5 June 2016 - A Visit back to PA

When we left PA three years ago, we promised we could go back to visit some time. This week we made good on that promise. We attended Washington Ward on Sunday, and visited W&J campus, including North Ave.

We went back to Mingo Creek park, where the kids used to love cooling off on hot and muggy summer days.

Visiting the old pre-school that Emily and Madeline attended.

Jessica at her preschool.

All three girls attended Trinity East. For one school year they all attended together when Madeline was in kindergarten, Emily was in second grade and Jessica was in fifth grade.

We timed the visit (not intentionally) to coincide with the once-in-17-years emergence of the Cicada bugs.

We stopped at the catholic cemetery to pay respects to old friends Bob and Dee.

Jessica had an epic pool party with old middle school friends. Lots of love to go around.

Back in the City of Bridges. (With our Idaho shirts on -- it was cold).

It wouldn't be a visit back without a trip to PNC Park for a Pirates game. We got rained out on Monday, but made it to Tuesday night's game.

There are few parks more idyllic than PNC. I've been to 20 parks in the majors, and PNC stands up against them all.

A view of the city skyline from the grandstand. 

The girls with friend Leah at the ballpark.

We had dinner at Manny's inside the park. Excellent overpriced BBQ, and Manny actually sits out and greets his guests. Manny Sanguillen was the catcher on the Pirates last World Series winning team in 1979. He was also teammates for one season with my favorite Pirate of all time, Vern Law.

Manny autographed Joanne's Pirates visor. Alas, the visor went missing a couple of days later.

This photo was taken in 2008 when Jenni and Ed came to visit for a Pirates game. Madeline wanted to compare her hand to the statue of Roberto Clemente.

Still not quite as big!

A view of the city at night after the ballgame from Mt. Washington.

On Wednesday we went to Ohiopyle State Park. We were going to do a pedal paddle on the Youghigheny River, but it was windy and too cold. So we did the peddle part -- 20 miles of it.

The girls in from of Ohiopyle Falls.

That evening we stayed in Grantsville, PA. I didn't know it, but the town had a very cool pioneer village that we enjoyed touring.

We didn't take any photos, but we took a couple of days to visit Joanne's cousin Jeremy in Washington D.C., and took the girls to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was a good, if somewhat somber, experience for all of us.