One Barn: Two Years of Photos

Being that I'm probably limited to how many more times I'll drive by this on my way to work, I decided to compile all the photos I took of the same barn over the last 2 years into one image. It's really amazing how the landscape changes from season to season and even day to day. It starts at the top with photos from two years ago and ends with a photo I took today. Which photo is your favorite? Why?

My favorite is the foggy one followed by the truck, although I'm also partial to the one where the leaves have all changed, because we had no sunny days that Fall except for that particular day, so it's kind of a special photo.

Father's Day in Cleveland: Part 2

On Father's Day, we had no idea what to do for brunch, we were debating whether to risk going downtown to a popular brunch spot or to just eat at IHOP. IHOP won. We go all out on Father's Day. It was actually for the best because we were pretty close to Chagrin Falls, a gorgeous little town that looks EXACTLY like the town of Shelburne Falls, MA, down to the architecture and waterfalls.

We parked and walked around the upper falls, which had a cute little seating area.

While I was busy taking my photos, Adam and my dad were already across the street, trying to get my attention and pointing at something. Turns out, Adam had sniffed out the only Jeni's Ice Cream shop East of Columbus, which happens to be in Chagrin Falls.

I leisurely walked over taking more photos along the way.

Inside the shop, I was excited to see so many flavors I haven't tried before. Back in December, Adam and I on a whim decided to buy Jeni's mango lassi flavored ice cream (I say on a whim, because it's $10 a pint at our local grocery store). We are now not proud to say we're ob-sessed. I decided to try two of their lighter selections, the cherry lambic sorbet (any ice cream that contains alcohol is a winner in my book) and the lemon and blueberries frozen yogurt. Adam got bananas + honey (a seasonal flavor) and salty caramel and my dad got whisky & pecans & double toasted coconut (another seasonal flavor). Yummmmm.

After we finished our ice cream, we walked down to the lower falls. There's an overlook and a really treacherous looking stair case that brings you down to the rocks at the base of the falls.

The rocks were a bit slippery and there were so many people there, so I just took my time walking around (slowly). At Shelburne Falls, you don't get to go down into the actual falls anymore (probably a good thing).

We didn't hang around long, it was getting late and we needed to get back to Pittsburgh. It was a great weekend with my dad and we're so glad we got to spend some time with him in Cleveland!

Father's Day in Cleveland: Part 1

For Father's Day, Adam and I drove out to Cleveland to spend it with my dad. My mom was in NY visiting with family and my dad was going to be alone and we couldn't have that, so off to Cleveland we went.

We had planned the night before to go downtown and check out the Cleveland Wine Festival. The tickets were $29 in advance/$35 at the door and you got "10 wine sample tickets"(i'll explain why this is in quotes later), 2 tickets for a full glass of beer, and a "souvenir wine glass"(ie. a plastic stemless cup). Adam and I had gone to a wine festival in the Berkshires, it was my prize for winning the Tanglewood photo contest in 2011. At that festival they gave us actual glasses imprinted with the wine fest logo, which was totally awesome. I was kind of bummed that the Cleveland one didn't do something similar, considering you pay quite a hefty entrance fee.

Anyway, we started off at the front where there were free mini pulled pork sliders and chicken legs courtesy of Garland Jack's BBQ sauce. I didn't get a pic of the food, but I did get a pic of the wet wipes you pulled from a pig's butt. They were also giving away free t-shirts if you challenged your friend to a sumo match wearing a pig or a cow costume on a giant grill. I also noticed some inflatable chicken legs, which I'm guessing you'd use if you were trying to go all American Gladiator on your friend instead.

We decided to save our beer tickets for after the wine tasting, so we headed into the fenced off wine tasting area next. We didn't really have any game plan other than trying to find a Spanish wine vendor. My dad had just visited the country and wanted to see what was being offered at the fest. We basically walked around and just tried things that sounded good. I mainly stuck with the white wines, occasionally throwing in a mead (mango flavored) or a hard cider (cherry flavored). One vendor I visited was from the Finger Lakes and had a brambleberry wine. To be honest, I was intrigued when he handed me a dark chocolate hershey kiss and told me to eat the kiss then drink the wine for a "delicious chocolate raspberry experience". He was right, it was delicious. We didn't even end up using all our tickets, because most vendors didn't even bother collecting them. I'm guessing they were meant to be a way to keep people from getting totally plastered.

