"Dahntahn," as they say in Pittsburghese...
Usually, museums about cities bore
me to death, but the Heinz
History Center was really cool. At left is a streetcar;
in the center is a statue of a stegosaurus
(Joni's favorite dinosaur) decorated with photos of famous Pittsburghers
and
events; and a right is Steelers
great Franco Harris making the Immaculate
Reception
A good chunk of the center is taken
up by the Western PA Sports Museum, which, of course,
features the Pittsburgh Steelers.
At left, we're in front of a photo of the Steel
Curtain, which is behind
a metal mesh...get it? At right,
Joni and the girls pose with a fan-made tribute to the "Stillers"
Ally-Jane with replicas of the first
four Super Bowl rings the Steelers won;
Joni and the girls posing with Jerome
Bettis' mementos from Super
Bowl XL
Gear from Steelers "Mean
Joe" Greene and Dwight
"Mad Dog" White;
Joni with her next husband, Super
Bowl XL MVP Hines Ward
Pittsburgh also has this hockey
team that's supposed to be pretty
good.
The Sports Museum also has exhibits
on baseball,
golf,
and other stuff,
but as I'm not a big fan of those,
let's move on....
The History Center has exhibits
on the various ethnic
groups
who live in Pittsburgh: Joni's family
is Slovak and she's
kept her
Byzantine
Catholic faith, represented by the red vestments
The girls enjoyed learning all about
the Heinz Company
(the "57 Varieties"
refers to the number of food products
Heinz made, not flavors of ketchup).
Everyone knows that the steel industry was huge in Pittsburgh, but we also
learned that the city was--and still
is--a big manufacturer of glass used for a lot of things, including kitchens
and art
Speaking of art, it was off to the
Andy
Warhol Museum...
...where the girls re-visited their
favorite exhibit, the interactive "Silver Clouds,"
helium-filled mylar balloons. By
its nature, "Silver Clouds" is always
changing, never the same thing twice,
and when you enter the gallery,
you become part of the artwork itself.
Pretty trippy, huh?
After pondering that heavyweight
thought,
it was off to something a bit less
esoteric...
...the National Aviary, which Joni
enjoys even though she doesn't like
birds (or anything else that flaps)
coming near her
The "Go-Away"
Bird fits my curmudgeonly attitude;
Ally-Jane posing with a hamerkop
that she fed by hand
I call this guy the Little
Richard Bird, but really, he's a she,
and she's a wattled
curassow
These guys are relatively new to
the Aviary, and thanks to those other Penguins,
they're very popular
The girls really like them, and
they, I think, like the girls
To be expected, one of these Pittsburgh
penguins is named Sidney
(see his wing band
through the glass?), which is probably
as close as I'll ever get to meeting his alter ego.
I'm glad I'll never meet the giant,
prehistoric carnivorous bird that this statue represents.
Who says that extinction is always
a bad thing?
Before we left the Aviary, the girls
got to feed some lorikeets.
They're small and pretty and eat
nectar, not people
Two things we always do when we're
in Pittsburgh is
visit the grave of Joni's dad and
stay at the Conley Inn,
with its indoor pool and awesomely
fun waterslides
We're already looking forward to
our next visit!
