City No. 13: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, or, “The land of the dinosaur!”

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time:  The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews
 
Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northwestern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects.

Found this in a bathroom in Pittsburgh.  Thought it was hilarious, and of course, needed to share.

Pittsburgh skyline at night.  Amazing!  This is literally what you see as you enter the city.  Photo from http://www.wallmonkeys.com/blog/?p=16

So, I love dinosaurs.  Just something hat I happen to love, I’m a nerd like that.  I happen to love Jurassic Park I, II, AND III, just because they all have dinosaurs in them.  Judge me.  Fine.  I’m ok with that—dinosaurs are AWESOME!  Anyway, when I heard that the Carnegie Museum of Natural History had the largest collection of dinosaur skeletons in the country, I was (obviously) thrilled.  And it was AWESOME!  They had three T-Rexes (one was a female juvenile named Jane—the most complete juvenile skeleton in the world), many long necked Brontosaurus-types (I don’t think Brontosauruses actually are a real species anymore, are they?  They found out they had made up a species out of a combination of bones?), and the largest collection of skulls from the Triceratops family that I’ve ever seen.  So cool.

But enough about the dinosaurs.  You want to hear about Pittsburgh, don’t you?  Well, first off, I must compliment Pittsburgh on its opening act:  The dismount from the highway.  We had been driving for hours.  HOURS, as we had driven directly from Boston to Pittsburgh—a ten-hour drive!  And road weary as we were, we were still incredibly anxious to finally get to Pittsburgh.  But even as we were seeing exit signs for downtown Pittsburgh, there was still no city to be seen.  We kept driving up the hill (picture a small mountain), and under a tunnel, and still no city—just residential homes and a few industrial businesses that were not very impressive to look at.  And then we drove around a little hill, and there it was!  Shimmering in all of its glory, a rather large city!  Skyscrapers and all!  A complete city had been hidden from our sight during our entire drive “into the city” and the final presentation after the buildup was unbelievable.  Pittsburgh was awarded many extra points for that display.   

Despite all of the beauty that Pittsburgh’s downtown provided, the surrounding “boroughs” as they were called were in various stages of disrepair.  Once an incredibly wealthy city, the current state of it requires words like “urban renewal,” “gentrification,” and “up and coming” to describe it.  Much like Detroit (the upcoming city) but not to the same extent, Pittsburgh lost many of its inhabitants, and what has been left for the past decade has been vacant business buildings, boarded-up homes, gang and drug related crimes and homicides, hopelessness.  Until now.  Artists and small business owners have now been coming in for the past few years to make those abandoned buildings their own.  People are moving into neglected neighborhoods, and there is a loyalty and sense of pride that these people have for their city.  It was an amazing experience to see these people’s visions coming to life.  

Coca Café was a favorite, located in Lawrenceville.  They serve breakfast and brunch only, and it was easy to understand why they’ve made this their specialty.  The food was amazing, and the building itself gets amazing morning sunlight. 

We also had an opportunity to check out an art walk called “Unblurred” that takes place the first Friday of the month.  With most of the stops located on Penn. Ave. (an area that feels somewhat shady), it was interesting to see how warm and inviting all of the galleries were, and to see how different I felt about the area once we’d walked the whole thing.  En route, we found an amazing glass-works school, and a great café (that we made plans to eat at later, but never returned to.  Oops) called Quiet Storm. 

Pittsburgh is definitely one of my favorites thus far.  Creativity, beauty, and a sense of movement fill the air.  There are people living there that care, and who are working with each other to make it what they want it to be.  So inspiring.

City No. 11: Blanton, Massachusetts, or “How we stayed in a house built in 1760!”

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time:  The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews
 
Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northwestern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects.

 
Now this city is not really a city as much as a place where people live—on their own lots—spread out.  Peter had made reservations at this bed & breakfast in Blanton, called “Baird’s Tavern” a while ago, and the stay was meant to be a forced vacation for the two of us.  And it was!  Thank goodness, after all of the moving and shaking, we got a peaceful night’s sleep, and some time to just sit and read.  We did not have internet-connection, and phone service was a little inconsistent, so we were pretty much incommunicado!  Wee! 

