SNAPSHOTS: The Cincinnati Zoo

After our first visit in July, the Cincinnati Zoo fast became my favorite. It's wonderfully laid out, the exhibits are huge and they do a great deal of work behind the scenes at helping reintroducing species back into the wild - to the point it's often considered the sexist zoo for all the breeding programs that help repopulate wild populations. So when we had a long weekend just after my birthday, I couldn't really turn down a road trip back there. 

It's always great returning to the zoo after a couple of months (one of the reasons why I love my Detroit Zoo membership) those lion clubs were getting so much larger and daddy Lion was back in the exhibit, Tofu the baby Red Panda was out and about, those baby Flamingo's were just as big as their parents. Plus we managed to catch a glimpse of those animals we missed the first time around - like the crazy cute Sloth to those calling the Gibbon island home. Plus the zoo is home to my favorite penguins - those baby blue ones and with the cooler weather overhead they were being adorably active - splashing, swimming around in their pool. 

LIFE: Allegheny Autumnal Backroads

Sweeping along the many back roads of Allegheny County (Pennsylvania) walls of orange and yellowing leaves were broken up with a quick glimpse of the Monongahela River, railroad tracks or rocky hills. Winding roads and hills seem another world away from the flat corner of SE Michigan, roads that often take me back to my English roots and old family holidays in the Lakes or Scotland. For this reason along, Allegheny always has a special place in my heart for drawing up those old memories of the homeland. I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised at the autumnal colours that this corner of West PA had to offer.   

LIFE: Small Things

Life has been a little up in the air shall we say in the last couple of weeks, which unfortunately led to a quick dash back to Pittsburgh for a family funeral. Hence the delay in getting out last weeks small things posts, but with a death, it makes you appreciate those small things even more. And while I could go on about the differences in how a funeral plays out in the US in comparison, lets just talk about happy things, like;

• Fall the fall colours - I can never tire of seeing all those oranges, reds and yellows
• Signing up for Marvel Unlimited and getting to read loads and loads of Marvel comics - old and new
• Managing to get a 3 foot tall Peace Lily home in one piece all the way from Pittsburgh, it however may not survive being around the kitties ... 
• Having a couple of days being called auntie is always fun
• Driving around the back roads of Allegheny in Pennsylvania and being blown away with all the beautiful fall colours (more on this to come)  
• Finally getting around to reading Nimona which is a very quirky and fun graphic novel that I would highly recommend
• Also Neil Gaiman's Sleeper and the Spindle is both a beautiful tale and gorgeously illustrated which is always a double winner
• Being spoiled with a Keurig coffee machine in our hotel room
• All the pumpkin carving
• Meeting lots of new kitties and seeing just how well they flock to me, it's like I just let off cat lady signals at every turn
• Popping into an anime store in Greensburg and finding all the goodies

How are things with you?

LIFE: Why Michigan Rocks in the Fall

Maybe it's because I'm an autumn baby, or because September weekends were spent picking apples from the tree in my parents garden, eating all those pies, kicking all those leaves, but autumn has always been a favorite of mine. And while it's always been a favorite, moving to Michigan made it all the special, there's something pretty incredible about Michigan when fall comes to town.

Call this post a part bucket list, a to list of Michigan autumnal delights, or just another list of reasons why I love this state. 

Apple Picking

With a broken oven - I shall miss the baking of apples picked by hand from our somewhat local apple orchard.Turning all those juicy ripe goodies into pies and crumbles. Nom. I would never have imagined witnessing the hour long queues to grab a bag for filling to the brim with apples, but once autumn comes around apple picking is a huge event.  

Cider and Doughnuts

The two go hand in hand lets be honest. Granted I've not actually made it to a cider mill yet (oops) but the doughnuts we treat ourselves too from Erwin's Orchard (where we go apple picking) are some of the best I've tasted.

Fall Colours

You can take a gander at amazing autumn colours - reds, oranges, burnt crispy yellows throughout the state, but the higher you go, the more beautiful the sight becomes. I could basically say "drive along any road in the north and you'll be impressed". Actually true. But the avenue of trees along M22 or any that takes you through the Huron National Forest (stopping at my favorites when we took our little Michigan road trip back in 2012.

