Day 27: Pittsburgh

After our rather disastrous arrival in Pittsburgh, everyone slept in.  We woke up with Mr. 0 around 8am and the 3 older boys were still sound asleep in the other room.  Around 8:30, we heard Mr. 3 rattling doorknobs and we found him looking for the way out.  He had been asleep when we brought him up to the room, so didn't know which door was which.  But the question remains - where exactly was he going?

We brought him into our room and he played with Mr. 0 until Mr. 7 woke up around 9am.  An unheard of time for our early bird.  David used this time to find and reserve a room for the night - we were not making the same mistake twice.  Once everyone was awake, we had some breakfast while watching the making of a double-barrel cannon.  During breakfast, Mr. 0 decided it was time to crawl and just did it, with all of us cheering for him.  We were surprised he wasn't distracted by all the yelling but perhaps he's just used to the chaos.  We warned the boys that now Mr. 0 was on the loose and we'd have to be more careful with our things.  Finally, we packed up to go visit friends.

Our friends in Pittsburgh are in the process of moving to the Northside, a fun,  eclectic neighborhood where people hang out together on their front stoops, work in the community garden, and restore beautiful old brownstones.  We wandered down to the park, watched ducks in the pond, and hoped to see a train come by.  On the far side, they introduced us to Gus and hand-scraped snow cones.  Gus has been running this stand for 50 years and the snow cones were delicious!  It felt a little like we were now part of Pittsburgh history.

We found a table for 10 for lunch at a local pizzeria with the kids at one end and the adults at the other.  Then we headed over to the National Aviary for a little bird watching.  The rooms are open and birds wander across the path or fly right over your head.  The tropical room was like wandering down a path in Costa Rica.  A loud rhinoceros hornbill woke Mr. 0 from his nap.  The kids watched penguins from under the tank (and argued over the best spot).  Finally it was time to wish our friends good-bye and head out of town.  It was so fun to explore the neighborhood together and we can't wait to see the new house after all their work is done!

One thing that we've really enjoyed is seeing our kids play and interact with new friends in cities across the country, often after late nights or crazy days.  We've been proud of the good guests they've been and the way they've jumped in to new situations well (not necessarily their forte).  They've grown up this month.