Apparently, this bed and breakfast was originally a tavern that had positioned itself very strategically next to the road that connected the towns.  Because people traveled using horses, it would take days to travel from town to town, so people needed pit stops along the way—like this tavern!  And though “taverns” had drink at the time, mostly it was for food and to provide a place to sleep for the night.  The thing about this place that is worth noting after hearing its history, is that the road doesn’t exist anymore.  Now its a parking lot surrounded by trees.  Though the highway is nearby, the remnants of the old throughway and of days past are preserved in the tavern.  A place that, according to the owner, could house 55 men a night (who would sleep on sheepskin laid down on the floor—feet to the fire), where food was cooked in huge fireplaces (after childbirth, the leading cause of death to women—large sleeves are not conducive to safe fire-place cooking—who knew!), where babies were birthed in the “birthing room” (which was also the place where food was prepared… “hopefully not at the same time!” remarked the owner), and where men played “pennies in the corner” (that’s the name I gave it—NOT historically accurate) so much that they rounded large potholes in the corner floorboards, and it had to be re-floored to remedy that specific issue caused by the game. 

The history of the house was incredibly interesting.  Our sleep was very peaceful and quiet, and breakfast was delicious (blueberry pancakes, yum!).  If you ever find yourself in the area of Blanton, Massachusetts (which might be a bit odd, it’s not really a “I was just in the area!” kind of place…) definitely stay here!  The Baird Tavern.  Thumbs up. 

City No. 10: Albany, New York, or, “Gosh, we’ve been on the road for a while”

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time:  The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews
 
Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northwestern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects.

The third point is pretty obvious...

View from our hotel.

Brilliant sunset, and satellite dishes.

Periwinkle sky.

Beautiful buildings.

P. in his puffy.

To be fair, we were only in Albany for one night and part of a day.  We had a chance to walk around and see all of the amazing architecture that resides in the city.  People are living in BEAUTIFUL places.  From what we could see from the street, many apartments on the main drag had 10-12 ft. ceilings, elaborate woodwork, and beautiful brick exteriors!  The city itself was small and lived in, meaning we didn’t see many too many vacant store-fronts, and there were many places that looked like if they had been vacant, there were businesses that had the paperwork completed and the plans drawn up to move in soon.  It had a very local vibe—didn’t see many chains at all, and all of the local businesses were really cute!!! 

Albany is really cute.  Not on our list of cities to consider (no interview there), but if I had to consider it, I would consider it worth checking out.     

 

City No. 9: Binghamton, New York, or, “How I finally saw the new Muppet Movie”

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time:  The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews
 
Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northwestern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects.

 

This one will be short, as our trip to this city was incredibly short.  But I must mention that it was lovely to spend time with Pat and Corie.  They were some of our closest friends in Asheville and they will be sorely missed.  But that made our visit with them that much better!  We spent Thanksgiving Day with Pat’s family (his mom, dad, aunt, and extended relatives).  Started the festivities by tossing around the Frisbee, then went on to the meal-eating.  Delicious sweet-potatoes, mashed russets, salad embellished with sweet pears and cranberries, dinner rolls.  Then for desert there were many different kinds of pies.  I chose the homemade pumpkin pie.  Delicious! 

To finish off the day, we then went to see the new “The Muppets” movie!  Such a trip back on memory lane.  “Am I a man or a muppet,” was my favorite song.  If you haven’t seen it yet, go.  Or at least rent it when it comes out.  If you loved the muppets at some point in your life, it is worth the 1.5 hours that you’ll spend watching it. 

That’s it for Binghamton!  Nothing really to say about the city itself except that it’s kind of "suburby" and it has a theatre (which was awesome)!

City No. 8 and 12: Boston, Massachusetts, or, “Boston is a cluster-f_ _ _ (you fill in the rest)”

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time:  The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews
 
Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northwestern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects. 

The coolest picture I could have ever taken in Boston.

Well…so here we are.  Boston.  And if we’re going to be straight here (which we are), I would like to just say that Boston is not all it is cracked up to be.  It is quite large and over-populated—much like New York.  Now I know there are many people who disagree with me, but let me put it another way:  We just heard someone speaking about rent prices in the city.  Guess what it was for a two bedroom.  C’mon!  Guess!  Nope.  Too low.  Guess again.  Ok.  You got it.  $2400.  $2400 for a two bedroom. 

Anyway, I should explain why Boston is city No. 8 AND 12, though it is pretty straightforward.  We went to Boston, stayed there for two nights, and then went to Binghamton, NY to have Thanksgiving dinner with Pat and Corie—our friends from Asheville that just moved to NY.  Then we turned around and headed back towards the direction of Boston but first stopping in Albany (hotel), and then in Blanton where we stayed at a cute cute CUTE Bed and Breakfast.  Actually, though I said “cute” three times, it may not be the correct word.  Quaint and beautiful may be the better descriptive statement.  Then, we were back in Boston. 

