Steel City

So I'm taking a Diversity class this quarter and one of our projects is to have an 'other side' experience with one of our classmates.  My friend and I chose to work with each other and were coming up short with ideas of what we could do to experience something we never had before.  After spending a dinner brainstorming ideas, we decided to head to Pittsburgh.  

Why?  

1) It's a cool city 

2) I had never been before and my friend was born there 

3) I had some high hopes of running into Sydney Crosby (A girl can have dreams, can't she?).

We decided that Veteran's Day would serve as the perfect day to take an adventure since we had the day off from school.  All I had heard prior to the trip was that Pittsburgh was the fallen city of a once booming industry.  Being from Michigan, I too know of a once great city that has fallen into economic hardship. 

Our day in the city started with a trip to Primanti Brothers, a famous sandwich shop in the city that serves your sandwich with fries and coleslaw all between two slices of bread.  Delicious. 

Some of you may know that I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with Ben Folds and his music - turned out he was playing in the city that evening and we walked past his tour bus on the way to and from lunch.  My friend claims that I am making this up - but I swear I saw him on our way back in his tour bus.  Regardless, I tried reaching out to Mr. Folds via social networking to spot him in the city, but, alas, no luck.

Throughout the rest of the day we spent it walking around downtown and then made our way to Pitt's campus.  I got to see the entire city from the 36th floor of the Cathedral of Learning (their library and the tallest educational building in the Western Hemisphere) and even made a friend from the Poconos.  We then headed to an area called Homestead where the Steel mining industry was huge and it was neat to see where the mills once were.

We ended our night in an area called Mt. Lebanon where we supposedly ate what had won the "best pizza in the country" award.  It was OK by my standards, but I think everyone is entitled to an opinion.  If anything, the company was great as I was present for 'guys night.'  My friend had some of his best friends come join us for a meal and we had a great time.  I felt a bit guilty to ask one who is a doctor, to put his MD hat back on for me to tell me how to treat a knee injury.  Nevertheless, dinner went well and we ended it with our goodbyes and made our journey back to 'The Bus'.

All in all, I was able to see an amazing city through the eyes of my friend and learned that even in this economy, cities with once strong industries can still bounce back and thrive.