Pittsburgh trip---Part Two

After we rode the Incline, dh decided he wanted to eat BBQ for dinner. He asked a man at a gas station where we could find good BBQ and the guy told him to just stay on the road for 24 blocks and we couldn't miss the restaurant. Well, we almost did---who would be expecting an old gas station to be a new BBQ joint?! Look really hard and you can see oil cans as the lights, the bay doors open in the summer, hub caps lined the ceiling and look at the tires holding the mirrors in the bathroom! The food came on tv dinner tins...and no I couldn't finish all of that! It was ALOT of food!

 

 

 

 

Downtown Pittsburgh. While honey was in meetings, I walked around the area.

 

 

Years ago, honey was t-h-i-s close to taking a job in Wheeling, WV. We never got the opportunity to go out and see the area so on this trip, we drove over to see it. Here is a suspension bridge and an interesting building in the downtown area.

 

 

We weren't sure what else to see in WV so we decided to head east and north into Ohio. I knew there was another concentration of Amish and I was hoping to be able to see them there. I am so glad we made the decision to stop and stay awhile. To me, Ohio is a surprising state. It is really beautiful. The first picture is taken from the balcony of the Carlisle Inn in Walnut Creek, Ohio. Such a quaint, cute village. We met some people from Cleveland that said they come down every few months and stay there to shop then take the back roads and just drive around because it is so peaceful and beautiful. I hope to go back here some day.

 

We stopped at an Amish grocery store in Walnut Creek. Here is where the buggies had to park. I loved this store! I wish I could have brought so many foods home with me! Especially the bulk spices.

 

Front of the store.

 

Saw this sign and had to take a picture.

 

More beautiful Ohio countryside.

 

 

The area had some cute shops. Lots of tourists, which surprised me since it was October 31st.

 

 

I was even able to see the famous Lehman's store in Kidron, Ohio! It is a store that caters to the Amish and has lots of items that are non electrical. I saw a mixer that had a bowl that looked like Bosch's. Cost was "only" $650!!! Remember this is non-electric so I can't understand the price being so high. Wonder how many they sell?!

 

The day was getting late but we hoped for one more stop before heading back to Pittsburgh for an early flight the next morning. We finished our tour of the Ohio Amish area and knew Kirtland was pretty close so we decided to run up there to see the Church history area. Since it was Halloween night, the missionaries were having a pot luck Halloween dinner. The visitor center was closed but they opened it up for us and one nice gentleman took us on a tour of the Newell K. Whitney store.

 

 

The room where the school of the prophets met.

 

By the time we had finished our tour, it was near 9 p.m. I knew I didn't have any light for good pictures but was pleased with this one of the Kirtland temple. It was a nice way to finish off our vacation.

 

On the way back to the Ohio turnpike, we saw a sign for gas....$1.98/gal!!! Everywhere we went we saw "cheap" gas prices but that one beat them all! I wish I had gotten the camera out and taken a picture. It could be one of those pics of "remember when".....out here, where the oil and gas fields are, we are at $2.47.

Great, fun trip! Now we get to stay home a bit and get ready for the holidays.

Pittsburgh trip--Part One

This past week dh had another business trip to go on and invited me to tag along. Who could pass up a vacation?! Especially since it meant seeing new country. We flew into Pittsburgh and immediately found our rental car. Got on the turnpike and headed east to Gettysburg. We weren't really sure where we were going to end up but that made it even more fun for us. Years ago we had been in eastern PA and loved it so we were excited to be heading back that way. Here are some pictures of our trip. I will break it up into a couple of posts.

Boyd's Bear Country. What a sight this was when you turned the corner and saw the side of the barn!

 

 

Inside the store there were 4 stories of shopping!

 

 

This was taken outside of Boyd's but it depicts what PA looks like. Lots of rolling hills and trees. Just beautiful country!

After lunch at the Boyd's Country Restaurant, we headed to the Battlefield of Gettysburg. I highly recommend going to see this amazing area. Splurge and take the 2 hour bus tour. It really helped to know what everything was in and around the area of battle. We spent 1 1/2 days there and could have easily spent 2 more full days in the area. We had visited this area years ago but it was so much more interesting this time. I think the tour and the visitor center were amazing!

 

 

 

 

On Monday, we drove to Intercourse, PA to visit the Amish area. Monday must be wash day. It was starting to cloud up and rain but all the Amish homes had clotheslines like this one where they raised high above the ground.

 

Tuesday afternoon, we toured the Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History. Also saw the Music Hall that is so famous.

 

 

University of PA in Pittsburgh---what beautiful old buildings!

 

By the time we got back to Pittsburgh, rain had started coming down but that was not going to stop us from playing tourist. I had been searching the internet for things to see and do while in Pittsburgh and riding this incline came up. One magazine said it was #2 of beautiful sights in the U.S.A. I don't know if I would rank it that high since I have seen some beautiful country but it was breathtaking. I wished we could have seen the same view at night.

 

 

 

Beautiful Pittsburgh! You have to drive across bridges to get downtown.

 

to be continued.....

Minnesota to Wyoming in 2 days!

I feel like a truck driver.

Oh wait. I was one. Or I should say my dh was one for 2 days this past week.

I got a call from dh and he told me to pack our bags because we were leaving town. Of course my first question was "where are we going?" I was suppose to guess. Hmmmm. Elko, Meeker, 4 Corners??? Finally he said we were heading to Minnesota to pick up a sewer truck. Oh. Is it new? Please tell me it is new. Yes. It is new. Nice and shiney.....and clean. Very important, that word clean. If you don't know what a sewer truck is, well, just imagine a truck that can pump out all unknown matter to man from a sewer. Actually this truck is for port-a-potties. Yeah. I know. Yucky! And I was going to be in this truck for however long it took to get to Colorado to drop it off at one of our offices. Can you imagine how thrilled I was?!

Here's some pics from our quick trip. I knew I needed (wanted) to be back by Friday to head to the cabin so we booked it coming home. I could have driven the truck since it was an automatic but dh did it all by himself. This is a man who says he hates to drive and always wants me to be in the driver's seat. I think he was having a good ol' time.

Just to show you we really made it!

 

THE TRUCK--you can't tell very well but I had to climb up a couple of steps to haul my body in there. It's as tall as a semi.

 

Famous Dave's Restaurant--we love BBQ!

 

Mall of America

 

In the center of MoA are lots of rides to go on--the kids loved it when we were here before.

 

Couldn't get lost in this parking lot, even if we wanted to!

 

Clear Lake, Iowa. Cute town and I wish it wasn't in the middle of nothing so I could go back there again. This is the view outside our hotel balcony. For you trivia folks, this is where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson played their last concert and then took off in a plane that crashed outside the town killing all of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died

 

Saw this car driving down the interstate. Yes it really is filled with frogs!

 

Elk Horn, Iowa--yea a quilt shop!

 

I want to make something quick and simple in flannel for the cabin so I bought this quilt kit.

 

Elk Horn is a dutch town and here is a windmill to prove it!

 

Stopped to see the kids in Colorado before dropping off the truck.

 

What a quick trip we had but it was fun to get away for a few days.