Last year, we ventured to Charleston, SC in December. This year we decided to stay a little closer to home as we didn’t save up as much money as we did for that trip. We have never been to Ohio, so a great place to see there is The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We never really visited Pittsburgh, so that was our first stop to break up the trip a bit. Thank goodness for Trip Advisor! I love that site. It tends to bump me off the iPad, but you can look for hotels, places to see and restaurants there also. I have written a number of reviews and am not finished adding to them.

We took Sean’s new car, the Elantra. He was concerned about the brakes grinding a bit. Brian tried it and thought they were okay, maybe alittle rough. So off we went. A week later he would have to get it looked at! More later.

The scenery was amazing! We do live in a gorgeous hilly state. We went through 4 mountain tunnels to boot!

These were taken out the car window!

We got to Pittsburgh a little late as we had a delayed start. Sean works 4 pm to 2 am 4 days a week. He needs to sleep until at least 10-11. That day he got up around 9:30 which was rough for him.

We decided to eat dinner at a restaurant recommended by a friend. It was mostly a sandwich place and they put coleslaw and french fries on slices of Italian bread. Let’s just say it’s famous in Pittsburgh and they can keep it. The steak sandwich I had tasted like swiss steak, and not much there.

The next day, we packed up and headed to Phipps Conservatory.

We parked right near Carnegie Mellon University!

Phipps did not disappoint. They had an Asian theme going on which I love! They were also putting the final touches on their Autumn display. This is the outside with their pretty flowers, lots of Lantana that is a garden favorite for me.

They had several blown glass sculptures throughout the conservatory

They call these paint brushes

Longwood Gardens did the parasols in their conservatory a few years back. Same color parasols too!

Bonsai is popular too!

They had a sweet train layout! Fairytale themed.

This was so adorable with the live crops

The children’s garden was very sweet. They had turned off the water features here.

The dahlias were pretty!

Such pretty orchids too. There was a pond with goldfish in the middle where. Sean and I are posing with a variegated hibiscus.

We headed back to town to look for a place to sit and eat. We ended up at a sister place where we had eaten the night before, but ordered pizza. We went to a candy and cigar store and bought a few things. Sean was looking for a Pittsburgh t-shirt and they gave him one of theirs for free.

We did go up the Duquesne incline as recommended by a friend and saw beautiful views of the city! I will add them on the next post. We also drove by the Andy Warhol museum and went over the bridge named for him.

We then got on the road to Cleveland…..part 2