While in Boston, we saw snow, didn’t ride the train, saw two American Apparels, and discovered the maneuver that we call the “Boston Shuffle.”  Let me describe it to you by telling you a personal story.  Peter and I were on our way to one of his interviews and we were on a two-lane street and waiting at a red light.  Now it had been one of those situations where it was a yellow light and Peter decided at last minute to stop instead of speed through—so we had stopped a little over the line.  Not wanting to hang out in the intersection, he looked into the rear view mirror, and over his shoulder to make sure he had a little room to back up a little bit.  He was clear.  Or so he thought. 

Suddenly we heard a honk, and we looked around befuddled.  We were in no way near the car behind us, so it couldn’t be them…who, then?  I looked over my shoulder, and looked down onto a tiny little black sports car sitting directly in our blind spot (it was so short you couldn’t see it in the mirrors) —doing the Boston Shuffle!  See, the Boston Shuffle is when you turn a two-lane street into a three-lane street for your own personal pleasure.  See, the third lane is typically the shoulder, or even just a little bit of extra room in the right hand lane.  Sometimes there’s room for another car, sometimes there’s not.  But always—ALWAYS will this person cut you off.  It will be sneaky and therefore you may never see them until it’s happening.  In this case, our man honked, or otherwise we would never have known that he was there.  And sure enough, when the light turned green, this guy sped past us in his personal lane, past the next guy, and the next until he cut in front of the car first in line. 

And there you have it.  The Boston Shuffle.  The dangerous, dangerous Boson Shuffle.  Seriously, you can pretty much always bet that there’s someone in your blind-spot in Boston.  Always.  And this makes driving in Boston pretty sucky.  That, as well as the fact that there are just too many people on the road, no matter what time of the day it is.  And, the streets are extremely confusing as well.  Perhaps that is why the traffic is horrible?  Everybody has just missed all of their exits, and are trying to turn around and get back on track.  I wouldn’t be surprised…There are streets upon streets going in all different directions, some have no lane lines, some streets go down to tunnels that last for minutes (we lost GPS satellite connection because we were in a tunnel for 4 minutes!), it’s crazy.  Anyway, I’m just complaining now.  On to other things.  

Another thing to note about Boson is the Trident Booksellers and Café, as well as Raven Used Books.  Awesome places to find good political, cultural, and design books.  That’s it for Boston.  I really wasn’t too impressed.  Too crowded, too expensive.  I don’t think I could ever find my niche here as it is much too saturated with ideas and competition.  There’s no blank slate here to be creative with.  Sorry Boston, thumbs down, but I doubt you care.  You seem to have good self-esteem.

City No. 7: Providence, Rhode Island, or, “The place we thought everyone on the street might be in the mob, and then we found out we were probably right. Should I be writing about this on here? I don’t want a hit put out on me”

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time:  The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews
 
Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northwestern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects. 

So Providence, eh?  Well, let me just put it this way:  I felt like we stepped foot onto the set of “Goodfellas.”  If you haven’t seen this movie, it’s a mobster movie, and I think that pretty much tells you all that you need to know.  There were men lining the streets, outside Italian restaurants on their cell-phones speaking in low tones so that you couldn’t hear them, and I can only imagine that they were just putting hits on people right and left.  We finally found a place that we thought might be nice to have dessert at, and we walked in to find the entire establishment void of people with the exception of a table in the back that was full of what looked to be older men and their wives—ALL with very strong mob ties—you just KNEW. 

Now at this point, it was all in jest that we were coming up with these theories.  Because no one is really in the mob anymore, right? …ummm…wrong!  According to our couch-surfer host, the mob is very much still alive in Providence.  Of course I’m sure it is hard to know to what extent they are in power, but it gives Providence an edge that I hadn’t even imagined it would have.  Every time I went into a restaurant, there always seemed to be a bunch of serious-looking dudes just sitting down in the back, having a serious conversation…It was very bizarre. 

Obviously, I had a hard time getting over the “mob” thing…that’s all I’ve been talking about the entire post thus far.  But I’ll get over it and tell you about the rest of the city.  Many parts were very lovely.  I spent some time catching up with an old friend on the phone while looking out onto the water.  It was gorgeous—I really like having that ability in a city—to spend time by a body of water. 

