Living Our Dream: Pittsburgh for the Holidays Part I

January 01, 2020

Pittsburgh for the Holidays Part I: Holiday Prep and a Visit to Phipps Conservatory

Pittsburgh, PA - Events of Tuesday, December 17 to Monday, December 23, 2019

We headed out for Pittsburgh bright and early on Tuesday morning (December 17) to spend Christmas with family. We stopped for the night at the Hampton Inn in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where we usually stop.

We met our RVing friends who live in the area, Dick and Barbara, for dinner at the nearby Texas Roadhouse. We had a good time chatting and catching up.

We were on the road shortly after 7 a.m. on Wednesday for the second leg of the journey. Later in the afternoon as we were traveling through West Virginia, our conversation somehow turned to food with Dairy Queen being the main topic of discussion. Pretty soon, we found ourselves on a 26º day in the middle of snow flurries stopping at a Dairy Queen.

It's never too cold for Dairy Queen

Traffic, for the most part, was light for both days of our journey. The one exception was the second day when we were within about 10 miles of Lora and J. Michael's house when we were hit by a heavy snow squall. Within minutes the road iced up and traffic on I-79 came to a stop.

Fortunately, were right by an exit. Even though that exit was a couple of exits before the GPS wanted us to get off the interstate, we inched our way over into the right lane and took the off ramp.

The back roads were also icy, but traffic was moving. We're really glad we ordered our Equinox with AWD, which is an option that is almost never purchased by Floridians. This one experience alone with icy roads made it worth the extra cost...and the anti-lock brakes helped a lot, too.

We pulled into Lora and J. Michael's driveway, which was covered in snow, shortly after 3:30. Paul shoveled so we wouldn't pack down the snow with our many trips into the house to get the car emptied out.

Paul shoveling snow - we moved to Florida to get away from this

On Thursday, we took Paul's step mom to lunch at Empire Palace. Lora and Lydia joined us. Empire Palace has excellent Chinese food, something that we haven't found much of in Florida.

We all piled into J. Michael's Suburban on Thursday evening and drove to nearby Clinton, Pennsylvania, where we toured the Christmas Light-Up as we have done in past years. For a $10 per car donation that goes to local charities, visitors can drive through an extensive light display in Clinton Park as many times as they want. We always drive through twice.

Some of the many Christmas lights at Clinton Light-Up

On Friday morning, we attended Lydia's pre-school Christmas program. This year she played the part of an angel, and she did it very well. The kids were all very cute.

Lydia (center) as an angel in the pre-school Christmas play

We spent the rest of Friday, as well as parts of Saturday and Sunday doing baking, wrapping, and other holiday prep. In between, we played with Lydia. There was also a visit by friends of the family on Saturday afternoon and church on Sunday morning.

Late on Sunday afternoon, we went to Phipps Conservatory in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh to attend the Winter Flower Show and Light Garden. Because of the large crowds the lights draw, this year Phipps instituted a new policy of selling advance tickets for specific times to see the lights. Lora got tickets for 4 p.m. so we could arrive in the daylight to see the flowers inside, then move outside to see the lights as it got dark. We stopped for a photo of the girls on the way in.

Lora, Lydia, and Margery outside Phipps Conservatory

Poinsettias always play a big role in the display of winter flowers at Phipps. This year was no exception.

Poinsettias stacked like Christmas trees

There are always many different varieties of poinsettias used in the displays. This year, we saw a color we didn't even know existed - yellow. When combined with pink cyclamen and orchids, the yellow poinsettias made for a very exotic display.

Yellow poinsettias

We enjoyed seeing the displays in the various rooms of the conservatory in the daylight.

East Room

Broderie Room

Victoria Room

Garden railroad in the South Conservatory

We took our time with the indoor tour and got to the exit for the outdoor light show shortly after the sun went down. This year, the weather was cool, but not freezing cold, so we could take our time and enjoy the many different areas of light displays.

After seeing the lights, we headed back inside to finish one or two more areas of the indoor tour. It turned out 4:00 was an excellent time to go to Phipps. We got to see most of the indoor flowers in the daylight, and we got to see the lights outside before it got too crowded.

On the way back to the car, we stopped to check out the colored lights inside the conservatory itself. The photo at the top of this post is a little wider view of Phipps at night.

View of the entrance to Phipps at night