Last weekend, I finally made it to my first ever Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix in Schenley Park in Pittsburgh. An event many of my friends have gone to, I have never had the chance to go until this year.
Since 1983, the PVGP is a race and car show that draws about 200,000 spectators. With over 2,000 cars on display, it is an opportunity to see rare and exotic domestic and imported automobiles.
Christmas is one of our biggest holidays in our house. Trying to organize Christmas between two sides of a family is challenging enough, but throw in a few golden retrievers and a photographer and the hectic nature of our holiday preparations becomes quite an undertaking. With my grandmother finally moved in to her new community, we were very thankful for the flexibility of shuttling her to and from North Versailles compared to the familiar rigor of transit between Cumberland and home. As usual, we decorated our tree in conjunction with some Captain and Cokes and cookie baking:
I met some new friends at Siemens that are from Germany, and they invited me to go down to the Pittsburgh Light Up Night with them. I’ve been doing my best to show them some cool places in Pittsburgh. I’m sure that when I get the chance to go to Germany, they’ll do the same for me. Despite the heavy traffic in Station Square, the Light Up Night festivities are a lot of fun and the whole city seems to jump on the band wagon. Here are some photos and a video I took.
Taking the new D7000 (post coming) out for a test drive, Val and I stopped by Phipps Conservatory. During this last long haul of winter, nothing feels better than getting to take your coat off and wander around “outside”. I regret not taking advantage of my free admission during my CMU years more often. It would have been very easy to bring my text books and study there instead of a frigid, barren dorm room.
Val and I enjoyed the open house and “Hot Jam” evening at the Pittsburgh Glass Center last weekend.
We had the chance to watch the blowers create a glass replica of the Lombardi Trophy in honor of Super Bowl XLV. We also got to browse some of the exhibits (pictured below) and munch on some goodies. I’ve taken classes at the PGC before, and Val is currently taking a glass blowing class. It is a great environment for networking, creativity, and getting a chance to do something different.
As a treat for Valerie’s birthday last weekend, I surprised her with a Couple’s Night cooking class at Gaynor’s School of Cooking in Station Square (or is it South Side? not really sure… in between I suppose).
The menu for the evening was:
It’s been a quick transition between the pleasant warm weather and the freezing, frigid Pittsburgh winter, we tried to extract a little bit of fun out of the autumn.
The gang and I had some fun picking and carving pumpkins (in engineer fashion, I was sporting the Dremel tool).
This weekend was the official opening of the Pittsburgh Public Market.
The PPM was heavily promoted throughout the Pittsburgh Blagosphere (Pittsburgh Mom, Living Pittsburgh, Burgilicious, Glitzburgh, Urban Out, and just about every other Pittsburgh food blog worth mentioning), so I was highly anticipating strolling though the array of food and craft vendors.
It’s still warming up, day by day! (crossing fingers that this morning’s frost was the last frost pf the year). Mary and I ended up going out for dinner down on Liberty Avenue, and afterward we enjoyed the weather by taking a stroll through Bloomfield. I snapped a few pictures:
Maybe it’s cliche, but one of the best subjects to photograph in the Pittsburgh area is it’s nighttime skyline. But there are 1000’s of photographs published of the beautiful Pittsburgh skyline in different variations every year, so to keep it original, I think it makes a better background than subject.
