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Pittsburgh, PA & Monongahela Forest, WV
May, 2026
We had a very rainy but satisfying and beautiful trip through Appalachia! Every single person we met was kind and friendly and most of them had damn charming southern accents. I’m blown away by how unspoiled the part where we were in West Virginia was. Miles and miles of gorgeous, lush hills of green. And Pittsburgh was fantastic… I credit Aaron for that - he planned it down to the last detail, and it was so much fun! I really feel like we got a great overview of the “real” parts of the city.
Pittsburgh
May 15-17
View from the back of our hotel, which is on a 33-mile long riverwalk path called “Three Rivers Heritage Trail”. We stayed in a neighborhood called South Side Flats - a cute little neck of the woods with lots of young people and families.
Our hotel was right next to a VERY German restaurant called Hofbräuhaus, and of course we had to have dinner there. They had a stage and a guy playing traditional German songs with an accordion. HOWEVER, anyone who looked could tell he wasn’t actually playing, his hands were barely moving and he was just pretending to play along with a pre-recorded song haha.
We had an INCREDIBLE first day! Aaron planned a super cool and interesting walk up Elenor street (which, in huge sections, are stairs instead of streets) up to Arlington Avenue. A long walk up a steep mountain. I had no idea Pittsburg is built on HUGE hills! It’s downright San Francisco-like.
WTF is this I have so many questions…
And then we took the ol’ double decker tour bus. SO worth it the you want to see the whole city. It was raining, but super fun and interesting.
The Cathedral of Learning:
I absolutely love the look of Pittsburgh. All kinds of different eras of architecture and history living side by side. There was no boring view - so much to see, so much history! Definitely eye candy. This was the view from Primanti’s, a classic Pittsburgh joint where they serve sandwiches with french fries between the bread slices. This is delicious, and I wish I could get something like that here.
We had an extraordinary day on Sunday… Aaron had planned for us to go up a mountain in The Duquesne Incline (built in 1877) walk around, and then go down the mountain in a different one. I was nervous about riding an Incline, but willing to give it a try. Here’s a pic I found online to give you an idea of what it looks like.
The ceiling of the old car I was going to ride up the mountain in:
And here are the OLD ASS TRACKS. I shit you not it was held together by rusty nails.
By the time we were a quarter of the way up, I had a panic attack. I HATED THIS. I was TERRIFIED. The tracks looked SO OLD. It only took about a minute and a half, but I couldn’t get out fast enough. We were going to figure out another way down. So we walked around up there and mapped out another route. I took this pic from a safe distance haha.
He found a way to go down through a nature trail! It was AMAZING! We were the only ones there, and you could see the skyline poking through the forest.
Through forest…
…with expressways…
…and art.
Under a bridge…
…across the roadway…
… through a parking lot…
… into an industrial landscape.
And that is where we found the Three Rivers Heritage trail, and walked all the way back to the hotel. It was FASCINATING! And also SUPER hot and humid. By the end we were dying of thirst. This section is called “The Color Park”
The trail has all kinds of different landscapes…
We left fabulous Pittsburgh and headed to West Virginia… We disperse camped on the Williams River in the Cranberry Wilderness and we were not disappointed! It was a long but fascinating trip through tiny Appalachian towns. Everyone we encountered on this trip was incredibly warm and welcoming. AND THOSE ACCENTS OMG.