of the tall buildings. I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for tall buildings. They make me feel like I am somewhere important.

I didn’t come into this trip with a planned out itinerary on what I wanted to do, but I knew that I wanted to learn a little more about the history of Pittsburgh while I was here. A quick Google search this morning brought up the Heinz History Center as a cheap ($5 student tickets) way to explore and learn more about this city that is so interesting to me.

The history center has six floors with different exhibits covering different parts of history in Pittsburgh. My favorite exhibit was the two floor sports museum, which covered the history of the different sports franchises and events in the city. I spent over half of my time in this area alone!

My favorite part of the sports museum was definitely learning more about the Pittsburgh Steelers. I am a huge NFL fan and while the Steelers are not my favorite team, they are a team that I will root for if they are not playing one of “my teams.”

Another favorite of mine was the Heinz 57 exhibit which told the story of how the Heinz company developed over the years to become one of the most recognizable brands in food. It was interesting to go around and see the old bottles and products that the company used to make (did you know Heinz made Peanut Butter and a product called Walnut Ketchup?)

However, one of the biggest surprises for me was when I stumbled upon Mister Rodger in one of the exhibits. I loved his show growing up!

Another fun thing the history center had was the Smart Steps program (in collaboration with UMPC). Instead of taking the elevator from floor to floor, you took the steps and collected stamps on each floor. At the end, you received a prize for your work. The steps were fun because there were interesting facts on the walls and some funny pictures.

After spending a good chunk of my day in the museum, I decided to head to the Duquesne Incline. It took me awhile to get to the incline however because I got very lost downtown. At least I got in a good amount of walking for the day!

I’ve been on an incline before (the Montmartre Funicular in Paris) but I forgot how terrifying it is to go up in one!

However, once you make it to the top of Mount Washington, you are rewarded with the best views of Pittsburgh!

Today was a gorgeous, clear day and you could see for miles and miles! I loved seeing the Downtown skyline, but also Heinz field and many other numerous buildings/ stadiums that I will not get the chance to visit.

I ended up walking around the area for a little and found a great lookout point (away from other tourists/ people) to just sit and relax for about 45 minutes. With everything that has been going on these past couple of weeks, it was nice to be alone with my thoughts and decompress. If I lived in this area, I would seriously try to come up to this lookout once a week to clear my head.

By the time I made it back to my hotel just after 6, I was too exhausted to do anything other than sit down and chill out. It was a long and busy day, but I had fun exploring a new city! I’m sad that I have to leave tomorrow!

With that said, I am off to bed! I am hoping to get in a run tomorrow, but we will see how my feet feel in the morning. I have a feeling they are going to be a little sore!