Visiting DA BURGH.....PART 3

Well, Monday morning didn't start out very well.
As some of you may have seen on the post I put up, at the time, Hubs had the minivan up to the Firestone at the crack of dawn, before I was up.
I looked out the window and it was snowing at a fairly good clip.....

Love the hole in the window screen....good thing it wasn't Summer. 

Hubs had said that he was going to stay at Firestone until they got it fixed or call me if they couldn't do the work it needed done that day.
So I was possibly in for sitting in the motel all day long as I had no transportation now.
Luckily the motel had a sort of restaurant so I could eat if I was indeed stranded for the day.

But about 10pm, Hubs showed up at the room with #1 Son in tow.
The guys at Firestone said they could do the work that day, so Hubs called our son and had him pick Hubs up and bring him back to the motel.
So #1 Son was going to be our driver for the day in his own car.
Since the weather was so shitty we couldn't do the Duquesne Incline like I had wanted to so we were at a loss for cheap sightseeing activities(as some of the indoor ones were closed because it was Monday).  But we made do.
#1 Son took us firstly, to his favorite Giant Eagle grocery that sold beer.  It was quite the long ride from his apartment.  I bought a bottle of Sam Adams Gingerbread and Southern Tier Choklat Stouts, as well as a large bottle of Cherry Lambic.....

 

After that we went to have lunch here......

 

Unfortunately, everyone on this side of Pittsburgh ALSO decided to have lunch here that day, so not wanting to wait an hour for a table, we ended up eating next door at Sam's Sandwich Shoppe......

Then we went shopping since we were in a shopping center.  I hit 5 Below and Bath and Body Works but bought nothing. 
Eh, nothing I wanted/needed.
Hubs and son hit the liquor store.  I don't recall if they actually bought anything there or not.

Afterwards we tried Burgatory again, since #1 Son really wanted me to try one of their milkshakes.
What the heck, why not?

Here's Hubs trying #1 Son's shake.  It has bourbon in it.
Mine is in the foreground.  It's a Choco Taco Shake(crushed waffle cone, peanuts and chocolate)and has vodka in it.

Ok, so I drink folks, if you didn't know that already.
But I am NOT a vodka drinker.

I swear, every time I took a sip, another one magically appeared in my glass!

About 5 minutes into drinking this thing, the vodka slammed into my brain.  I think the photo above illustrates that event.....

Then I just got real silly and everything anyone said was hysterical to me.....

I didn't even finish that shake.
And they had to pour me back into the car to go back to #1 Son's apartment.

I was able to snap this shot before I staggered back to the car......

 

And here are some bad photos I snapped from the back of the car as I sloshed from side to side, while #1 Son drove through downtown.....

Yes, anonymous buildings. 
I tried to get a shot of the giant Heinz ketchup bottle all lit up, but I was too lit up evidently.....

Hubs called Firestone and they had completed the work on the car, so Son dropped us off to pick up and pay for the car.
Ouch.
$900 later we drove the minivan back to the motel.

That evening, we went back to the #1 Son's apartment and he made dinner for us and I got acquainted with Lilly, my newest grandbaby while Hubs and Son drank and talked beer.

Gratuitous cute cat photos......

About midnight we headed back out to the motel.
Here is an unexpected Christmas decoration in this part of the world......

The next day, we hit up the Breakfast buffet for the last time and headed over to #1 Son's place.
We sat around and talked until Lunch time.
Hubs & #1 Son went out to Yinz BBQ to pick up lunch.
It was pretty good.....for a Yankee joint.  8-))

Then after saying our goodbyes and a photo of Hubs & #1 son, we left 'Da Burgh.

The ride home was quite the adventure, but not the kind anyone enjoys.
You see, the skies opened up on Tuesday and snowed like a MoFo along the stretch of road west of Pittsburgh we had to take to get home.  Between Monroeville and Altoona it was some awful white knuckled driving!....at least for me.
And I wasn't even driving. lol
We saw a guy somewhere in that stretch pass us, then try to make a right turn onto a road and end up sliding into a culvert.

Good times......and unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the ride home.
I think Hubs would have pushed me from the car if I had....

When we hit Altoona we got off the interstate to get gas and then go into a Kmart store to use the bathroom.
As we were leaving the Kmart a woman standing next to me, a total stranger, at the store asked us for a ride somewhere.....we had no clue where it was.

Do perfect strangers come up to you and start conversations or ask you for favors like they seem to do to me?
What about me attracts weirdoes?
I just can't figure this one out!  8-)

So after bidding my new best friend goodbye and good luck, and no, we didn't give her a ride, we got back onto the interstate.
The skies were threatening the rest of the way but the snow held off until we got home.

We DID get to drive through a prison on the way home(we had also driven through it in the opposite direction to get to Pittsburgh).  This is near State College PA. 
You aren't allowed to stop along this part of the interstate unless you have an emergency....you know, so you don't pick up escaped prisoners or drop off firearms for them.

That's about it for excitement on our trip home.
Heck, I needed a stiff drink or four by the time we arrived due to all the tensing up I did on the drive home.