There were a few demonstrations at the fest, including one by Barefoot winery on how to make sangria.

 By 5:30 PM it was getting overcast, wicked hot out, and super busy and we were ready to head out (the fest finished at 7:30 PM). We got in line at the Stella Artois booth to get our free glass of either Stella, Hoegaarden, Leffe beer or Stella hard cider. I got a Stella beer, dad got a Leffe and we just sat and enjoyed the evening for a while. I forgot to mention, we bought Adam a $10 designated driver ticket, which gave him 2 free non-alcoholic drinks. He's not a big drinker and this worked out well for us, we had a DD to drive us home.

On our way out, dad took a photo of Adam and I in front of Lake Erie.

We ended the evening with dinner at the B Spot and a Bruins loss (womp womp). On Sunday we visited Chagrin Falls, OH, so stay tuned for part 2!

Night at the Three Rivers Arts Fest

On Friday night, I asked Adam if we could go to the Three Rivers Arts Festival to check it out. I mainly wanted to try some of the food trucks Pittsburgh has to offer and check out the newly redone fountain at Point State Park (it's been turned off for the last 4 years to undergo renovations).

Adam and I split a grilled cheese with bacon from Oh My Grill and a Memphis style hot dog from Franktuary. We've eaten at the Franktuary restaurant before and the dogs taste the same at both places. Oh My Grill was a new truck for us and we were pleasantly surprised. The grilled cheese wasn't greasy, which was awesome, especially for having bacon in it. Afterward, we split a hostess-style cupcake from Bella Christie.

We walked across the street to the park, where there were a bunch of vendors (both food and art) and a stage set up. The band of the night was Red Baraat and they were great. There were loads of people sitting on the lawn, having a picnic dinner and listening to the band.

In the tunnel that leads to the point, there was an art installation that definitely had everyone's attention: a giant inflatable Buddha.

We walked along the river and down to the fountain. It was a beautiful out, so we were taking our time and enjoying the sunset.

I was definitely excited to see the fountain. It's beautiful - they really did a fantastic job fixing it up.

There were so many people out - it was definitely more crowded than I expected. We walked past a group that were blowing huge bubbles using homemade bubble wands.

We left pretty shortly after, it was already getting dark and we were tired after a long day. I can't wait to get back to the point again to take some more photos!

Adam's Birthday Take 2

This post has been a long time coming - I've been back in MA trying to finish up some things in lab this past month. I didn't have access to any of my photos, hence the delay in writing this post. I'm back now (for a little bit anyway), so I'm ready to start on my posting again. Get ready for some Disney and Pittsburgh scene.

Way back in April (how is it already June?), Adam's parents took a trip out to Pittsburgh to celebrate his birthday. It was the same weekend that I had to head down to DC on Sunday for the conference I went to, so we decided to celebrate on Sunday morning by heading downtown and having Brunch at Meat & Potatoes. Adam had chicken and waffles and I had the brisket flat bread. Delicious. At brunch they also have a Bloody Mary bar, where you get your choice of ingredients. It's a fun idea and Adam's family really loved it.

Backing up to before brunch though, we had a little time to spare before our reservation and Adam's dad and step-mom took a walk with us to see the Pittsburgh Pirates stadium. They'd never been to the city before, so we thought we should let them experience the yellow bridges!

We walked across the Roberto Clemente bridge (does anyone else think of Adam Sandler in Waterboy when they hear the name Roberto? no, ok, carry on) over to PNC park, which happened to be open to the public that day. We think there was a high school game happening.

We got our pictures with Roberto and walked down the side where all the restaurants would be if it were a real game happening. There's a great view of the city from there.

Fast forward to after brunch, we walked back to our cars through the Theater District, where you'll find these interesting benches. We also took them to Fraley's Robot Repair, an art installation in a shop front (which is sadly no longer).

During brunch, we were talking about what to do for a few hours before I left on my flight and I said we should check out Phipps. I figured it was something that his parents would enjoy doing and it wasn't too much time to walk through.

It was a really great time! We definitely love showing everyone around the 'Burgh and we're so excited when people come to visit us!