Contentment and Anxiety

I feel lately as if I'm bouncing back and forth between the two words the title...but all is well, and nothing is awful. I think it's a mix of all the busy things going on in our lives as well as my crazy even-more-so-than-normal-out-of-whack-hormones. Ah, pregnancy.

So yesterday was a great day. Originally my husband and I had intended to run up to Pittsburgh to go check out the museums of Art and Natural History...but we diverted and decided to check out the Strip District instead. First though, my husband went to St. Paul's Cathedral, whilst I hung around the Cathedral of Learning to take some photographs.

Ah, this in of itself was a story. Trying to get to the aforementioned tunnel was impossible yesterday. We were stuck in some pretty miserable traffic...and thanks to our TomTom, we were able to see that at one point it took us 15 minutes to move 0.2 miles...I played this on my BlackBerry to lighten the mood.

Anyway, probably a half an hour BEFORE we were stuck in the traffic jam from Hell, I suddenly had to go to the bathroom (oh yes, pregnancy, how your little quirks amuse me!)...so, as you can guess, I was pretty miserable when we finally DID get into Pittsburgh and got parked. The parking garage we're fond of is almost right next to the Cathedral of Learning, so I made a b-line there, and hung out while the husband trekked to St. Paul's Cathedral and back. I got to take some pretty amazing pictures while waiting on him!

The Cathedral of Learning has rooms on its lower floors that are themed by Nationality. They're pretty breathtaking!

The Cathedral of Learning

The Cathedral of Learning (with real lens flare)

Inside (taken from the third floor)

The Austrian Room

When we did meet up again, we decided to grab some lunch. We tried Joe Mama's, since it was close and he hadn't eaten any breakfast. The food was good...nothing to particularly write home about, but nothing stomach churning either. However, next time, we'll be sure to eat at the Strip.

Mmmm....

It's a pretty neat looking building!

Pittsburgh's Strip District is why I want to live in a real city. It's hustle and bustle, always fresh, larger varieties of food, super cheap (compared to supermarkets), and just has a lot more character in general. There are street venders peddling everything from Penguins Jersey's to Fresh Lamb Kebobs, resturaunts specializing in Polish to Korean food, not to mention the wide variety of speciality stores. We ended up just buying food at Wholey's. We managed to snag a boneless lamb roast, a fresh fillet of Grouper, and some fresh peppered bacon for a fraction of the cost at a conventional grocery. It's not just the price that's appealing however. It's hard to find fish that hasn't been previously frozen at some point in time, and meats such as rabbit, lamb, and duck you just stumble upon in super markets - they're never there constantly. Let's not even get into the realm of ethnic food and how living in a small city is limiting in that regard...

The outside of Wholey's. Notice how many languages are on the signs!


Standing in line, waiting for my number to be called.


I got some fresh (never frozen) Grouper! :D


If only I liked the taste of rabbit! (My husband does...I find it too gamey.)

I think next time we are in Pittsburgh, we're going to explore the Downtown...that's really the only part I haven't gotten to really experience yet. It won't be until next month however, as my next three weekends are already scheduled...with baby showers!!

I won't lie...I'm pretty excited.