Mr. Moustache Goes To Pittsburgh

And that brings us to Pittsburgh. Virg arrived on a red-eye early on June 12th, rented a car, and got the keys to the house we're renting in Squirrel Hill. I got a ride from Louisville with another CS teacher, arriving in Pittsburgh mid-afternoon.

Fort Pitt Bridge, stolen from Wikipedia

Entering Pittsburgh from the south is actually quite spectacular. First you see nothing but highway traffic. Then you go through the Fort Pitt tunnel that suddenly turns into the Fort Pitt bridge, taking you over the Monongahela River into downtown. The city is surprisingly picturesque, with its downtown located at the intersection of three rivers. The city is also built on a number of hills, and across the rivers are steep slopes which provide some great views looking down on Pittsburgh. And there are numerous bridges that cross the rivers--most of which are painted in an ugly color that you see a lot here. Virg and I refer to it as "Pittsburgh yellow."

the house, as it appeared on Craigslist

Virg and I were initially pretty bummed when we saw the house we rented. We knew it was a 3-bedroom 1.5-bath, and we'd seen photos on Craigslist, but otherwise we had no idea what to expect. It turned out to be an old place with damaged creaky wooden floors everywhere, broken door latches, fingerprints and marks on all the doors and moldings, and it was left absolutely filthy for our arrival. Our socks would turn black after just an hour of walking inside, and we constantly needed to wash our hands. We borrowed an air mattress and set up camp in the upstairs rear bedroom (since it had an AC window unit).

Yes, Virg photographed her sock.

In the evening, we bought a bunch of cat supplies and then used our portable GPS to drive to the Pittsburgh airport's cargo area, where we picked up two terrified cats. Jackie and Mr. Moustache had just survived a week of watching all their stuff disappear, followed by a night in a kennel and then a full day of flying as cargo on United with a connection in Chicago. (Their trip was arranged through Pets Express, an expensive service that provided some big time peace-of-mind for us, as these cats do not travel well!) The cats were too freaked out to protest much on the drive home. We released them in the upstairs bathroom and sat with them there for a while, as they nervously explored the space. When we released them into the rest of the house, they pretty much kept to the bathroom and our makeshift bedroom for the first couple of days. They went right back to hiding in terror each time a repairman, painter, delivery person, etc., came into the house--Jackie hiding under the toilet and Mr. M sprawled out on top of the fridge.