I spent last weekend in Pittsburgh, checking out Cindy’s hometown and generally being totally impressed with the city. Pittsburgh get’s a bad wrap when it’s actually a pretty cool little town. In some ways it reminded me of Portland, with the rivers, bridges and hills.

We had a fun, busy day on Friday, starting with a two hour marathon at Cindy’s favorite thriftstore, Red, White and Blue. I was standing in the shoe section (got two cute pairs), when a woman walked by me. She looked familiar, but I didn’t expect to be seeing anyone I knew. But on second glance I thought, “that’s Cindy’s mom, Peg.” Except that through dumb luck, Peg was spending the weekend in Philly while we were in her city. I called down the aisle to Ingrid and we went off to find Cindy, in the business suit section, standing talking to Peg. Seems Cindy had mentioned to her that we were going to the thriftstore, and she had stopped in, hoping to track us down before she left for Philly later that afternoon. I got a giggle out of it.

Later that day we went for the famous Primanti Bros. sandwich, complete with coleslaw and french fries in the sandwich. A walk down the Strip for food for the party the next night. A wander through the Three Rivers Arts Fair and a dinner of festival food while listening to the Cowboy Junkies. Between dinner and dessert, the wind kicked and clouds tumbled into place above our heads, but we managed to dash for shelter under a nearby hotel overhang. The weather made lots of noise, but didn’t actually produce anything before timidly folding back into itself.

One highlight was the ride up the incline. It’s a pretty darn cool method of public transportation. I had never heard of an incline before last weekend. It’s two cars that ride on parallel tracks up a hill, and as one goes up the other goes down. People who live at the top of the hill use it as a way to get easily back into the city. All I can say is, Neat!

We stayed at Chris’s house on the North Side for the weekend. He lives in an amazing old three story row house that has been completely renovated, including a beautiful kitchen. It’s also an impressive home, because of the lack of stuff. My apartment is full of books, movies, cds, magazines, bowls (I have a problem with kitchen utensils) and random stuff from my grandparents. I always have extra and more than enough, whereas Chris has exactly the right amount. I envy his ability to be spare, and pare down to the essentials.

Saturday we took it a little easier and didn’t get moving until almost noon. Over in Shadyside we made pilgrimages to Sephora and the Apple store, had lunch and bought cake at Cindy’s favorite bakery. Back to Chris’s fabulous kitchen, we cooked for the party that night. Man did we cook. Chris is one of my favorite people to cook with, because with him, it’s art. The party was a delight, Chris’s people are terrific and there wasn’t a one that I didn’t enjoy.

It was a good weekend. I’ve posted some pictures on Flickr, check ’em out.