KatelynJuly 3, 2021 – July 10, 2021
Where We Stayed: Shannon’s House & Hyatt Place Pittsburgh – North Shore
Trip Highlights:
- Relaxing Time in Philly
- Surprising Shannon with a trip to Pittsburgh
- Food tasting throughout The Strip District in Pittsburgh
Favorite Restaurants:
In early July, we spent one week relaxing and working from Shannon’s house in Philadelphia before heading north to Cape Cod. As an early Christmas gift to Shannon, I decided to surprise her with a one-night trip to Pittsburgh to embark on a food tour throughout the city. Earlier in the week we had told her to pack lightly for a one night trip somewhere, but refused to tell her where we were going. On the train into the city, we eventually told her we were traveling to the airport and then handed her a boarding pass for an afternoon flight to Pittsburgh. She was definitely surprised!
Our first stop was the Centurion Lounge at the Philadelphia airport. We all had recently gotten access to this lounge, and decided to start our food tour with free food and drinks at the airport. Their food was some of the best we’ve had at airport lounges, so we were all very excited to have that lounge available at an airport we regularly go to.
Our flight to Pittsburgh was a little rocky. There were storms over central Pennsylvania, so our flight was delayed on the runway for nearly an hour. Surprisingly, this would not be the longest runway delay we had on this very short trip, but we’ll get to that later. Unfortunately, we had the bad timing, with the remnants of a hurricane traveling through Pennsylvania on these two days, so our flights weren’t as smooth as we had hoped. However, after a little longer of travel time than we had anticipated, we arrived in Pittsburgh!
We were starving, so we headed directly to the restaurant from the airport. Our first stop on this food tour was Condado Tacos, a regional Tex Mex chain. Despite being a chain, all three of us agreed that these were the best Tex Mex tacos we had ever had. The tacos had a little something for everyone, their salsa and other dips were delicious, and the ingredients were fresh and tasty. I would highly recommend stopping by if you are in the Ohio/Indiana/Michigan/Western Pennsylvania area!
The real food tour took place the next day. We spent most of our day in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. This area had previously been home to factories and warehouses used in shipping of goods, as this neighborhood was located directly on the river. As these businesses left, small ethnic markets and other shops moved in, leaving a fun mix of international markets and restaurants to try. We tried snacks from a variety of the different markets and even grabbed some fun snacks to take home. Unfortunately with the hurricane coming through it rained all day, but we still made the most of it!
Once we were properly full, we wandered across one of Pittsburgh’s many bridges and past the old Heinz ketchup factory (that were now apartment buildings). Despite getting a little wet, it was cool to see the skyline over the water and explore a little more of Pittsburgh. Though this was a quick trip this time, I’m excited to go back and see more on a hopefully sunnier day.
We eventually made our way back to the Pittsburgh airport. We had arrived slightly early for our flight, though it turned out to be very early as our flight was delayed several times. After we boarded, we again were delayed on the runway, this time for nearly two hours. Though some passengers did not seem to happy to be sitting on the plane for this time, we luckily had some leftover snacks from our food tour, so we munched away on popcorn and killed time until the storm cleared.
It turned out we were lucky to get home. After landing in Philadelphia, we learned that most of the rest of the flights for the night had been grounded and that some people were now stranded in Philadelphia for almost 48 hours, as most of the flights the next day had been cancelled as well. Thankfully we made it home just fine, although tired, and were able to relax for one more day in Philly before trekking up to Cape Cod.
