Pittsburgh, PA

When we stay at Elks lodges (I am an Elks member) it tends to be a little iffy. Sometimes we have a site that is hard to get into, or not level, or in a noisy parking lot. Sometimes, and this surprises me, the lodge does not seem particularly friendly. But the lodge we are staying at outside of Pittsburgh is full of the friendliest folk you can imagine. When the ground was too soggy for us to park on it without sinking, they moved us around and put us on a concrete pad with full hookups next to a barn on the property. They refused to let us pay for our first drinks at the bar when we went in to chat and say hello. We like it here!

On Saturday Bob and I went into Pittsburgh to visit the Andy Warhol Museum, one of four Carnegie Museums in Pittsburgh. There is a lot of road work going on in and around Pittsburgh so we got stuck in traffic that did not move for a long while and then dealt with detours over and over. Finally we made it to a parking garage, parked, and walked over the Roberto Clemente Bridge towards the Museum. We passed the Pirates stadium along the way.

Neither of us are Warhol fans per se, but we were interested in learning more about the life of this famous artist. And I found a lot to like about his art, at least. Click on the pics to embiggen.

There are seven floors of the museum and displays such as this one showed the timeline of Warhol’s life and career.

Here are some of my favorite images from the museum. I had no idea the breadth of styles that his work encompassed.

Still-life Flower, 1950s

Self-Portrait, 1964

Aretha Franklin, ca 1986

Sewn Photograph, 1976-1986, Gelatin prints sewn with thread

After wandering through the museum we walked across the Andy Warhol bridge, spotting a tour boat going under the Clemente bridge.

These bar-cars always make me smile. The passengers pedal furiously down the road cheering at passers by as music blasts.

I was channeling my inner-Gail (my sister, an avid walker) as I suggested we leave the car in the parking garage and walk to a fabric store only about a mile and a half away. “Loom” is a shop on Penn Ave filled with interesting fabrics and notions. I picked up a couple of bargains before walking over to Kaya restaurant where we had a scrumptious lunch. The vegan paella was exquisite and we sat outside on the patio. This was the view from our table.

We decided to give our blisters a break and took a taxi back to the parking garage.

All in all, a very satisfying day.