Pittsburgh Trip 2026

On our way out to visit colleges in Pittsburgh, we stopped off to find a geocache on the Old Bank Road in Hancock, Maryland. The road was originally a toll road and this house is one of the original buildings along the road. The toll collector lived there. The building has a list of the tolls that were in effect back in 1863.

Toll House

Apparently monster trucks got the best deal

Over in Pennsylvania, we stopped at Moo Echo Dairy, a creamery and bakery that provided some dessert for our trip. The sign below brags about their "A2 A2" milk, which made us a little nervous. Turns out, it is just a genetic situation where the cows only produce A2 beta-casein protein in their milk, which people find more digestible than milk with A1 protein. Most milks have both A1 and A2. It's not a solution for lactose intolerance but it more closely matches human breast milk and thus is thought to be more easily processed by the human digestive tract.

Moo Echo Dairy

We didn't ask about genetic markers for strawberry milk! The ice cream was yummy. I got a maple walnut shake that was very delicious. We also bought cinnamon rolls for the next morning's breakfast.

Taste the calories!

Fun bench outside the store

While in Pittsburgh, my daughter visited some colleges to see if she wanted to go. We parked under the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum which is in the heart of the university district.

Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum

My wife took my daughter on the tour of the University of Pittsburgh. I took my son around to see sights and find geocaches. Pitt's mascot is a panther. It has a statue on campus. If you rub the panther's nose, you are supposed to get good luck. My son picked the panther's nose, not sure what that brings.

Pitt Panther

Side view

We saw a wavy building that's part of the university's medical facilities. Just looking at it made me sea sick. Maybe they were trying to get more business?

Kamin Tower

A park bench has a statue of Doctor Thomas Starzl, the father of organ transplants. I sat with him for a fun photo.

Dr. Starzl statue

The city of Pittsburgh has a lot of dinosaur statues around. We spotted this one with letters all over it.

Spellasaurus?

Across the street from the dino is a complex with several museums donated by Andrew Carnegie, the famous millionaire steel baron who donated money to public institutions like the art museum and the natural history museum. 

Art museum

Natural History

Bach statue

Shakespeare statue

With the proximity of the natural history museum, there's another dinosaur on display outside.

Too big for the museum?

We also visited the Carnegie Free Library since a geocache was hidden inside.

The library

A park across the street has a carousel and a restaurant where we rejoined Mom and my daughter for lunch. 

Carousel

For lunch, I had a Penn Brewery Pilsner and a wagyu beef burger with potatoes. When the meal came, we thought the potatoes might be meatballs, they were so brown and glistening! I appreciated the lettuce and tomato being left on the side since I usually don't like those on a burger.

A local brew

Wagyu burger

We wandered over to Carnegie Mellon University where my daughter had a tour.

What the modern art?

My son and I found a weird math sculpture behind the university library. We only went there because of a geocache, of course. 

There was no interpretive sign

Across the road from the university is Schenley Park which has a memorial to George Westinghouse, another local industrialist celebrity. He invented, among other things, the air break for locomotives, revolutionizing the train industry in the mid-1800s. 

Main panel of the Westinghouse memorial

More accomplishments

Yet more accomplishments

A perpetual admirer

The memorial was funded by 50,000 Westinghouse employees who were grateful for his contributions, not only for their employment. 

Walking back toward campuses, we saw the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden.

A different kind of plant

The Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain features statues of the god Pan and the nymph Sweet Melody.

Schenley Fountain

Fountain with the Cathedral of Learning in the background

Back at Carnegie Mellon, we saw a statue of people walking up to the sky. Walking to the Sky is a sculpture that was first displayed in New York City in 2004, then moved to Dallas. This is a copy. Not all the figures at the base are part of the statue--some are curious onlookers!

Walking to the Sky