Pittsburgh trip | Imamother

amother

↑ OP

Wed, Aug 28 2024, 11:11 pm

I had such a great trip, I'm writing our itinerary and comments here for future trips anyone may take.
My goal was to do one outdoor and one indoor thing every day. We also went on a very hot week, so we wanted to be indoors by 11 am

Day 1 - trip in
We stopped at Sideling Hill on the way. Beautiful views, a great bathroom break, a pump to wash at and picnic tables. There are steps up the side of a mountain and it's absolutely breathtaking
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideling_Hill

Stop 2, Ohiopyle State Park
So much to do here. Some highlights were
1. Baughman Rock Overlook, which looks into the deepest gorge in PA.
2. Natural Waterslides (bring bathing suits and water shoes) great for kids
3. White water rafting - 3 levels, from easy (for 4+), to really intense. We enjoyed just watching the rafting. Other boating and biking activities available
4. Welcome center.
There are also trails, etc

Day 2
Duquesne Incline
Cable cars take you up a steep Incline. At the top is a small museum and view room of the actual functioning engine and parts. Super cool. Amazing view from top. Not much else to do at top besides restaurants and bars.
$8 parking at bottom
$5/ adult, $2.50/kid. Need to bring exact change
Pittsburgh Children's Museum. AMAZING we spent 5+ hours there, only left when it closed. My 14 yr old was a little bored, everyone else was happy. Pro tip - bring bathing suit for water room for your Littles. Teen BUILDING open on weekends and summer weekdays until school opens.

Day 3
Point State Park
Aka "the golden triangle", 3 rivers join here. There is a beautiful park and gorgeous huge fountain. We relaxed, took in the views, put our feet in the fountain. Fort Pitt Museum is also there (we skipped - good for history people Smile

) can rent bikes here too and ride trails along the rivers
Carnegie Science Center. AMAZING we also spent 5+ hours here, could easily spend more. Really great. Includes a submarine tour. The Science demonstrations (we saw 4) were all really entertaining. Sports Center is a adjacent building and really fun, don't miss it

Day 4
We did The Water Steps. Again, bring bathing suits. Fun for all, wade on steps facing the river. Parking was a problem because it was a "PNC event day"
National Aviary - good, a little small, we did spend 3 hours there

Things I wanted to do but didn't get to
1. Bicycle Heaven
2. Randyland
3. Blue Slides Park
4. Heinz Museum
5. Clipper boat ride
6. Steelers stadium tour
7. Moonshot Museum

Food
We went to Milky way - really good pizza store!
And Tahini (shwarma/falafel) on Carnegie Mellon Campus
But there is also
Eighteen (meat)
And some other "the edge catering" branches of smaller food businesses on CMU campus if you are ok eating in university lunch rooms
Also kosher grocery store and bakery, look at Vaad website

Everything was a short drive from each other. If someone is planning based on this, the order of what I did back to back could have been better (ex children museum is very walkable to aviary and not far from water steps. Science Museum also walkable to water steps.
Can also walk over nice bridge from Point State Park to Water Steps or to Science Center.
Incline across Ohio River, doesn't seem walkable but short drive.

Enjoy!