Seldom Seen Blogger Returns

After all of the traveling about in June, we decided to make the holiday weekend a quiet one. We went to see the July 4th fireworks on the river in downtown Pgh, but didn't have any idea how many other thousands of people would be down there too. So after sitting in traffic for almost an hour, and being directed into the parking garage next to PNC Park, we decided it might be smart to just watch from the top of the garage so we could get out of there fast. Turns out a lot of people had the same idea, and some looked like they'd been tailgating there for most of the day. It turns out to be a great viewing spot, and getting out of the area was relatively painless.

Dave's been busy teaching a workshop for high school science and math teachers this weekend so I've lined up some entertainment for myself.

Friday night I was invited to join my friends down at Sushi Kim, located between downtown and the strip, where we ate Korean BBQ buffet. How that works is there's a buffet of raw sliced and seasoned meats and condiments, and you cook them at the grill on your table. It was delicious and I can't wait to take Dave there.



Afterward we went over to Klavons, a relic of the 1920s, which none of the others had seen before, and enjoyed some old fashioned sodas and ice cream sundaes.



This morning I went on a Venture Outdoors walk through a well hidden greenspace in the community of Beechview. Before the walk an area resident gave a talk about the history of the area and the efforts to preserve this wooded hillside in a fairly densely populated town. The area we were walking in was once called Seldom Seen, and it was a secluded village of German immigrants until the 1960s, when the city took over the property with plans for development.

The trails (if you can call them that) were faint and overgrown. There was so much poison ivy that I spent most of the walk watching where I stepped (why did I wear shorts!). Also, it's not maintained by the city so there are a lot of felled trees blocking the path.

We stopped along the way to hear about interesting features of the park which I've detailed with pics here. When I got home I immediately scrubbed my arms and legs down and washed my hiking clothes in case there was any poison ivy oil on them.