Need a guide for peak colour dates, well MLive has you covered.

Michigan Ren Festival

Once Labor Day rolls around, the Michigan Ren Festival comes out to play. With Turkey legs the size of your face, jousting contests to displays and little shops it's a fun place for soaking in all things medieval. It's been a good couple of years since we took a trip to the festival, so we're probably due another visit. 

Pumpkins

All sizes, shapes and varieties of pumpkins as far as the eye can see. There's something really American about seeing countless fields (often pick your own) of pumpkins in the fall. More so when you see how everyone decorates their front porch with them - all shapes and sizes.

What do you love about autumn where you live?

PITTSBURGH: The Block House - Western PA's Oldest Building

Beside the Fort Pitt Museum in Pittsburgh's Point Park, you'll come across a small building with a delightful garden and a most intriguing history. Known as the Fort Pitt Block House, this building remains as the oldest standing structure in Western Pennsylvania and the oldest building west of the Allegheny Mountains. Occasionally known as Bouquet's Blockhouse or the Bouquet's Redoubt, the building was originally built as a defensive redoubt (often one of the first lines of defense) of Fort Pitt - what was once the largest and key defensive forts of the British.

While the fort was demolished in 1792, the Block House was converted into a private residence. The building isn't on the large side so I can't imagine who cramped housing conditions must have been - records suggest it was home to various sizes, classes and social backgrounds over the decades. By the 1840's the Block House was home to multiple families - just one of many tenement houses of Pittsburgh's poor Point District population.

By 1894, Mary Schenley - a philanthropist, presented the deed to the Block House to the Daughter of American Revolution (DAR). With 16 months of restoration - removing the windows and doors, the DAR continue to this day to preserve the structure for future generations with many of the timbers, brick and stonework being original. Today the Block House is a free to visit museum. Sadly we wandered around Point Park late on a summers evening after closing, but fingers crossed for a peek inside sometime especially with it's British history.

I do wish I'd captured more photographs of the Edith Ammon Memorial Garden which is planted just to the left of the building. While small, it had quiet the English cottage garden feel yet filled with flowers native to the Pittsburgh area.



It's always great to come across glimpses of British history on my travels on this side of the pond.

OHIO: Along Country Roads

An unplanned diversions (roadworks & accidents) though the back roads on the northern drive homeward to Detroit from Cincinnati lead to a sneak peak of more of the Ohioan countryside. With tractors buzzing away gathering in the harvest, fields of produce stretched as far as the eye could see. Old farmhouses, brick and wooden popped up over the crops, nearly all with their sturdy metal roofing to protect themselves from the elements. Old wooden barns marked with painted lettering celebrating a notable year in the state's history faded and peeling in the distance. So I thank google maps for suggesting we avoid an hour long queue along I-75 and for offering me a pretty glimpse of American countryside. 

LIFE: Travels and Ponderings on a Roadtrip

The Ohio -  West Virginia border

Last week we decided to take the long way around to our nephews joint birthday in Pittsburgh PA and spent a couple of days in Ohio. Part of Joe's birthday present was to take a trip to a theme park so the plan was for an early Wednesday morning drive down to Mason OH, ride coasters all day, spend the next day at the Zoo, drive over to Pittsburgh on the Friday and spend some time there over the weekend.

Our little trip turned into five nights, visiting five states - including two new ones for my visited list (Kentucky & West Virginia) and travelling over 800 miles in one huge circle. 

Cincinnati, Ohio

Spending a lot of time on the road with hours and hundreds of miles between all the cities you find things to past the time. Like punch buggy game (I lost), watching every single cars licence place to see where they've travelled from and wondering where they are heading to, and pondering odd things like;

• How bloody huge America is
• How the hell do you comfortably drive from California to Pennsylvania in a Fiat 500?!
• If only the camera would stop focusing on the windscreen damn it
• How road signs warning about a "bump" in the road is just an everyday occurrence in Michigan 
• Thus leading to thinking ... wow everyone has better roads than Michigan
• And public transport while we're at it
• Wait I don't know if I picked up my camera ... 
• Oh look there's a truck with a Confederate flag 
• Does eating in a McDonald's count as visiting a state?! 
• Constantly wondering how the hell houses in Pittsburgh don't slip down the hills

But at least since I ditched TMobile and switched to Boost I know have phone signal in the middle no nowhere, especially on the turnpikes to not only GPS track every single mile but to wiki search anything that makes my fancy. Always leaning, always learning ...

