Friday August 26

Alright then: Friday.

Todays destination: Lawrenceville. In case you haven’t picked up on it, Pittsburgh is similar to SF in that it is made up of many named neighborhoods.

(Also many hills, as it turns out, which I didn’t anticipate when I decided to do it by bike)

Lawrenceville is my new favorite. It seems to be the hip, up and coming spot. Also it’s the first neighborhood I’ve seen with wooden (as opposed to brick) houses.

There’s a famous 19th century cemetery.

It’s near the Allegheny, but (at least in the parts of Pittsburgh I’ve seen so far), the areas adjacent to the rivers are often derelict industrial.

After my customary early morning zig-zag through the residential section, I spent the morning on the commercial street: donut and water from a donut trailer,

cappuccino at Gepetto’s, cortado and NY Times for 90 min at Espresso a Mano,

half an hour up and down the street looking for my bike (yep, right where I left it), pierogi at Caralyn’s Industry Public House.

There’s a bike store on the street, and I was a bit worried about my tires, so I went in. Guy said I definitely needed a back tire but I could squeeze more miles out of the front. Also the handle grips leak this gunk onto my hands, I’ve been wrapping them with Kleenex; he had some tape, which I put on. Erledigt. $50, so I’m now into it for $145.

So now it’s 2:30, off to the library for AC & Smilla.

Passed some interesting spots along the way, need to go back.

BTW have you been noticing the sky? Beautiful! There was a 50% chance of rain today, but it never got close.

(Leslie, zoom in on this one)

Home to get the back pack for my 2nd shopping trip.

Trader Joe’s: capellini, olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, arugula, lemon, parmigiana, nectarine, apple. $17 and I’m good for 4 dinners! (capellini al pomodoro today)

One thing I forgot: biking t-shirts. As a result, after today I was down to 0 clean shirts. Did laundry.

That is all.