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

Book Review: Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 30 by Stan Sakai

Usagi Yojimbo Volume 30: Thieves and Spies by Stan Sakai, art assistance for "The Bride" by Jennifer Kagawa

More adventures from the rabbit ronin!

The Thief and the Kunoichi--Usagi gets in a Yojimbo situation when he winds up dealing with two female friends who oppose each other. The thief Kitsune robs a merchant's home late at night. At the same time, Chizu is also stealing from the merchant. They discover each other and try to fight silently. Well, Chizu, formerly of the Neko Ninja, wants to fight. Kitsune is a con artist by trade so she dodges. They eventually rouse the merchant's guards, forcing them to flee. They run into Usagi on the street, who get embroiled in the caper. He does not want to choose sides since he suspects both of them. The story is fun, with the usual twists and action.

The One-Armed Swordsman--Usagi runs into a one-armed swordsman who is ambushed outside of town by some robbers. The swordsman tells Usagi that he lost his hand to a sadistic opponent named Te who chopped it off after defeating the swordsman. He now wanders doing odd jobs as bodyguard for shadier characters. They part ways but have a reunion six months later, when they both happen upon a crowd gambling on sword fights. The main fighter is Te, so a showdown happens. The ending of the story is so good, this is definitely a favorite Usagi story for me.

The Distant Mountain--Usagi is leaving town when a huge retinue comes through in a rush. They carry a palanquin. Since they are traveling in his direction, Usagi trails along behind. The entourage is attacked by bandits. Usagi jumps in to help, though the result is the death of everyone but Yoshi, the entourage's leader. He tells Usagi that they are taking a valuable stone to Lord Akagawa, something that cost a quarter of his fortune. Usagi does not see how the stone is so special but joins Yoshi in his task. The story has a nice twist that makes it very satisfying.

Death of a Tea Master--An Iberian nobleman (who has no nobility) wants to experience all of Japanese culture. He beats a lord's samurai and demands as his reward to see a ritual suicide. Not just any suicide, but the death of a tea master who slighted him earlier. The lord reluctantly sticks to his word, though Usagi is in the area and gets pulled into the drama. This is another well-written, exciting adventure.

The Bride--Usagi runs across the carnage of a huge retinue with dead guards and bandits all over the place. He investigates the palanquin, finding a young woman who is traveling to a nearby city to be married. She is the daughter of a soy brewer. The brewer is marrying her off to another brewery family to consolidate the business. But she is not really in love. Usagi volunteers to guide her to her destination when the husband-to-be shows up. Complications ensue. At first, I thought this was going to be a rerun of "The Distant Mountain." But the story is quite different while still having a surprising twist at the end.

This is another great collection of stories.

Highly recommended.

Movie Review: The House on Haunted Hill (1959)

The House on Haunted Hill (1959) produced and directed by William Castle

Millionaire Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) invites five guests to a haunted house that he has rented for the night. The plan was his wife's (Carol Ohmart). She's his fourth wife, the previous three dying under mysterious circumstances. She's young and pretty and wants to inherit the millions, something Frederick is very aware of though hardly frightened by. She wanted it to be just him and her but he invited people desperate for money, offering them ten thousand dollars to survive the night. One guest, Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook Jr.), is the owner. He explains all the horrible deaths that have happened in the house and all the spooks who will come after the guests. He also gets increasingly drunk as the night goes on. The rest of the guests fill out the stereotypical roster: brave-guy astronaut Lance (Richard Long), smart-guy psychiatrist Doctor David (Alan Marshall), socialite/reporter Ruth (Julie Mitchum), and screaming-pretty-young-thing Nora (Carolyn Craig). They go through a regular assortment of jump scares and creepy set pieces as the story winds its bloody way to a conclusion.

Director Castle was famous for his lower-budget but highly-theatrical fare. This movie involves a skeleton rising up out of a vat of acid in the wine cellar. Back in the original theatrical release, it was shown in "Emergo" with a plastic skeleton floating out from the curtains of the darkened theater at the appropriate moment. It's a fun house gimmick that fits the vibe of the film. While many elements are corny, the atmosphere does have some dread and the twists are satisfying. Price is great as always, with able support from Cook's slowly drunkening paranoiac and the rest of the cast, who take the show seriously enough to keep it from sinking into nothing but silliness and camp.

Recommended for a fun, spooky time that's not too heavy.

Cute Kid Pix June 2026

More photos that didn't make their own post...

My youngest had a field trip to Days End Farm Horse Rescue. It was a fun and informative visit. The school year was winding down, so the trip was not tied to any academic unit. One of the teachers volunteers there.

Brushing the horse

The other side

The first Sunday in June this year was the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, known in Latin as Corpus Christi. Our church had a procession through town (which I missed) earlier in the week but there was still some decoration outside the church.

Corpus Christi graffiti

We saw an ad for a community chess day and decided to check it out. Our youngest is a fan and has gone to several chess summer camps. He had fun playing with adults and kids, though the kids were tougher opponents. 

