Steel City

We finished the last part of our vacation in Pittsburgh. I know, you're thinking Pittsburgh? Pittsburgh is a great city and a great place to visit with kids.

We had lunch when we arrived at a great Thai restaurant. We ate outside on the lovely patio. It almost felt like we were in Thailand. There were plants all over the place, colorful umbrellas, fountains, and Buddhas. The food was great too!

We then headed to the Carnegie Science Center which was a couple minutes away. We all loved the museum. We saw a planetarium show, toured a submarine (which was on the river!), walked through a model railroad exhibit, watched a fruit flambe class, and more.

The next morning we headed out for Kennywood. Ryan and I last visited Kennywood on our East Coast Coaster of 2004...


Kennywood is a historic amusement park that opened in 1898. It still has a lot of historic charm, and a lot of great rides! The first ride we rode was also the oldest ride in the park, The Whip. It opened in 1918 and is still going strong. The boys also rode their first full-size roller coaster, Jack Rabbit, which opened in 1920. Brooks loved it, Hudson not so much. It was a fun filled day.

The infamous Kennywood arrow that you see directing you to Kennywood. I've had a Kennywood arrow on my car for the past 7 years, when we got home from vacation Brooks said "Hey Mom when did you get that Kennywood sticker?"

Riding the Turtle

The boys having fun on Lil' Phantom

After we left the park, we decided to get some ice cream cones. In Indiana, we've been seeing lots of McDonalds billboards advertising ice cream. In our travels through the state, we've seen the price range from .49 to .69. A cheap snack, right? We hadn't seen any billboards in PA, so of course the ice cream cones there were full price. Oh well! It was still cheaper then getting them in the park. And it was Brooks & Hudson's first taste of McDonalds (if ice cream counts)?

The next morning we took a ride on the Duquesne Incline. It used to transport steel workers from the top of the mountain down to the steel mills on the river. It was built in 1877. We had a great view from the top.






For lunch, we headed to the Strip district to eat at the Penn Ave Fish Company. Hudson loved seeing all the fresh fish and even got to touch a live soft shell crab. And then he ate the soft shell crab:

Yum!

We finished up the day with a fun afternoon at the Children's Museum. They had a cool art studio where you could make all sorts of art. And this crazy maze thing:

And you could dress up like a pirate:

We finished up our vacation by watching Shrek Forever in our spacious hotel room. We loved the Hyatt Place (got it cheap on Hotwire) and would totally try to stay at one again.