My cell phone photo

John Kane, Highland Hollow, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA

Do widzenia, Polish Hill

Goodbye, Polish Hill.

Marian and I departed for the airport early this morning. I knew it would be a choker. I think I fell in love with everyone I met here. It was one of those trips.

A good "caption" photo!

Joanne I fell in love with instantly and having to say goodbye so soon would be hard. I had heard about "Marian's little sister" for years and it was so great to finally meet her, but saying good bye was sad. A good sign if you really think about it.

And there was Paul and Jordan and Lily! Funny how you are almost like a foreign exchange student and your host family who has never met you puts you up and you fall for them. What great guys and great pup! Jordan will be in NYC soon so I will get to see him and I hope Paul will come this way as well. I cannot thank them enough.

And almost like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, it was saddest to say Do widzenia to my good pal, Marian. He made this trip possible and has been such a good friend to me over the years. To be able to share Pittsburgh with each other was amazing. To see where he grew up, where he was BORN! To just be around his love and wisdom was priceless.

Hey Marian, let's do it again!!!!

Smacznego!

That is Bon Apetit in Polish.

For our last night in Pittsburgh, Joanne made a Polish feast. It was a dream come true for me to be dining there on Polish Hill in a Polish house with such great people. I love the ethnic food and rightfully I was made fun of for my gushing, but I think it has to do with the heart and emotion that goes into it. And I feel that. Truly. There is something powerful about sharing a meal with people, but when you know someone put in such effort because you were there and made this to please you it is extra special.

Joanne's son Rich and his wife Karyn were able to stay for dinner which made it even better. (After Primanti's - 'Bring it on!!!")

We started off with HOMEMADE Czernina which is essentially Duck Blood Soup. It was wonderful. Sort of a hunter-style soup with duck and noodles and prunes and well, duck's blood. The soup's name derives from the word czarny which means "black."

Then we had HOMEMADE pierogi with dried cottage cheese. It was heaven. I had about 4 huge ones. I will think of these often. Karyn remarked that they were Joanne's best! They were great. We also had Polish spareribs and Polish broccoli with Polish Cheddar cheese and Polish carrot cake to finish.



Oh and I polished off a "Pittsburgh's Own" Klondike Bar! Have you had one lately? They are amazing.

It was a lovely meal and then it was time for the Steelers game!


Richard, Joanne, Marian, Karyn, and Rich

Rich and Karyn. They will go on my "Top Ten Couples of the Year" list this year. (Along with Paul and Jordan from next door, of course!) I could do a whole blog post on them frankly. But it would be gushy on my part! Wonderful people. We had such a good time today.

The Cathedral of Learning

(The building keeps going up from here!)
Imagine "It's a Small World" goes to College

At the University of Pittsburgh there is a building (the 2nd tallest university building in the world after Moscow U.) called the Cathedral of Learning that houses among MANY other things these 27 rooms that are mostly functional classrooms but have Nationality themes like the Austria Room or the Lithuanian Room. Kind of like those themed hotel rooms at the Madonna Inn.

They give you a key and a tape player and you go from room to room and unlock the doors and listen to the history of the room. Mostly artisans from the various countries came over and painted and carved, etc. to make these "nationality rooms' come alive. Who knew? ! And this is not like some new bible theme park but was conceived in 1926 and most rooms were created from the 1930's to the 1950's.

Instead of collecting dolls from around the world at the gas station, they built classrooms. Wacky, but fabulous.

Warhol Museum

Native son, Andy Warhol, is well honored and represented in this very vast and fun museum.

There are boxes upon boxes of the memorabilia he collected. Loads of his work and loads of celebs and fun facts about his life and world. I had a good time here. And it is housed in an old sheet music store, I believe. Fun. On the north shore. Fun.

Marian and he were both born the same year and both in Pittsburgh! TWO native sons in one tonight for me!

Marian with his contemporary Andy.

It was odd to me, however, that the museum allows no photography when that is all Andy Warhol did when he went places - he took snaps of people, etc. I would think they would encourage such pop culture instant "art" and hijinks.



The most fun was the mylar balloon room. I think this room can save on therapy as well. Loads of adults playing and having fun. Including us.


Thanks, Andy. Thanks, Pittsburgh.

Carnegie Art Museum, Pittsburgh, PA

Andrew by Andy (Warhol does Carnegie)

Marian and I went to the Carnegie Art Museum today. Okay, so I can play the jaded New Yorker "I live right by some of the best galleries in the world" card, but 1. that is not my style and 2. this place blew me away. I loved it. The collection was great and I could feel the civic pride for it as well. I can't say how really, but I could. Perhaps for starters there were also a lot of Pittsburgh painters featured which I loved.


One of the many old plaster reproductions in the amazing Hall of Sculpture.

A personal favorite, of course "Highland Hollow" by John Kane.


Before the expansion, Marian was chosen as a little boy for his talent and was invited to come to the Art Museum to study painting and drawing. It was exciting to know that he had been taught here and here we were all these years later.

De Luca's on the Strip, Pittsburgh PA

Marian and I started our day down at The Strip. We had breakfast at the popular "greasy spoon" called De Luca's. My omelette was a thin, delicate membrane of egg with cheddar inside just the way I love it. This style is hard to find for some reason. Marian had a waffle that he found too doughy. Funny, that is how I think of my body from eating all these omelette's with cheese!


Marian is clearly my muse for this entry! Here is his thinking about the perfect waffle that is not here!

Bucket List #7 Pittsburgh, PA

Yes, Pittsburgh, PA is on my Bucket List and today I got here. Where some of you want to run a marathon before you die, I wanted to see Pittsburgh with my friend and neighbor from Los Angeles, Marian.


I lived in LA across the street from Marian for 12.5 years before moving to New York 2 years ago. He always told me stories of his life growing up on Polish Hill in Pittsburgh. I had hoped one day we would go and he would show me where he grew up and we would eat Polish food. All this while YOU fun a marathon!

Well today we converged here. He from LA and I from New York. We had not seen each other in a year and it was fantastic to see him! It IS fantastic to see him.

Viva Marian, Viva Pittsburgh, Viva Polish Hill!

Marian and Pat realizing a dream! What a GREAT PAL. I am so blessed. And here I am!!