Ruly Holiday Road Trip: Day One Pittsburgh and Cleveland
Ever since we relocated to the east coast, we have never been home for Thanksgiving. Sometimes we had to save our plane fare for Christmas or we didn’t have enough vacation days. Since it takes almost a full day to fly that far, the travel time just didn’t work in our favor for a 4-day weekend.
There is a first time for everything, however, and this year we decided to make one of our epic road trips to Utah for Thanksgiving.
Our prior road trips in 2012 and 2010 were both in the summer. Traveling in early winter was something new to us and something that caused our families a bit of worry about weather conditions. Having grown up in a snowy state, however, we weren’t afraid of a little snow and forged ahead with our plans.
We try to vary our route a bit each time to see new things. This time, we decided to swing north on the outbound trip and swing south for the return.
Packing for the trip posed a few more challenges than the previous trips. You need a lot more clothing, shoes, boots and coats for winter travel. As part of my emergency planning, I made sure every person had their ski clothing (bib pants, coats, boots, gloves and a hat) just in case we found ourselves stranded and had to hike to safety.
After late night of packing, we bundled into the car early in the morning and made our way toward Pennsylvania. I thought we might be disappointed traveling in winter by the bleakness of the landscape but I was pleasantly surprised. The colors were muted but there were still rich yellows and greens and so much beauty to appreciate.
Throughout our journey, we learned to appreciate that every state has a distinctive style for its farmland. In Pennsylvania, you will see more red farmhouses.
We went through the Allegheny Mountain tunnel and my 5-year old was delighted. She told us that there were “disco lights” inside.
After a while, rain began falling and the grey landscape became even more foggy.
Just before arriving in Pittsburgh, we realized we forgot to pack the camera battery charger. As a compulsive picture-taker, this was a crisis! We called around to several stores en route. encountering some very friendly customer service reps, until we found a possible solution at Batteries Plus. They sell a universal camera battery charger that has configurations for just about every type of camera battery you can imagine. It also comes with an adapter you can plug into your car’s cigarette lighter. It was a perfect solution. We stopped off to pick it up and were back on our way.
Soon, the Pittsburgh skyline came into view.
We drove to our lunch stop for the day, a well-reviewed restaurant called Pamela’s Diner. We arrived a half hour before closing but the staff were still friendly and offered to seat us.
The decor inside is retro inspired with a modern twist. There are great vintage photographs on the walls. It felt like these photos came from the local community. What a wonderful way to make people feel at home in your restaurant! The groovy music of the Jackson Five and other classics added to the ambience.
We placed our order and were surprised when the chef came to our table personally to inquire whether my daughter wanted her grilled cheese on thick Texas-style toast like the restaurant usually uses or regular Wonder bread. Naturally, my daughter opted for the Wonder. “Just thought I’d check,” he said. I have never experienced such personalized service in a restaurant!
When the food came out, it was amazing! I had the croissant French toast that came with caramel sauce. We all agreed that every piece of food we were served at Pamela’s Diner was perfectly made. Even the fries were perfectly crisp.
The chef’s attitude was so inspiring to me. You can’t train people to put that much love and care into their jobs. It was clear that when he asked before about my daughter’s bread preference it was because it was important to him that we loved the food. He saw his role not just as a chef who wanted to be appreciated for his own culinary creations but as a person who made other people happy through food.
We had to eat quickly because the restaurant was closing but we enjoyed every bite.
We drove across town to our next stop, the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. From the description online, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It sounded like a grand University building . . . and it was!
This is not just a tourist attraction. It is a functioning University building. As you enter, it literally looks like the inside of a Cathedral, with stone walls and large wooden doors. Students study beneath beautiful arched stone ceilings. It looks like what I imagine Cambridge or Oxford might look like.
Within the Cathedral of Learning are numerous internationally themed rooms. Each is decorated in the traditional style of a particular country. Renowned architects and designers create each room and they are all exquisitely made. For those countries that celebrate Christmas, Christmas decorations are added during the holidays. These rooms are used as classrooms. It seems so inspiring to study and learn in such an environment!
My 5-year old was very inspired by the Cathedral of Knowledge! She saw that someone had written on the blackboard “Keep Calm and Chive On.” So, as I was taking photographs she kept leaving some of her own messages on the blackboards too.
My daughter wandered into a large auditorium classroom where two people were working problems on the board. I hushed my daughter and told her to come out because they were busy studying in there.
She seemed upset at this. One of the students noticed my daughter and wrote her a special message on the board.
She was thrilled! And what an impression to make on the children to see all these students hard at work, enjoying their studies.
When the children tired of looking at these amazing rooms (I could have seen every last one of them!), we thought we would see if we could get an aerial view of the city. So, into the elevator we went!
We got off at the 36th floor and were not disappointed.
Back down the elevator we went and bade farewell to the Cathedral of Knowledge. The sun was starting to set as we made our way across town to our final destination.
Our last Pittsburgh stop was at the Duqesne Incline, a cable car system from the 1890’s designed to carry people and goods up to their mountaintop homes. Today it functions as a tourist attraction.
After buying our tickets, we had a personal ride to the top. The kids loved it!
The view of the city at night with lights is incredible!
At the top of the cable car ride, we learned some interesting information about Pittsburgh. One of the curiosities about Pittsburgh is its spelling controversy! In 1891, the federal government through the U.S. Bureau of Geographic Names, removed the “h” from the end of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh residents apparently regretted the intervention and in 1911 the “h” was returned.
We rode back down the cable car, got back into our car and headed out of Pittsburgh toward our dinner destination, Cleveland, Ohio.
Our restaurant in Cleveland was Sokolowski’s University Inn, “Cleveland’s Oldest Family Owned Restautant.” They are only open for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights. When we arrived, we found a charming building that was hugely popular.
Inside, there was a good crowd around the bar and more in the surrounding tables. We had to ask how the dinner process worked and we were directed to a cafeteria-style line where you could choose from numerous delicious entrees. There was no kids menu so my husband and I chose sides for our entrees that we thought the children would like. I had their famous cabbage roll with a side of potatoes and macaroni and cheese.
The children dug into the mac and cheese and ate every last bite!
The Sokolowski family is a friendly bunch. They literally make you feel like family. We sat in the religious corner of the restaurant surrounded by pictures of the Pope. The children sat on a repurposed pew bench. We told them about our road trip and the family inquired how the children could be out of school so long. We explained we were homeschooling them and brought the books with us to do in the car along the way. They were curious to hear this explanation.
They told us that their big excitement of the day was that Jimmy Fallon stopped by unexpectedly that afternoon for some carry-out! They said he was very nice and posed for pictures with all the staff.
When we were finished eating the main course, the girls indicated that there was a delicious chocolate pie in the display case that they wanted to eat. So, we shared a slice and, yes, it was very delicious!
Outside the restaurant is a fantastic view of downtown Cleveland.
While it had been a full day, there was one more quick site to see en route to our hotel. Cleveland is famous in part for being the site of the filming of the classic movie, “A Christmas Story.” The movie is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. We drove past the house, which is now a museum, and saw the leg lamp in the window.
Overall, it was a wonderful start to our trip! We enjoyed Pittsburgh and Cleveland very much. It was interesting how much the people we encountered were what made the biggest difference. People in Pittsburgh and Cleveland were curious about strangers but not wary of them. They were so friendly and welcoming. It was a great lesson in hospitality.
*I am not affiliated with any product or service mentioned in this post.