Memories from Pitt

Our PA journey continues! This time to Pittsburgh to stay with our dear friends Susan and Matt (and doggy friends Lily and Toby)! We had a quick 1.5 hour drive from Knox to their newly renovated, beautiful townhouse! LT was flying back to Phoenix from Pitt so she decided to join us for lunch on this fine Friday! As soon as we got there we wanted the exclusive tour right away! Susan and Matt have personally worked very hard to redo everything in the house! It looks absolutely amazing! We walked out on the back balcony to check out their hammock set up while Susan told us the story about when her little dog, Toby had cleared the balcony wall and fell 15+ feet to the yard below soon after she moved in. No lie, it wasn't 30 seconds later that Diesel came out of the kitchen onto the back patio, jumped right over the wall and landed below. WE WERE ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED! Thank goodness he was fine and had just scraped his lips from the concrete and was favoring his back leg for a few hours. We felt all over his body for anything painful or broken, but he never yelped. He was clearly shaken up (as were we), but hallelujah not injured. Once we got that situation managed, we were able to move on with the day. We ate a delicious lunch with LT then said our goodbyes and she headed to the airport. :( We wouldn't be seeing her again until Mother Hash in 2 months. 
One of my favorite things about our trip to Pitt, as with many of our stateside trips, was that we weren't really there to see Pittsburgh, we were there to visit with the people we love-and that's exactly what we did. Susan and Matt were amazing enough to be able to take some time off work while we were there to ensure we had as much time together as possible. 
We went on a lovely walk past the baseball and football stadiums to The Point, where the rivers converge. We sat under a tree, passed around a bottle, and caught up for awhile. It had been 3 months since I'd last seen Susan in Phoenix, so we all had much to catch up on (i.e living forever, having children/not having children, traveling, life in Pittsburgh, politics, etc.) Enriching conversations are my favorite part of spending time with these friends! 
The storm was setting in, so it was time to leave the park and find some food. We decided to just get some frozen pizza and enjoy time at their place for the night. Again, nothing beats great conversation in a comfortable place. I don't know exactly how it came up, but we all agreed it was a good idea to play some Spades. I used to play a lot of Spades with my family when I was growing up and I remember Jim Wilson being the Spades Master. There were a few rules we weren't 100% sure on, so we decided to call him for some clarification. "Well hell fire, why can't you jus google the rules, Leuh?" Well, we could have daddy, but this is way more fun. So Jim Wilson proceeds to explain every theoretical hand that is out there and each explanation started like this..."let's say you got the ace of hearts..." After we got off the phone with him, we had a good laugh then still had to look up the rules. Haha. Our "quick game of Spades" turned into a 2am, vodka-drinkin, girls V boys, serious match, where the girls came away with the W! (Obviously). It was one of my favorite experiences in our travels so far! We finally decided to call it a night around 2:30. 
The next day Matt and Susan took us to their favorite park-well really it's Lily and Toby's favorite park! This place was magically green and a perfect escape from the big city. We let the dogs off the leash and they were so happy to run around freely! Toby was especially excited, so much so that he literally ran laps around us then up and down every hill at 90 mph. I've never seen anything so impressive and hilarious. We walked around for about 5 miles having more great conversations and especially chatting about our upcoming adventures that still seemed far away at that point. 
Later we returned to their place, showered and took a long nap. We had another late night of Spades to prepare for! Ha! For real though, I love friendships where you feel comfortable enough to take a nap at their house if you need one. It was just nice to be able to unwind for a bit after a long month of traveling. 
Sometime during this day, either before or after the nap, we met up with my great friend, Nathan Rosswogg, whom I know from teaching at Western in Phoenix/TFA. We ate at this cool, quirky place that was an old YMCA converted into a restaurant/museum/community center. It was neat. Um, we ate a salad with French fries on it-go Pittsburgh!! It was wonderful catching up with Nathan as it's been several years since he's moved away from Phoenix as well! And to top it off, that crazy guy bought our lunch! Thanks again, Nathan! We will eat an extra Pad Thai (or 12) with your name on it since you saved us those dollars!
Later that night, we walked to a fun part of town and ate at this delicious ramen place. Holy shit that was good! We had these little sweet potato fritter things that were to die for and of course some delicious ramen. The restaurant is BYOB, so instead we BYOV'd! Can you figure that one out? On the walk home we all debated if we should do the bar thing that night or not. We all agreed another Spades night at home would be the best choice! The boys wanted to try and redeem themselves. So again we paired off in G V B and closed the "bar" down with some good ol’ fashioned, nill-going, trick-getting, spades! Much to mine and Susan's dismay, the boy's won! :( So there we were G:1, B:1. We had to plan the next time we'd see each other to complete the tie breaker! We landed on the Wilson 4th of July party and a likely camping trip after! Sadly these rendezvous never ended up happening, stay tuned to find out why.
Before we left Pitt, we met up with the beautiful Jess (Hickman) Fresch and her new gorgeous baby girl, Eleanore! We went to this amazing place called Pamela's (which I kept saying in a Spanish accent for some reason-too many years in Phoenix? Idk). We enjoyed some incredible homemade pancakes and some hash/family story swapping! Eleanore was just so calm and sweet and has the biggest tooth I've ever seen! I didn't even know that was possible for an infant. So cute!! Jess is a great mom and it was wonderful she was able to make the time to see us! 
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Ok, you're still tuned in, great! Well, you see, what had happened was...on their way down to Damascus for the big 4th of July bash, some crazy lady T-boned Susan, Matt and the dogs!!! Thank goodness they were ok (for the most part), but the car was totaled and Susan's left ring finger was broken badly! She had to get serious surgery done and a GIANT pin put in. Bless her heart (in a good way, not a condescending southern way). So, even though we didn't get to see them again in VA, Tyler and I did make another kinda-spontaneous trip back to Pittsburgh before we left for Iowa! I am sad to report that we did not settle the Spades tie because we left after dinner that night. We did enjoy some Primanti brothers-tradional Pittsburgh sandwich with pastrami, cheese, coleslaw, and French fries on it. And it was HUGE and DELICIOUS! On this trip, the four of us enjoyed a lazy movie day together. Poor Susan had just gotten her finger surgery done the day before, so she was in lots of pain. Being lazy sounded great to us! We had just gotten done hashing in DC and NYC and we all know how that goes. We watched The Game and Get Out! Have you seen them? Good stuff. Freaky stuff. 
So, all in all our time in Pitt was filled with some amazing personal time with Susan and Matt and that's exactly what we wanted it to be. When we're back in the states, we will make it happen again, but this time, while we cruise around the country together in their new RV, right guys? 

Leah Hot Pocket Wilson