A Few Days in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA - Events of Friday, May 18 to Wednesday, May 23, 2011

We arrived in Pittsburgh on Friday and spent the weekend hanging out with Lora and J. Michael. Freeway got to meet their two boxers, Gunnar and Fiona. Gunnar is an 80-pound, 3-year old, and Fiona is one year old and weighs 70 pounds. At only about 12 pounds, Freeway was a little wary at first.

Freeway meets Gunnar

Freeway quickly jumped into Margery's lap for protection.

Freeway hiding behind Margery

Later, Freeway met Fiona. He eventually became comfortable playing with Gunnar or Fiona (one at a time) when he was either up on the motor home steps or on the couch. By the end of our stay, Freeway was happy to be right down on the floor with both the larger dogs to play. Gunnar and Fiona seemed to sense they had to be a little more gentle with him since he is so much smaller. We'll have more about the dogs a little later.

On Saturday, we all went to Bahama Breeze to celebrate Lora's accomplishment of becoming a Mary Kay Director. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, and there was already a wait for a table even though we arrived shortly after 5:00 PM.

Bahama Breeze

Fortunately, the wait was less than half an hour. We all decided to order a bunch of appetizers to share for our dinner. We got Firecracker Shrimp (2 orders), onion rings, jerk chicken wings and a chicken quesadilla.

We had appetizers for dinner at Bahama Breeze.

Everything was yummy, and we topped off the meal with each couple sharing a chocolate island for dessert. A chocolate island is a fudge brownie topped with rich chocolate mousse, chocolate sauce and whipped cream all swimming in a sea of chocolate sauce and vanilla anglaise.

Lora's debut as a Mary Kay Director was held at the Greentree Doubletree Hotel on Monday evening. The ladies of Mary Kay are very supportive of one another. There was a nice turnout of about 70 women. Paul, J. Michael and three other husbands were also there.

Mary Kay Directors from other units in the Pittsburgh area were introduced near the beginning of the event. They came to congratulate Lora and to help her celebrate her accomplishment.

Mary Kay Directors from other units

Lora's unit is called Bell's Angels, which incorporates her last name and is a play on words from the name of the well-known motorcycle club. Lora even managed to have a Harley-Davidson motorcycle brought in for the event.

Lora and the Bell's Angels

We topped off the evening's festivities with some delicious cake from Bethel Bakery. Bethel Bakery is a well-known bakery located in the Bethel Park area of Pittsburgh. The cake had raspberry filling.

Cake with raspberry filling

On Tuesday, Margery, Paul and Lora (J. Michael had to work) went to lunch with Paul's step mom at a relatively new Chinese restaurant in the North Hills called Empire Palace. We chose a Chinese restaurant because were still hungry for some good General Tso's chicken after our disappointment a few weeks ago in Fairhope, AL.

Empire Palace Restaurant

Margery and Paul had General Tso's chicken, Lora had Lucky General Tso's chicken, which is same as regular General Tso's chicken except with vegetables, and Paul's step mom had pork lo mein.

Inside Empire Palace Restaurant

Lucky General Tso's chicken - General Tso's chicken with vegetables

We're happy to report we were not disappointed by the General Tso's chicken this time. In fact, it was some of the best we have ever had. Prices for lunch run around $8 and include your choice of egg roll (outstanding) or soup, the entree, and a choice of fried of steamed rice. Portion sizes are very generous - we all had food left over.

On Tuesday evening, we celebrated Fiona's first birthday. She got to wear the silly birthday hat we got Lora and J. Michael's first boxer several years ago. 

Fiona got to wear the silly Happy Birthday hat.

Get this stupid thing off me!

As you can see by the next photo, Freeway was comfortable enough with the big dogs by this time to join in the fun. It looks like Lora is directing a choir, but in reality, she is handing out doggie treats.

Lora handing out doggie treats

The canines finished off the evening with Frosty Paws, which are frozen dog treats that are like ice cream. The humans had yummy cake left over from the previous night's Mary Kay celebration.

Freeway enjoying a treat of Frosty Paws

Lora and J. Michael had camping reservations for the following weekend (Memorial Day) in Berlin, OH, which is in the heart of Ohio's Amish country. Since Berlin is one of our favorite locations, we wanted to join them for Memorial Day. As soon as we made the decision to change our previous travel plans and detour to Pittsburgh, we contacted the campground to see if we could get in. We were pleased to find out they just had a cancellation, and we got a spot a few sites away from Lora and J. Michael.

We needed to vacate the RV pad beside Lora and J. Michael's garage so they could bring their trailer back to get it packed for the weekend. Therefore, on Wednesday morning, we hit the road around 10:00 AM and headed to Berlin, OH. We'll tell you all about our stay in Berlin in our next post.

Comments

[Marsha]

Those two dogs could never be able to resist Freeway. He is such a sweetheart!

I love the photo of the three friends sitting and waiting for their treat. Just precious.

Appetizers for dinner many times is plenty f food for me.

You are headed for a very close place to our old stomping grounds. Safe travels.