Pittsburgh Day of Fun redux

Amanda was visiting from Houston last week and she wanted to have a Day of Fun in Pittsburgh after she saw how much fun I had the last time. Looking through my photos, it becomes painfully obvious that we ate our way through the city.

We started the day with lunch at Molly Branigan's, a charming Irish pub. We thought it would be fun to plan our Ireland trip while eating Irish food, including Shepherd's Pie, Irish Stew, and an awesome fondue platter:

We meant to take a photo of it when the waitress brought it, but it looked so good we dove right in.

After lunch we found our way to Amanda's old (sorta ghetto) neighborhood and stopped by our favorite bakery.

Those cupcakes with the almond slivers are fabulous.

In between the bakery and the next stop, we went for massages, lest you think the entire day was just one big pig-fest. However, the next stop was, ahem, this:


In order to share one of these:

While we shared our steak and cheese, two things happened. First, I accidentally chomped down on my Advil liquigel instead of swallowing it like a sane person. While I've always secretly wondered what it would be like to do this, I admit it was a mistake. The liquid center tastes wretched, and it makes your tongue numb. Good thing I had some Primanti's goodness to wash that away.

Second, we realized that the Strip District Primanti's doesn't take credit cards and we had to scrounge to pay our $8.00 check. We gave the guy six ones and two bucks in change. It was like being back in high school.

Then it was off to Ikea! It was sunny and beautiful when went in, but when we came out, laden with Swedish crap, we were greeted with this weather.


Also, we stopped in the Ikea cafe and shared a princess cake. Green and delicious.

Other food stops included here:

To share some of these:


While we ate our wings, I declared that I’m dying for football season to start up again and Amanda confessed that she thinks Tony Romo looks handsome, but only when he’s suited up. I told her that I didn’t think a Dallas Cowboys uniform could improve the looks of any person, and she had to concede the point.

Did I mention that Amanda is my perfect wing buddy? She likes the little drumsticks and I like the two-bone ones.

We also did other stuff that day, like visit a cool hobby shop:


...and an "imagination superstore":

We had some fun with the wigs and masks:
Amanda as scary gorilla!
Me as angry duck!


At the end, we ended up here, the prettiest view ever.


And, of course, the New Alex Sheetz for drinks on the way home.

Jeff Reed was not there tearing up the men's room.

Sadly.