Day 10: Pittsburgh, part deux

All photos of Pittsburgh Day 2 available on Flickr.

Today was our first scheduled "off day" on the trip. After discovering that the Crew was playing a matinee game today, we decided to stay for the game before leaving for Rochester. We left Erik's friends Lyndsay and Tim's in suburban Pittsburgh (a special thanks to them!) fairly early to meet Mary and her parents for breakfast, as they were passing through on the way to Boston. We were told about an awesome little breakfast nook by Tim called Pamela's, and I highly recommend it for anyone visiting the Pitt. It is in the Strip District, and they serve homemade corned beef hash, chorizo, and french toast as their specialties - the hash was the best I have ever had; it sure beats the can variety. The Strip District is a former warehouse district that has been converted into a low-key shopping area with loft apartments, and a few operational warehouse facilities remain, giving the area the character of a port or pier. It was very cool and Erik and I walked around for a bit before the game, visiting the Western PA sports museum with free passes provided by Tim. Overall, Pittsburgh has personally been my favorite city thus far and I was more than impressed by it, after going in with very low expectations.

We then killed the remainder of the time at a bar across the street from PNC and talked to a few businessmen on lunchbreak and Brewer fans, while also being glued to the tube watching last year's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on ESPN. Erik and I are very intrigued to visit the IFOCE (international federation of comeptitive eating) and MLE (major league eating) websites as soon as possible...a possible 2008 national tour could be in the works.

The game was Chris Capuano's return from the DL. Him and now-reliever Yovani Gallardo did not fare well, giving up a combined 6 runs over 7. The lone Brewers highlight was a solo jack by Kevin Mench in the 4th. It was nice to just be able to relax at a game though and not have to worry about finding a place to stay or where to fundraise. It was a beautiful day for ball and we enjoyed every minute from our $9 GA bleacher seats. And by the way...the best PNC Park food is now the Primanti Sandwich Co. stand - delicious!

After the game, we made the trek to our car, which would soon become our home, as we did our first roadside sleep of the trip, somewheres between Buffalo and Rochester at an I-90 travel plaza. It would have been much more comfortable in E's truck, but Old Yeller provided a good night's sleep nonetheless. Unfortunately, my friends Josh and Christina were not in Rochester this week, so we have to suck it up and get a $29 motel for the evening of the 4th. Hopefully the weather holds up and we can watch some AAA ball and fireworks in Rochester.