Pittsburgh

We visited Pittsburgh in May to watch the Tigers vs Pirates.  It was a great series because a) it was interleague play which means that they do not play each other very often, 

 b) the trip was an "easy" road trip distance-wise,

and c) Pittsburgh is fun!  

We enjoyed the city.  I am an Andy Warhol fan so I definitely wanted to visit his museum there, but it was a bit of a disappointment.  It is hard to explain why but I think it is partly because it was a bit pricey and partly because the museum featured a lot of his video art and less of the art that I enjoy.

The sports area in Pittsburgh is fabuloso!  Near Heinz Field (where the Steelers and Univ of Pitt play), there is a memorial for Fred Rogers.  We both loved Mr. Rogers as kids.  

We went to a game on Friday night.  We had purchased tickets for Saturday's game awhile back but decided to go on Friday as well.  We bought "cheap tickets" for that game. The ballpark is awesome!  I can see why it has been voted as a favorite by fans.  

On Saturday, we took a tour of the park.  We saw everyone getting ready for the night game. 

We visited many areas that we'd never have been able to visit at game time, such as the press box...

suites...

and the dugout.

We hung out at some of the local establishments before each game with Eric's co-worker Bob and his dad.  Not long before Saturday's game, we saw this unique fan and had to take a picture.  There were a lot of looks his way FOR SURE!

Then it was time for the game!  We had great seats.  I was able to clearly see my Tigers, Brandon Inge and Miguel Cabrera!

The claw made it!

We also wanted to visit the Duquesne Incline, which we had read about.  It is an old transporation system that takes you in a trolly type car up a steep incline to another area of the city.  It was originally used to bring the residents down to the bottom to work in steel yards.

Amazing views!  We greatly enjoyed the trip. 

 

First Ice Cream Sandwiches of the Season

We had our Moms and families over for Mother's Day this year.  We grilled out with cheeseburgers, corn on the cob, our version of buffalo chips and cheese, and ice cream sandwiches.  I used  my classic chocolate chip cookie recipe for the cookie part. 

After they cooled in the refrigerator for a bit, I set out the ingredients.  I used Edy's show churned vanilla ice cream this time. 

 

Then I rolled them in mini chocolate chips.

I froze them overnight and I believe they were well enjoyed the next day at lunch!

Tigers

We LOVE the Detroit Tigers.  We try to go to a few games each year and also to an away game each year.  We have already made it to two games and have another planned tomorrow and again next weekend in Pittsburgh.  Our first game was with our best buds, Darci and Patrick.  We went opening weekend and had a blast as always.  

We also went with my sister and her family were in town.  The whole fam went!  Go Tigers! 

Texas

We decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Texas in late April.  We flew in to San Antonio, spent a day and night there, then headed to Austin for a few days.  We absolutely loved Texas.  We needed a little pick me up type trip and decided to check out one of the places that we've talked about possibly living.  I was born in Texas and haven't been back since. Eric had never been there.  Being the adventurous souls that we are, we were super excited to check things out.  

First we spent a day on the Riverwalk in San Antonio.  We had heard a lot of great things about this area and it lived up to the talk.  We had beautiful weather while Michigan had cold and rain.  It was a great break.  

Our first meal was at a restaurant called The Republic of Texas.  I had an excellent Mexican meal (shown below).  Eric had a burger.  It was relaxing to sit on the river and enjoy our meal in the sun. 

We also visited the Alamo.  I find it ironic that most pictures of the Alamo show it out in the middle of nowhere but it is actually right downtown.

In the late afternoon we swam outside at our hotel and enjoyed the beautiful sun.  Then we decided to check out a Brazilian steakhouse.  Eric had heard many great things about this type of restaurant.  We saw one while we were walking around downtown and decided to check it out.  It was called Texas de Brazil.  It was such a unique experience.  You pay a flat rate (that is a bit high).  First you visit what they call a salad bar, but is probably closer to a small buffet of side dishes.  Once you are finished, you wait for the meat to be showcased at your table.  There are many men that roam the dining area with various slabs of meat that they cut a piece off of if you choose it.  You have a "button" that you turn over as green when you are looking for "meal delivery" and red if you have had enough.  You can do this for as long as you want.  I didn't last very long.  Eric did.  He really enjoyed the restaurant.  They had women doing flying acrobat type tricks at one end of the restaurant and the atmosphere itself is a lot of fun.  It looks like they are opening one in Detroit in May for local folks.

We woke up the next morning and headed to Austin.  We ate at a college type bbq place that I found on my handy dandy Droid2 called Ruby's.  It was near the University of Texas.  They had outdoor seating and delicious, cheap food.  I had a yummy mac and cheese side with my bbq chicken.  Later that day, we checked out the live music scene on 6th Street in downtown Austin. 

 We ate at another yummy Mexican restaurant for dinner on our first nigh in the city - the Iron Cactus.

We played shuffle puck (which I had never played) at a place called Buffalo Billiards.  This place was super cool!  It had pool tables, foosball, skeeball, shuffle puck and a few other games (as well as a bar).  I wasn't too bad for it being my first time!  We came back to the area the next night to check out more bands.  First we ate at a very nice and well reviewed Mexican restaurant called Manuel's.  It was delicious - 2 thumbs up!  Afterwards we visited many bars including a blues bar, a country bar, and watched the UFC fight on the street outside a bar called Bikinis. This is not really a place I'd normally hang out but with the t.v.s. facing the street and the fight on, it was a popular place.  The bike police officers enjoyed the fight there as well.  They shut down about 3 blocks of 6th Street at night for the live music scene.  Austin calls itself the Live Music Capital and we could see why.  

We also checked out amazing outlets in San Marcos.  There were "Premium Outlets" right across the street from "Tanger Outlets". We did a lot of shopping.

I couldn't believe that they had a VS outlet as well as an Express outlet.  We both enjoyed ourselves!  We also ate at a Chick-fil-A which is something we both really like that doesn't exist in Michigan.

 As if we actually needed more reason to love Texas:

Much more reasonable gas prices and an amazing Mexican market that we visited back in San Antonio on the day we headed back to Michigan.

We both agreed that Texas is a beautiful place.