And thus ends another Sluggy adventure.  8-))

Sluggy

 

Visiting DA BURGH--PART 2....."High Brow, Low Brow & Hofbrau"

**Long and photo/video heavy**

Sunday morning we worked our way through the motel maze(like a couple of rats, no doubt)and found the on-site restaurant, which was where they provided the free breakfast to their overnight guests.
The place was a literal clusterfuck of humanity!
I don't know if it was because of the Holiday/Winter Break/Weekend or just that everyone in the motel decided to come to breakfast at exactly the same time, but it was standing room only.
I found a seat at the restaurant's bar while Hubs navigated through the sea of people to see what the foods available were and to locate the coffee.

I didn't sit at the bar for long because it was a slanted seat and I kept sliding off!  I was hanging onto the bar for dear life rather than tumble onto the floor.  As I hung there I kept scanning the room for a vacant table, clean OR dirty, I didn't much care at the moment.

As soon as I saw people get up and start heading for the door, I started to make my way over before someone else grabbed the space.
Hubs reported in what was available and then brought me over a plate and was off again to get him some provisions.  By the time he returned I was done eating so I watched local news while he noshed away.

After we got back to the room, we got ourselves ready to leave for our son's apartment, then headed out the door.

I got a good look at his neighborhood for the first time in the daylight this time.
Here's a house decorated tastefully for the Season.......

And here is another house in his neighborhood.......sorry for the bad photo but it was raining.....

WTF?!?!
Wooden crosses in the front yard(isn't Halloween over??) and ya see that upper side window, how it's boarded up, overdramatically, like a house out of an amusement park or something?!

Here's a close-up of the sign out front......

 It says, "Trundle Manor".   And this link HERE will explain what this is.....sort of.

So not only do I find that the friends I visit are related to me but I sure do trip over "interesting" sites, do I not? lolz

And no, though having a Zombie Dinner Party there was tempting, we resisted the urge.

Moving right along.......
We picked up #1 Son and his SO and headed out to see some "hopefully" less macabre sights that day.
Since it was raining all day long, we decided to do some indoors activities.

So we went to a frickin' museum.
No really!
It WAS a FRICKin' museum.....note the name.......

Named for one of the robber barons and industrialists of the Great Steel Age, Henry Clay Frick.
Frick had been Andrew Carnegie's business partner and when Carnegie went on an extended trip to Scotland, Frick was in charge of Carnegie Steel and disastrously handled the labor union strike in 1892, which became known as the Homestead Strike, by bringing in armed Pinkerton agents to "neutralize" the striking workers by any means necessary.  He was also among the wealthy and elite members of the group responsible for causing the Johnstown Flood.  At one time he was known as the "most hated man in American".
What a guy, huh?

He also helped found what became known as US Steel and was a prolific Art Collector.
His daughter, Helen Clay Frick, followed in her father's footsteps as an art lover/collector.
When he died in 1919, she inherited 38 million dollars and became at that time, the richest woman in America.  She never married and devoted her life to defending the name and reputation of her father, performing philanthropy and collecting art.

         Helen Clay and Henry Clay Frick-father and daughter (credit Wikipedia)

In 1970 the Frick Art Museum was opened on the family's Pittsburgh estate grounds.  It contains part of both Helen's and Henry's art collections.  There is another Frick Collection in Henry's NYC mansion on 5th Ave. & 70th St. in Manhattan.

Interestingly, Henry Frick and his wife Adelaide Childs Frick had tickets to travel on the inaugural voyage of the HMS Titanic, but missed the sailing, due to Adelaide spraining her ankle and having to remain in Italy.   This was years after Frick survived an assassination attempt too.  The man had him some luck. ;-)

Anyway, since #1 Son & Hubs are history lovers and I am an art lover, we went to the Frickin' Museum.  Son's GF wasn't too thrilled to be there but she is a jolly good sport for putting up with it.
It's a good thing there were benches inside to lounge upon while she was bored.

They had an eclectic mix of periods and media and were highlighting an exhibit of War Between the States Era Newspaper Drawings and Stories(aka Yankee yellow rag journalism propaganda).  I sputtered and muttered through those galleries without assaulting anyone thankfully. 8-P

      Hubs and #1 Son in the rain posing for a FRICKin' photo.

For additional information on the Frick Museum go HERE.

I was disappointed because I had wanted to tour CLAYTON.
Clayton is the name of the family mansion in Pittsburgh that has been restored and opened to the public on the Frick grounds.
When Henry moved his family from Pittsburgh to Manhattan in 1905(because his business concerns had shifted to that locale), they left nearly everything in the house as it had been used by the family and didn't pack it up for the move to NY. 
After Helen Frick, who had returned in the 1980's to live her days out at Clayton, died, everything remained in the house.  So the house has been restored and is furnished with the original items and furniture from the Frick family as if they have just stepped out for the day.

But alas, you have to book to tour the mansion ahead and they were filled up that day, being a holiday week and all.

The best I could do is get some shots of the outside as we left the estate.....

