The drive from Springfield, Ohio to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was mostly uneventful. I drove from Grandma’s house to the outskirts of Pittsburgh smoothly before transitioning to my dad for the hard stuff. The one thing of note is how drastically the scenery has changed from KC to Pittsburgh. The area around Kansas is, quite obviously, very flat. From KC to Springfield the view was not-so-scenic, consisting mostly of flat farm land. However, the terrain quickly gave way to deep valleys and tree-rich hills. The view is really much more beautiful and the roads much more hilly and twisty. Definitely keeps me more awake.
We arrived in Pittsburgh around lunch time and both of us were very impressed with the skyline. I’ve never really thought much about Pittsburgh and this was my first visit, but it was the spot on our trip about which people expressed the most excitement. Our first impression was positive, as it appeared to be a large city with a busy skyline and placed neatly between the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio Rivers. Once we got into the city, I was a bit less impressed. The streets were very narrow and hard to follow, lacking a clear North/South/East/West orientation. It kind of reminded me of a cleaner version of NYC, with a lot of stuff crammed into a small area. However, Pittsburgh definitely felt more comfortable.
We checked into the Omni Hotel on William Penn street and prepared for the events of the day. (As a sidenote, I would highly recommend using Hotwire. We booked this hotel the night before. Hotwire is filled with last second deals for hotels and such. The trick is you aren’t allowed to know, before you book, where you will be staying. Our selection was “4-star hotel in Downtown Pittsburgh for $LowPrice” and it defined the area.)
Thanks to my dad’s connections, we got to head to the visiting San Diego Padres hotel to meet with Mike Adams, a 6′5” dominant right handed middle reliever. We all chatted for about 30 minutes, my dad gave him the Peak Vision Sports overview and a pair of glasses. He was an incredibly nice guy and it was really fun hearing a players perspective on the sport. Some bad news – when ranking ballparks he’s attended, Wrigley ranks quite low. Sadly, this is a known fact, as while he admitted the ballpark was fantastic to see a game, the player facilities are decidedly sub-par. Other players I could identify walking through the lobby: Adrian and Edgar Gonzalez, Brian Giles, Cha Seung Baek, Chris Young (at 6′10”, even taller in person), and Brett Tomko (decided not to talk to him about his time this year with the Royals). This was awesome.
After our visit we ventured took the very clean, but confusing, train system to Station Square. The area is definitely a touristy area. I could compare it to a way cleaner, way cooler Navy Pier. We ventured up the highly recommended Monongahela Incline, a very steep trip to the top of a huge hill/mountain/whateveryoudcallit where there is an absoultely beautiful view of Pittsburgh and the area around it. We ate at the tasty Shiloh Street Grille and watched the end of the Cubs game while chatting with the locals. Finally it was time to make our way back down for the Pirates game, where we’ll get to our boy Mike pitch! Stay tuned to see if our streak of home teams losing remains intact.
