Pittsburgh Playdate

Destination: The Gottschalk’s (Pittsburgh, PA)

Dates: Feb 15-17, 2020

Reason: Baby playdate

Day 1 February 15th, 2020

A new traveler joined the party!  Our son, Thorfinn (Finn) was born August 28, 2019.  This was his first big road trip.

We decided it was time for Finn to meet Julia’s friend Renee and her son, Levi, in person.  So we packed up and left early for Pittsburgh.  Being nearly 6 months old, Finn did really well in the car.  A little east of Zanesville he woke up and cried for about an hour.  To soothe him we made a quick stop at a grocery store and changed his diaper.

Back on the road, we made our way to Pittsburgh with no trouble at all.  Finn made his first visit to West Virginia and Pennsylvania.  We made sure to hit a rest stop in WV to grab some pictures.

We got to the Gottschalk’s in the mid-afternoon.  Renee’s parents were visiting from Erie, so the welcome was very warm.  Finn met Levi and they laid on the floor together.  Renee’s parents left and she made a nice meal of pork chops.  We played Mario Party until it was time to go to bed.  Finn was having none of the travel bassinet and ended up in bed with us.

Day 2 February 16th, 2020

Renee made a breakfast of sausage and eggs.  We hung around the house in the morning, then went to a Frisch’s-like restaurant called Eat-n-Park for lunch on the way to the Carnegie Museum.  I had been there before, by myself, but it was a first for Julia and Finn.  She and I took turns wearing him on our chests.

The museum was fascinating.  We wandered past dinosaurs and modern animals, through the history of humans, and into the gem gallery.  They had a special exhibit of National Geographic photography; very impressive.

For dinner we ordered Thai food and ate at Renee’s.  Afterwards we watched tv and went to bed.

Day 3 February 17th, 2020

We had leftovers for breakfast and then spent the morning doing a photoshoot of the boys.  After our goodbyes, we hit the road around noon.  On the way back we made a stop at Julia’s sister’s (Diana) house in Columbus, had dinner with her, and made it home around 9:00pm.  Finn cried A LOT on the way back.  He was very sad from Columbus until we finally pulled into our driveway.