I went to a pretty awesome coffee shop called “Coffee Exchange,” which is so good, according to the people of Providence—that its popularity has outgrown the size of the coffee shop.  The place was actually quite small, and to deal with this they must have thought it was a good idea to get tiny TINY tables.  Which would have been good if everyone followed the rule of “one table per person” but I saw a guy in the corner that had hoarded three tables to provide a larger workspace!  Mind you, not only was the place small, but it was really crowded—people were standing, waiting to get a table—and there is that guy… As far as coffee shops go, it was not amazing.  I think that the place is so popular because you can come and buy coffee beans from practically everywhere, and they’re all sourced from organic and fair-trade farmers.  It really was quite amazing to see their plastic bins that lined the countertop—it seemed like the bins were set up 10x10…which means they had 100 different kinds of coffee (which is impossible, I would think!) but there were many, many different kinds!  Good place to get coffee, maybe not the best to drink it. 

The other coffee shop that I went to was called “White Electric Coffee” and this one was much better.  I know you must think I’m obsessed with coffee shops at this point, which might be a bit true.  But, I’m a firm believer that you can really judge a place by their coffee shops.  “White Electric,” was in a much less developed area (many storefronts abandoned and broken windows everywhere…) but you could feel that the area was moving through a transitional period.  There was the coffee shop, as well as a new youth arts organization and youth pride organization.  If there were a really interesting part of Providence, it was this one.  The people inside the coffee shop were not as young as the other area near the university—these people seemed more artsy, and more grungy.  A stark contrast from the Brown students I had seen all over earlier in the day.  Yes, it’s true.  I had been judging Providence on its college youth.  I have no intention of living in a city full of college (or medical) students and no one else... So it was refreshing to see a grittier side (that wasn’t the mob). 

But I have to say I really didn’t feel a connection with the place.  I am finding myself really searching for things to mention here.  It was a lovely city (the buildings were beautiful!) with many things to offer (like a cool bookstore!  I forgot the bookstore full of art and design books!)…but it didn’t really speak to me in a strong way.  Could I live here?  Probably.  Do I want to?  Probably not. 

I’m pretty tepid about Providence...

City No. 6: Old Lyme, Connecticut, or, “How I finally slept in a house on the beach, and it was wonderful”

Our Honeymoon, or, How We Got to the Midwest One Interview at a Time:  The Northeast Cities According to Me, the One Who Wanders the Cities While Peter Completes the Interviews

Disclaimer: This should by no means be used as a real resource to the northwestern cities.  While I am an observant person, I have no background in city development, nor do I have expertise on the cultural or historical background on these cities.  For the most part, I am reviewing these cities based on my personal preferences, as we will be moving to one of these cities in the spring.  And, if you are hoping for a lot of artwork (as this is my art blog), sorry to say, but you will be sadly disappointed if you continue to read this blog in the upcoming two months.  Apart from my photographs of the cities, I doubt I’ll get to very many art and craft projects. 

 

Old Lyme was exactly what we needed it to be:  peaceful, beautiful, and restful. While we were there, we took a walk by the beach (which was probably 200 ft. away from the house we were staying at), ate some pizza at the local pizzaria/wifi-hub/coffee/anything-else-you-could-ever-want-joint, and later when it got too dark, windy, and cold to be outside, we (Peter and our lovely couch-surfer host, Sarah) watched movies that I had saved on my computer (“Boy A” and the “Hunting Party”—thank you Davie!).  Phone reception was bad, wifi was located nowhere convenient, and so we had a lovely vacation away from all of computer-based-society.  Life seemed simple, slower, and lovely in Old Lyme.  Because most of what Old Lyme had to offer was mostly nature’s own beauty, I’ve included many photos. 

The other great thing we found was just right outside Old Lyme:  BOOK BARN!!!  If you’ve ever been to this place, you know why I have it in all caps, followed by three exclamation points.  This place was and IS amazing.  Picture a barn.  Fill it with books that are all used, and only cost $4.  But they’re good books--books you actually WANT to read, not reject books like you usually find at thrift stores, or other used bookstores that offer books that cheap.  And THEN, picture leaving that barn and going outside where you see another shed-type-building (horse shed?) and a tent, and a few other wagons (wagons that horses pull, not that you might pull a child in—big wagons!) that are also FULL OF BOOKS THAT COST $4!!!  And THEN (yes, there’s more!) imagine that you look down at a flyer posted near the register that says that they have TWO OTHER LOCATIONS IN TOWN!  AND YOU GO TO THEM!  And you see that the buildings are HUGE, and have winding hallways and passageways lined with thousands of books THAT ALL COST $4!!!

Needless to say, we had an awesome time in Old Lyme. 

And maybe, just MAYBE, we saw Joan Allen there at a Chinese restaurant.  She was driving a sports car, and looked like star...