Ravi Comes To Town

Last weekend, August 2-4, Ravi came to visit us, so we attempted to do our best to show him around our new hometown which we barely knew ourselves.

Shortly after Rav arrived Saturday afternoon, we walked down the street to one of our favorite Thai places, Sweet Basil, for lunch. Unfortunately they do not have the lunch specials available on the weekend. Still, the food was great there!

Afterward we attempted to drive up Mt Washington, but we did not carefully plan our trip, so we wound up driving all the way AROUND Mt Washington before figuring out the route to the top of the Dusquesne incline.



Then we drove over to downtown and over to Oakland. We parked at CMU and walked over to the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt. First we took the elevator to the top floor to see the view, but we were disappointed to learn that the larger windows out of which great views are sure to be had were closed off in rooms that were locked for the weekend.

Then we went down to the 3rd floor and visited some of the international rooms. These rooms were apparently decorated by different groups of various nationalities living in Pittsburgh at the time the Cathedral was built. These were an interesting curiosity but nothing to get too excited about. Before leaving the building, we stopped at the 1st floor to get a look at the beautiful soaring arches in the grand hall, and Ravi found some thrones for us to act like royalty in.



Since it was a hot day, we could not leave the area without an ice cream from Dave and Andy's. Then we walked over to CMU campus where Rav got to see Dave's office, and we got to laugh at the brand name of the toilet stall door latches: Hiney Hiders.

All of this walking around made us very hungry so we walked over to Rose Tea Cafe for dinner. Rav introduced us to the heavenly Sa-Cha sauce (GARLIC!), and our meals here were excellent as always.

The next morning we had Sunday brunch at Harris Grill.



The tatooed chain smoking crowd we saw there last time we brunched was nowhere to be found. In fact the place was completely empty at 10:30 am. I had a steak and eggs platter, Rav had the frittata, and Dave had the blueberry pancakes. The coffee and Bloody Marys were excellent, and the bacon was awesome! Apparently they have "Bacon Tuesdays" where you get baskets of bacon for $1 during happy hour. I think we'll be back.

After such a heavy meal we thought the virtuous thing would be to take a walk in the park. We hadn't been to Frick Park yet, so with a vague sense of direction we headed toward the East and found a paved trail with a par course where we could demonstrate feats of strength and agility.



After awhile we headed into the woods for the shade and found ourselves utterly confused by the signs. After a bit of guesswork and pure luck we found our way out of the woods and in a neighborhood we'd never seen before. Having no idea where we were we let the angle of the sun be our guide and hoped we would come across a familiar street sign sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Along the way we cam across some boys selling lemonade, juice, and water from a TV tray table on the sidewalk. They were too cute to pass up so Rav and I bought drinks, and though we told them not to spend the money on video games, the boys were evasive in a way that indicated that was the motivation behind the enterprise.

Once we found our way home we were beat so we sat around the porch playing cards until we got hungry enough for dinner. For dinner we drove back over to Oakland and ate at the Union Grill. Dave had been there during his CMU interview, but it was new to me and Rav. The turkey Devonshire sandwich was billed as World Famous on the menu, so Rav could not pass it up. It was just white bread, tomato slices, turkey, and bacon smothered in cheddar cheese. I'm not sure what this sandwich is famous for, but rest assured that I will not be ordering it any time ever. That evening back at home we enjoyed some more porch sitting and games with a pitcher of Pina Colada.

The next day I had to work and then go to a doctor's appt over lunch, so Rav and Dave amused themselves and had lunch at Smallman St Deli with a friend of Rav's from school. After lunch Rav had to go back to NYC, and so ended our lovely visit.