Getting a board ready

For Father's Day, we went to Sapwood Cellars, where I tried their speciality beer Liquid Incantation, aged in whiskey barrels with dried and whole plums. It was a bit too sour for me. I also tried Golden Door, a wheat ale, that was much more satisfactory. The brewery has a taco-themed kitchen providing appetizers and meals. Their menu includes bison, so I had to try that. It was okay, nothing special, which surprised me.

Liquid Incantation and soft pretzel

Golden Door almost closed

President Lincoln's Cottage, D.C.

When President Abraham Lincoln first took office, outgoing President Buchanan made a recommendation to him. The federal government had recently purchased a home with a lot of land about two miles north of the District of Columbia's populated area. It was a nice retreat from the growing city and the very busy life of the president. Lincoln tucked that idea away in the back of his head. 

The house was built by the Riggs family, prominent bankers in the District. So even though it is referred to as a "cottage," the house was built to the highest standards and had enough bedrooms to accommodate the nine children in the Riggs family. In the 1850s, they sold it to the Federal Government, which planned to turn it into a soldiers' home for veterans of the Mexican American War. The first soldiers to arrive lived in the house but moved into a large dormitory constructed nearby on the grounds. The house was used by Buchanan as a summer White House and a place to get away from the heat (literal and metaphorical) of the city. The house is on a hill that overlooks downtown. From the back porch, people could see the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building being finished.

Lincoln brought his family to live there after their son Willy died, to get away from the attention. Mary Todd Lincoln was especially sensitive to the loss. They lived there for three summers (1862, 1863, 1864), hauling a lot of furniture and books from the White House so Lincoln could work and live comfortably there. He still commuted to the White House, about 35 minutes on horseback. Initially, he rode back and forth on his own until one day he came back to the cottage without his hat. When people asked about it, he said it wasn't important. Some soldiers went to investigate the path he took and found the hat with a bullet hole in it. They then insisted that Lincoln have an escort, which he would often try to dodge by leaving early. That commute was his only "alone time" to think and have a break from the pressures of being a war-time president and a grieving father. 

Now known as President Lincoln's Cottage, it was opened to the public in 2008. The buildings nearby still house military veterans (so the rest of the area is not open to visitors). An extensive cemetery, similar to Arlington National Cemetery, is nearby. When we visited on Juneteenth, we were able to park outside on the street. Getting in requires government photo ID since the veterans' part is off-limits. The visitor center and the cottage are not far from the entrance.

Fancy entrance

Visitors Center

Visitors can buy tickets to tour of the cottage at the center, if they haven't bought the tickets online previously. The building also has a gift shop and some exhibits about the Lincolns' life at the cottage. A nice mural is in the foyer.

Click to enlarge the mural

Looking at a 3D view from the time

The exhibit above has a 3D viewer that my children enjoyed. The write-up describes it as a type of View-Master. We had to explain to our children what a View-Master was. 

Portrait of the family after the death of Willy

The matriarch

The boys

A Lincoln statue

Informational signs explained Lincoln's relationship to the military, some of whom were camped at the cottage, partly for Lincoln's safety, partly for the veterans. He interacted with both groups, the young soldiers and the aged veterans.

With the troops

Map skills

When our tour time came, we gathered in a side room where the guide let us know the various rules about the cottage, including two chairs we could not sit in (too fragile). The house has plenty of other benches and furniture that we used. She also said we could not take pictures inside the cottage, so that's a bummer for the blog, more so for you, dear readers.

Some Lincoln quotes prepping us for the visit

The cottage was built in the Gothic Revival Style, with plenty of room for plenty of people. At one point, Secretary of War Stanton came and stayed with his family while the Lincolns were there. The home was a good spot for meetings where fewer prying eyes and spying ears could get information to print in the papers or to sell to the Confederates. 

The tour took us to various rooms, ending in the Lincolns' bedroom. That was where Lincoln drafted the Emancipation Proclamation. The furniture from the room is still in the White House (in the Lincoln bedroom, of course) though they recreated Lincoln's desk to display in the cottage bedroom. I was sorely tempted to take a photo but did not. I have bragged that I was in the Lincoln bedroom, however.

Front of the cottage

A door on a side wing

Connecting a wing

The back of the cottage

Back around by the front

Just across from the cottage is a life-size statue of Lincoln. He stood six-foot four-inches, still the tallest president of the United States. His hat was fourteen inches, adding another foot or so to his height. No wonder he's taller than the horse!

Lincoln statue

Nearby is a gazebo that was put in later but I thought it was nice, so I took a picture.

The tour guide said they get a lot of school visits but otherwise the cottage is not as popular as downtown sights. Hopefully they get more attention in the future! It is definitely worth visiting to get a more personal understanding of the Lincolns. And you could say you were in the Lincoln bedroom too!