Tourist in my own town

Originally published April 1, 2025

I recently had the joy and privilege of having a new friend (hi Chris!) come to town, and I got to act as tour guide. Even though I’ve only been in Pittsburgh for a little over a year, it’s easy to get settled into a routine and forget to look up/around at ones’ surroundings. I try really hard to keep my eyes open and “see” more than just what I need to—the blooming trees, the progress on the new house up the block, a new window display—but being a tourist in my own town takes it to a new level.

Our adventures included taking both the Mon & Duquesne inclines, which I actually hadn’t done yet! We lucked out that the weather was beautiful for a very long walk around town, including over the Fort Pitt and Smithfield bridges. We were able to get some great photos of downtown from Mt. Washington.

Because Chris was attending a conference at Pitt over the weekend, we explored the Cathedral of Learning, which I hadn’t been in yet. Before that, I took in the Heinz Chapel, which was gorgeous--the photos I took really don't do it justice, but I'll share a couple here anyway.

One of the coolest things about the stained glass in the Heinz Chapel is that the people are not just religious-There are a lot of academics, musicians, philosophers, etc, including women! 

Though not the same weekend, but in the same vein, a few days later during choir rehearsal, I got to experience the bowling alley in the East Liberty Presbyterian church — a gorgeous building in and of itself (I remember taking photos of it when I first saw it). We weren’t sure if bowling or resetting the pins was more fun!

I’ll end with a suggestion to keep your eyes open, and, as this fine public art (taken on a recent walk) reminds us, keep your head up—you never know what treasures you’ll spy around you that you may have missed, forgotten about, or not known about in your familiar surroundings!