South Side Views of Pittsburgh

Lots of guide books recommend riding one of the incline trains on the south bank of the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh. We went to the Monongahela Incline, starting at the lower level. The train was built by German immigrants in the 1870s to make the trek up and down the hill much easier. The ascent is 635 feet, so that's a lot of stairs to climb. The incline was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and still operates today, though it is mostly a tourist attraction now.

The train on its way down

The ride is fairly smooth, going slowly for the first and last twenty feet and then reaching a speed of six miles an hour (so, not a whole lot faster). The views of downtown Pittsburgh from the top are amazing.

Monongahela and eastern Pittsburgh

Downtown

The downtown area comes to a point at the confluence of the three rivers. The Allegheny and the Monongahela unite to form the Ohio River, which winds its way off to Ohio in the west.

Bridges at the confluence

Another view of downtown

A cruise ship on the Monongahela

The many less famous bridges of Pittsburgh

While we were on the heights, we had some ice cream at a local place. I tried the cherry vanilla, which was delicious, though it was my third choice. My kids scooped the number one and number two flavors I would have chosen.

More fun than the train ride?

Cherry vanilla

Enjoying churro-flavored scoop

Banana pie fan

Back by the station, we saw some classical-looking homes next to a much more modern home. How did that happen?

Some residences that have wonderful views

At the top station, I noticed their concrete welcome mat. 

No need to replace it

Can't quite see the car coming up

The ride down was swift and did not look as perilous as the trip up. 

View from inside the top

Station Square Shopping area

The other train coming up

The funicular has two tracks, both with trains. One goes up while the other goes down. They act as counter-weights, making the system use less power to move them up and down. This was a fun attraction and a great place to visit, with plenty of amazing views (and geocaches) at the top. 

Random Bits of Easton 2026 Trip

Here's some stuff from our trip out to Easton, Maryland, that did not make its own post...

On the way out to Easton, we hit heavy traffic crossing the Bay Bridge and decided to stop for some ice cream and a bathroom break on Kent Island. We went to Sugar Doodles, which has some delightful custom flavors. I had Cow Cream, which was a delightful blend of vanilla ice cream with chocolate and peanut butter ribbons and some peanut butter cup chunks. 

Yay, ice cream!

In Easton, we went to Bonheur Ice Cream and Pie. Since we had ice cream earlier in the day, we got some slices of pie for dessert--pecan and cherry.

The slices were the same size, despite the above optical illusion

The local library was a pick-up location for a geocoin that I qualified for on the trip. The library also has a seed library, so we took some home. It also had a cool fountain.

Talbot County Library

Cool like an avacado!

The next morning I got up early to do some geocaching and got breakfast from the Bagery. The bagels were fresh and delicious and eaten before a picture could be taken!

Here's the store, at least

Part of geocaching was finding this statue of Frederick Douglass

Across from our Airbnb is Idlewild Park. It has a huge playground where our kids played for a short time. The heat was already getting to be too much at 9 on a June morning!

Playground gates

Play village?

Forts and slides

We were in town just before Flag Day and saw tons of flags up in the park.

A patriotic town

After kayaking in the morning, we got lunch back at Bonheur Ice Cream and Pie. I had the ham and potato crepe, which came with a salad. I was surprised to see the salad served on top of the crepe.

Crepe and salad

Food on the Spring 2026 NYC Trip

On the way up, we stopped for pizza in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania. We drove a little further for dessert at The Shoppes of Premise Maid. We found a geocache, had some ice cream, and bought a treat for our NYC hostess. I had their Shoo Fly Pie ice cream in a pretzel cone. My wife called it the most Pennsylvanian thing I could order.

Entrance to heaven

"Educational" part of the store--how they make stuff

Me and my ice cream

We made it to New York in time for the dinner rush. We got ramen at Ramen Ishida Chelsea, just north of where we were staying. I had a bowl of the Plant Based Shoyu, with broth, bamboo, bok choi, corn, bell pepper, bean sprouts, and other delightful bits. It was delicious.

Fancy bowl at no extra charge!

A happy client

The second day, we had breakfast and lunch at Google NYC, so no pictures there. Then we made pasta for dinner at our home away from home, which was not very photo worthy either. The next day we had bagels for breakfast from a nearby bagel place, Sofia's. They were great. I had a cinnamon raisin bagel.

Sofia's Bagels

We were in the theater district for lunch and had to rush so we had some McDonalds (no pictures of that). For dinner, we tried out a very popular hot bar at Tashkent Market (a supermarket in the Village). I got the Kutabi with Spinach, an Azerbajani flat bread stuffed with spinach and other good things.

The store spells it "kutabi"

For dessert, we went to Salt and Straw, a local ice cream shop with custom flavors (along with classic flavors). I had the Coconut Cherry Pie with Almond Crust ice cream (two desserts in one!). They were making special salted brownie waffle cones, so I couldn't resist getting that. It was amazing. If I lived here, I would go at least once a week, if not more often. Maybe I would get a job there?

Coconut Cherry Pie ice cream

The next day was our final morning in the city, so we got bagels again (had to finish the leftover cream cheese!). If the ice cream shop had been open, I would have gone there again!

Maybe they will open one in our hometown?

Extra Bits from California

Some pics that didn't make their own post from the California 2025 trip...

YouTube has offices that we visited on the day we headed south from San Francisco.

Massage chairs are the best!

Sad she had to leave

With the YouTube logo

Almost tall enough for bunny ears

Photo booth results

What a ham!

They also had a video game console that was a lot of fun. Killer Queen is a bee-themed game that allows up to ten players simultaneously!

We visited the Barney Schwartz Park in Paso Robles to have fun at a playground. They also have a large artificial lake and a couple of geocaches.

Playground #1

More of the first playground

View on the way to the second playground

Turtles in the lake

Spinner at the second playground

Blocking the slide

Tables are turned!

We had a lunch at Tin City, a collection of restaurants, wine shops, beer brewers, and other sellers, all under corrugated roofs.

Tin City Sign

We ate lunch at ETTO. I had eggplant parmesan, my go-to for Italian eating (too hard to make at home but so delightful).

Eggplant Parmesan

For dessert, we walked over to Negranti Creamery, which has ice cream. It's claim to fame is that the flavors are mostly made from sheep's milk. I had the peanut butter chip, which was nice but not great. I would try something else if I visited again.

Ice Creamery (we ate too fast to take pics)

I did some geocaching in the town of Atascadero, which has an amazing city hall.

Atascadero City Hall

We thought we would try a local wine, so we bought Paso Dragon from a local supermarket. It was ok, not my favorite. Again, I would try something else from the region before going back to this.

Hard to resist a wine with "dragon" in its name!

In San Luis Obispo, we went to a playground to use up some time before the mission opened. Our kids tried their hardest to go up a roller slide. They eventually succeeded!

Facing a challenge

We stopped for lunch in Solvang, a city in California that was settled in the 1940s by Dutch descendants. They made the town very Dutch in its architecture and food and decorations (we drove by wind mills, so I was not able to photograph them). We ate lunch at Ellen's Pancake House (I had the pineapple dutch pancake--a lot of pineapple chunks folded into a thin and delicious pancake). 

Sample of architecture

Pineapple pancake (with bacon pancake in background)

More un-Californian architecture

Of course we stopped at a bakery and got some danish to eat!

Cheese danish and cinnamon roll

Our next stop was Ventura, California, with a playground near our hotel (in addition to the Mission and, later in the day, the Reagan Presidential Library). 

Swinging too high!

Crossing a rope bridge

See-saw siblings

Beach and Pacific Ocean

Unloved playground equipment