Downtown Pittsburgh is unique in that it sits at the point where three rivers, the Ohio, the Allegheny, and the Monongahela, converge.
The resulting land at the tip of downtown Pittsburgh has played an important role for the city throughout its history, and today is a gorgeous public space known as Point State Park that is a must see spot for all visitors to the city.
When a friend of ours told us to go try out Quik-It Chicken, a chicken restaurant located in the same building as a gas station in the North Side, we thought he was kidding. Gas station food is generally something we wouldn’t consider good dining in any capacity. But knowing this friend, and his off-the-wall recommendations actually being amazing most of the time, we went for it and do not regret the decision in the slightest.
One of the things we love about Pittsburgh is its proximity to nature. We may be a large city, but it is incredibly easy to get out and hike through the beauty of Pennsylvania when the weather is nice.
One of our excursions north of the city took us to McConnells Mill State Park, located roughly 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh via I-79, to check out a mill that is over one hundred years old, a covered bridge, and gorgeous fall foliage.
Every city needs a great museum to let its history shine, and in Pittsburgh that museum is the Heinz History Center in the Strip District.
Our first observation after entering the Heinz History Center was that it was much like the popular Smithsonian Museums in Washington DC. But instead of having separate buildings for each theme as in our nation’s capital, the Heinz History Center has everything in one building.
Well, as it turns out the museum is in fact affiliated with the Smithsonian, and the legacy of the nation’s most popular museum collection shines in every exhibit in this city gem.
In April 2022, Healthy Ride formally launched a rebrand to be called POGOH. Stations are being replaced and availability is presently limited. We will update this article accordingly when the POGOH stations are fully available in the coming weeks.
Over the past several months you’ve likely seen Healthy Ride bike kiosks popping up all over the city. These bikes are one of the many new services coming out to help encourage visitors and locals to get out and explore the many bike trails the city has to offer, and with over 500 bikes and 50 stations, they’re doing a great job at it.
We finally got the chance to try one of these bikes on a day out exploring the North Shore bike trail, and had a pretty interesting experience with the service.
When it comes to contemporary art, you never know what you are going to get. This is part of the fun in visiting these museums because there never seems to be one particular style that is on display. Sometimes it is disappointing, other times thought provoking, but overall you never really know what will be around the next bend.
At Pittsburgh’s contemporary art museum, Mattress Factory, we found each exhibit to be more interesting than the last and left wondering why it took us so long to visit this museum in the first place.
Note: The Nationality Rooms are now requiring advanced registration for tours. Keep an eye on this one as things could change.
Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning is one of the most beautiful university buildings in the country.
Ignoring the fact that this college building is the only skyscraper in Oakland and its main lobby resembles a European cathedral mixed with Hogwarts, Pitt’s flagship building houses one other treasure worth exploring during a visit: the Nationality Rooms.
Let’s go to the last place you’d expect to visit in Pittsburgh– back to school!
The Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium is one of the most visited family attractions in the city.
We’ve frequented the aquarium many times over the year during private events, but it wasn’t until recently that we were able to visit the zoo and aquarium during normal operations.
Update: Bicycle Heaven started charging an admission fee in December 2024.
Pittsburgh’s massive specialty stores have a way of embracing their size and end up turning into museums for all to enjoy. There is Artifacts, the import store for the rich and famous; Construction Junction, the re-use store for the rest of us; and in our latest exploration we visited Bicycle Heaven, the store for bike lovers.
Much like the other unusual stores we’ve visit in the city, when we say that Bicycle Heaven is large, we mean it. The store claims to be the largest bike shop in the USA, sells tens of thousands of items on eBay, and covers two floors with about a dozen rooms in its North Side warehouse.
Naturally, this sounds exactly like the kind of place we want to explore when enjoying our city.
One of Pittsburgh’s most popular museums is the Kamin Science Center (formerly the Carnegie Science Center) on the North Side. This massive complex is home to several wings featuring displays of unique sciences including aerospace, water, sports science, physics, medicine, and more.
As engineers and self-described science nerds, this was one museum we have been very eager to check out.