 "Clayton" started it's life as an 11 room Italianate style home in the 1860's by an unknown to the ages architect....

In 1882, a year after they married, Henry and Adelaide Frick bought the house for $25,000 along with the 1.43 acres it sat upon......

In 1891, Frederick J. Osterling, a local architect. was hired to enlarge the home to 23 rooms to keep up with the Frick's expanding family needs. 

The Fricks lived at "Clayton" from 1882 to 1905, 22 years, before moving permanently to New York City.  Helen, the daughter, returned to "Clayton" and lived there from 1981 until her death in 1984 at age 96.
I'll definitely be back at some point to visit my son and tour the inside of this beauty.  8-)

So off we went in search of lunch.
Since we were in the area, we stopped at one of #1 Son's haunts--D's Six Pax & Dogz.
They specialize in Beer and Hot Dogs.
Duh!
They also have other bar type foods.....pizza, wings, appetizers, etc.

Given that it was Christmas Week, here was that day's special......

A hot dog called Santa's Sausage.....
Sorry all you perverts out there but I didn't order it. ;-)

I ordered a Mason Dixon Dog(chili and coleslaw), a specialty root beer and then went and perused the Beer Cave.......

               Photo credit D's Six Pax & Dogz Website.
They have a back room with shelf upon shelf of microbrews and other hard to find adult beverages.
You can grab a bottle back there and drink it on premises or grab a few to buy and takeout.

It's a real dive type place.
And the day we were there it was FILLED, nay!....JAM PACKED with football fans watching the Steelers game.
Again Duh!

Here is a little video I shot while waiting to order our food to give you an idea of the "atmosphere" there.....



I counted 4 tvs in 2 rooms(the bar room and the dining room), all tuned to the game and every time a good or bad play was made, the rooms erupted in cheering & clapping or booing.
Yes, they take their football seriously in 'da Burgh.

Finally, lunch arrived.....

And Hubs North Carolina Dawg(pulled pork barbecue and slaw.....

After a couple a beers I got smiles out of the crew....

Afterward we took the kids back to their apartment.  On the way, I noticed that the minivan was making some really bad noises.....noises that snapped my brain back to what Sonya Ann's minivan made on the way to the Outlet Mall in August when we were visiting her and Den.  SA's noise was brake pads going and I swore our minivan was making those same dreaded noises.
Ugh.  I brought it to Hubs attention and #1 Son also noticed it.  There was no way we were driving home with out brake pads so we dropped them off and went back to the motel to forge a plan to get the van looked at/fixed and then for a nap....well Hubs napped.  I didn't drink so I just vegg-ed out for awhile and worried about the van.

There was a Firestone about 2 miles from the motel so Hubs was going to take it in when they opened tomorrow morning at 7am and have it checked out.  Immediate crisis dealt with, we picked up the kids and headed out to downtown for our evening meal here......

                       Beer Tanks on the outside of the building

The Hofbräuhaus in Pittsburgh.
It's modeled after the original Hofbräuhaus in Munich Germany founded in 1589.
Here's a photo of the tented bier garden in Munich that was in their foyer....

 

We got seated in the bier hall room and had a grand time.

      A posed pic....NOT my beer.

 

      Son & GF after a few drinks.

       Yes, I am a nut.....

      Hubs and Son bonding over alcohol....how awesome is that? lolz

I took 4 short videos at the Hofbräuhaus........see those 2 guys in the Steelers jerseys behind my son?



Remember that this was taken after a Steelers home game in Pittsburgh(and they won!). Lots of folks in the bier hall that evening celebrating the win....quite boisterously might I add. I think many of them had been at Hofbräuhaus since before the game started and were continuing the consumption of adult beverages well into the night. The entertainment guy started playing "Sweet Caroline" and those 2 guys started being all "BRO" with each other and singing and I just couldn't contain my amusement at that point.  I don't know......grown men hugging and singing lyrics like, "touching me, touching you" just make me want to wet my pants......


 

Ok, I know that Santa Claus was just a decoration but I was still tickled from the show our singing Bros gave us......

And the Entertainer did some good yodeling too.....




About this time I spotted Mrs. "It's a Great Idea for my young kids who are with me to see MOM blasted out of her mind drunk and dancing on the table".

Yah, you can have a good time without "going there". ;-)

Heck, believe it or not, I did not have a single adult beverage that whole day(or evening).

We had some very delightful German food too.....

 

 Spaetzle Mac & Cheese....with Bacon!!!

   Sauerbraten with Apple Kraut and Potato Dumpling(the dumpling was meh).

We split an Apple Strudel too.

   Outside Hofbräuhaus.  The maibaum(or may pole), a 16th Century Bavarian tradition.

While I wanted for Hubs to get the van, I walked down closer to the Monongahela and got a shot of the River Walk with the interesting awnings.....

It was still raining and too cold to go down there that night.  Maybe next time, when it isn't December. lol

We took the kids home, talked for awhile then trekked back to the motel to get some shut eye.

More fun times awaited us on Monday......

Sluggy