Friday in Pittsburgh

The next day on our Pittsburgh trip was Friday. We started the afternoon with a boat cruise down the river to see the city. It was HOT! We were hoping to get a relief from the heat by traveling north, but we seemed to have brought it with us!

I thought the boat on the back of Brody's outfit fit the situation perfectly! :) He seemed to enjoy the boat ride!

Kyle had only been to Pittsburgh once before, and that was in January of 2006 (I think) when it was freezing cold. It was so cold we didn't get out much to see the city. Kyle was very excited to see Heinz field where the Steelers play. I'm sure he would have been more excited if he were seeing it from the inside!! He also got to see PNC Park where the Pirates play.

Even though it was super hot, we enjoyed our boat cruise of the city.

Kyle made a list of the things he wanted to do while he was in Pittsburgh. On his list was to eat at Primanti Brothers, and Quaker Steak & Lube, and to buy souvenirs. Later on Friday night we fulfilled one of those by eating at Quaker Steak & Lube. Kyle had seen an episode of Man vs Food where Adam Richman completed a hot wing challenge by eating the atomic wings at Quaker Steak & Lube. Kyle was determined to do it! BUT, this time instead of 5 wings it was 6 AND instead of atomic they were TRIPLE atomic! He had to sign a release form! They ranked 500,000 SHU on their heat scale. The only thing hotter would be weapons grade pepper spray and pure capsacian. He had an audience even before he started the challenge. He decided he was going to enjoy his dinner first because he knew he wouldn't want to eat anything after those hot wings. He asked if they would bring him some gloves to wear so he would still be able to touch Brody when he was done. He finished his meal and was ready to start the challenge! He was about to bite into the first wing but, for some reason, tore it apart a little first. I suggested he do that to all the wings even before he started to eat them. This took a little time to prepare (there was not a time limit to the challenge), but I think it turned out much better because his face didn't come into contact with the sauce.

Finally he was ready to eat the wings! We videoed the whole thing, but I didn't take any pictures of the actual challenge. During the challenge, Kyle's legs were shaking like crazy! He was allowed to drink whatever he wanted, but he didn't want to which helped because he was able to just eat them as quickly as he could. He was very smart and asked for them to bring him out a vanilla milkshake to drink afterwards, which he chugged down when he was finished! I had my doubts about him trying this challenge, but he did a great job and finished all of the wings. A lot of the people in the restaurant cheered for him when he was finished. The waitress came over and said he was the highlight of the night as far as entertainment for the other people eating in the restaurant at the time. He got a free t-shirt, but the only size they currently had was an XL so the manager said he would mail one as soon as they got a new order. My mom didn't want him to leave empty handed so she bought him a different t-shirt. She's so sweet!

After we left the restaurant, we ran by my Aunt's house before heading back to my Grandmother's. My poor mother ordered a fish sandwich at a wing restaurant and got food poisoning from bad tartar sauce! My cousin Christopher said, "That's why you don't order fish from a wing place!" She was already so sick by the time we got to my Aunt's house that she didn't know if she would be able to make it to my Grandmother's house. She did make it, but she was stuck in bed the rest of Friday night and all day Saturday. I felt so bad for her that she had to miss out on so much during her vacation. But she soon recovered and was able to enjoy the last few days of her vacation.

Road Trip!

As most people know, most of my family lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I lived there for the first thirteen years of my life. Before Kyle and I were married, Kyle came up for a visit with me. It was in January and it was very cold, so we didn't get to sight see and show Kyle around. We've been married for five years and we've only now been able to return to Pittsburgh together for a short trip. We were even more excited to go this time to show off Brody! My mother decided she wanted to come up with us and my brother and sister-in-law allowed us to bring Haley, too. :)

I was pretty nervous about a nine hour car ride with Brody. My poor mother had to first drive 3 1/2 hours with Haley to our house and then the additional 9 to Pittsburgh. Our friends who have two small children lent us their DVD player that attaches to the head rests. We were able to put one on Brody's seat with him turned backwards and one on the driver's seat so Haley could see it sitting forward. That worked out GREAT! It was a life saver! Haley controlled the DVDs and had the remote so she was a happy girl. :)

We left on Thursday, July 21 and came home Tuesday, July 26th. I decided to drive, Kyle sat up front next to me, Haley and Brody had the middle seats and my mom had one of the back seats. Not far into the drive she started getting sick (but didn't tell anybody!) We left at 8:30am from our home and had our first stop at around 11:30am which I thought was pretty good. Haley wanted a Chik-fil-a but there was never one around when we were hungry! We decided to make a quick stop at Krystals.

Kyle told my mom that he would sit in the very back and let her sit up front with me. She thought about it but decided to stay in the back. (We still didn't know she wasn't feeling well!) We went about another 3 hours and stopped again for some gas. My mom was feeling pretty bad at this point and finally decided to let us know she was getting car sick! We bought her some Ginger Ale and were on our way again - this time with her sitting in the front!!

She sipped her Ginger Ale and started to feel better, but Brody started to break down. I think it's because he could see Kyle and wanted out of the car seat. We decided to make a stop at a Burger King parking lot to let Brody out of the car seat for a minute. My mom and I let him play in the front seat for a couple of minutes and then put him back in his carseat. He made it the rest of the way sleeping on and off and whining some.

We finally made it to my Grandmother's house a little before 6:30pm. The trip was supposed to take 9 hours 21 minutes. I think we made pretty good time! We survived the first long car ride - only one more to go!