Ohio

Learning things like how farming is Ohio's number one industry so it's no surprise when you're driving around the state how many fields and farms you come across. While born a country lass, my life is now spent hidden away in the burbs of Detroit so it's always nice to see fields, trees and animals as far as the eye can see. As for the countryside smell, yeah not missed that so much. It was particularly eerie with the mist rising come Friday morning as we left Cincinnati and headed east.

Ohio Interstate 70 by Zanesville

Driving on American roads is always filled with history, even if it is a little more on the modern scale of things. Interstate 70 is one of America's major highways stretching from Maryland all the way west to Utah. In many places it mirrors the former path of Route 40 of which the mile marker (above) was one used for. I always have a great love for state historical societies and their plaques.

Ohio - West Virginia border

So we followed I-70 as far as Washington, PA which meant getting to tick another "new" state to my visited list - that of West Virginia. Granted it was only a 14 mile stretch but we did stop at a McDonald's so I'm counting it all the same. But even with that short drive through the state, I can certainly see why it's a state known for it's mountains and rolling hills.

The Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Sunday rolled around and it was time to head home and back to normality. We took our normal route back along the Turnpike. Normally we visit the in-laws in November/December when it's all gloomy, snowing, wet and leafless so seeing all the green fields was a particular delight. Well it was after all the rain stopped.

I actually got really excited back in May when one of my favourite blogs the Dainty Squid shared her walk around the Cuyahoga Valley National Park which lies between Akron and Cleveland in Ohio. That huge bridge in all her stunning photographs - well that's the bottom of this one I managed to catch a gloomy photograph of. We've driven over this part of the national park so many times coming back and home Pittsburgh and it's always looked so beautiful down in the valley.

Detroit, Michigan

And while I'm still suffering from post holiday blues, it is always a welcome sight seeing Detroit's skyline as we travel north up I-75. Home isn't too far away with you see those towers of the Ren Cen (told you you could spot it miles away!).

I have a lot of blog posts about this road trip in a lot more detailed planned out for the forthcoming weeks (and probably months because I'm slow at times and I love sharing details and history) so bare with me!

But let me know how you cope and past the time on road trips and when travelling?!

PITTSBURGH: Carnegie Science Museum

The Carnegie Science Museum is one of four such Carnegie museums in Pittsburgh. Andrew Carnegie - a Scottish born philanthropist, moved to Pittsburgh with his family when they migrated in 1848, went on to organise the Carnegie Steel Company Focusing on world peace and education, Carnegie funded the building of over 2,500 libraries in the English speaking world and now Pittsburgh is home to four museums bearing his name and inspiration - the Andy Warhol Museum (another Pittsburgh native), Carnegie Museum of Art, Natural History and the Science Center. 

Today the Science Museum is a hands on and a great place to take kids for a couple of hours. The museum is noisy but in a good way and explores variables of noise, robots and space travel. There's even a submarine to step on, Ominmax theatre and a display of vintage bicycles - including one belonging to Elvis covered in sparkly glitter with Rock and Roll stamped over it - I wouldn't of minded taking a ride on that myself!

It's certainly a museum designed around kids and without having the nephews with us I think our attention would have been over within an hour and for what it is, it is rather pricey. It's more geared for little fingers unlike the Industry and Technology Museum in Chicago. Nevertheless there was things to keep adults engaged - the Robot Hall of Fame which featured such inductees as C-3PO from Star Wars to the Roddy the Robot (Forbidden Planet) to the first cited robot in cinema - Maria from the German 1927 movie Metropolis. As a fan of vintage films, that intrigued me no end. There's also an entire room dedicated to a miniature railroad and village but that is worthy of a blog post alone.

Where's your top places for taking children?

You can find the Carnegie Science Museum at; 

1 Allegheny Avenue, 

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 

 

PS. Excuse the snow, we visited back on a snowy November day.