Pittsburgh Trip

Continental Travel

I took a ground shuttle from College Station and reached Houston IAH. I had two hours left for my flight and was trying to browse the internet. I was unable to get any wireless connectoin and hence reading some magazine out there. The aircraft was small and there was a cute kid in the nearby seat. During the entire journey, I was either gazing out of the window or playing with the child. Finally, I reached Pittsburgh after 3 hours and there was my cousin’s family to pick me up.

At home

My cousin’s house is situated atop a hill. The place resembled Ooty with windy slopes and cold weather prevailed till I left Pittsburgh. I relished the South Indian food prepared by my sister and I had a great time playing with Sriram and Siddharth at home. I watched the television after a long time. Eating and sleeping filled the greater part of my time at home. I went to a movie “Gone baby gone” at Star city, which I didn’t like much. I went jogging one day ,out in the cold and came back with a running nose. I would say, I had a great time at Pittsburgh.

Washington DC

On early Sunday morning, we started on a 250 miles trip to Washington DC in car. We reached Washington DC around noon. It was pretty cold in Washington and snow biting was unbearable. Even in that cold, I saw lot of tourists with young children wrapped around in warm clothes. Initially, we had trouble in finding a place to park our car. The interesting fact about Washington DC is that Lincoln Memorial,

WW II memorial, Washington Monument and Capitol hill were all lined up and at a walk able distance. I took some snaps from Washington monument. We found a place near Washington monument to have our lunch that we had brought along with us. Soon it started raining, luckily by the time we finished our food the rains subsided. Next we went to a Star bucks coffee to refresh ourselves and moved on to visit White House (the home of the US President). It was getting dark and the white house had a grand look after the lights were switched on. But it can never be compared to Rashtrapathi Bhavan (the home of Indian President) in terms of size and beauty. We then visited the Lincoln memorial and took photos near the Lincoln statue.

Later, we took some snaps near the ‘Capitol Hill’ but it was very dark and the snaps didn’t come out well. The weather was getting worse and soon we started on our way back home. We forgot to take the print out of driving directions, so we had to take frequent exits from the highway. It was snowing outside and we could barely see the roads. Finally, I had to call my roommate over the phone to look into the driving directions. By the time we reached Pittsburgh, there was 2-3 ” of snow on the road. We stopped at a pizza hut for dinner. The ‘Pizza’ was really good and finally we reached home around 12:30 pm.

Mount Washington

On New Year’s eve, I went to Mount Washinton which is a steep hill overlooking the Pittsburgh skyline. After parking our cars, we took the Duquesne Incline to reach the hill top. It was built in the year 1877 to carry cargo up and down the hill slopes. It is considered to be one of the city’s most popular tourist attraction.

Venkatachalapathy Temple

New year evening, I went to

Sri Venkateswara Temple situated on Penn hills along with cousin’s family. It was built in the year 1976 and it is one of the oldest Hindu temple in the United States. After the regular prayer, we ate puliyodara and curd rice at the temple itself.

CMU and downtown Pittsburgh

It was the last day of my stay at Pittsburgh. I wished to see the Carnegie Melon University, so my sister dropped me at the South Hills village railway station [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Light_Rail] and from there, I took a transit ticket to Steel Plaza [downtown Pittsburgh]. The landscapes around were completely covered with snow as I could see from the light rail. My brother-in-law picked me up at Steel plaza and we both went around the downtown in his friend’s car. Oakland is the academic, cultural and healthcare center of Pittsburgh. The Oakland area has many universities like Carnegie Melon University (CMU), Carlow University, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), University of Pittsburgh(UPITT), Duquesne university and is known for its hospitals. I had a glimpse of Carnegie Museum of Natural History from the outside, but missed an opportunity to see the world famous Dinosaurs exhibit in this museum. I took photographs in front of Carnegie Melon University, University of Pittsburgh, Statue of Christopher Columbus, Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens. As it was getting late to catch my flight, after taking a few snaps in front of melon bank, USX tower and Cathedral of Learning we returned home.