Shaking in Pittsburgh

I had to travel to Pittsburgh for business this week, and while I hate being away from my family it was nice to see someplace I'd never been before. And Pittsburgh was a lot prettier than I expected - it's not the "Steel town" it used to be. There are a LOT of trees and it's very green, although I imagine the winters must be pretty hard. I rode the "Incline" - or one of them anyway - which is like a little cable car that climbs up the hillside (like the one at Magic Mountain) - and enjoyed the nighttime view of downtown from the top. I walked around downtown a bit, enjoyed some really good food, and attended a Pirates baseball game.

I was also there for the rare East Coast earthquake on Tuesday. We were on the 19th floor and felt the shaking and swaying pretty well even though it was a couple hundred miles away. Apparently, the Appalachian Mountains are very old and the whole "plate" is fused together, so the shaking traveled longer distances than it would in California where the plates are more fractured. But it was fun to be there for it.

Those aren't real trees - they're "steel magnolias."

A "disco dino," a "ketchup dino," and another - I think he was fossils - in the middle of glass buildings that look kind of like castles.

The lobby of the William Penn Hotel where I stayed.

Old churches are always the coolest thing in these eastern cities.

From my seat at the ballgame - with the Pittsburgh skyline across the river.

A giant statue of Willie Stargell outside the stadium.  If there's one thing ALL Pittsburghers love it's their sports teams.

There's a lot of bridges, too.  And this one was closed to everything but foot traffic for the baseball game.