The amazing thing about graduate school is I leave town for a week, to go to a conference, and I feel like I've gone on vacation. Several of my colleagues and classmates and I traveled to Pittsburgh, PA for the yearly Ecological Society of America conference. I presented a poster of my work and listened to many talented scientists and educators present about their work. It was an exhausting and reinvigorating week. I am feeling recharged and also overwhelmed by all the things I have to do now to finish my PhD. But I am reminded, and reassured, that I am capable of completing this phase of my education.
My roommates and I were able to inject some tourism, site-seeing and general (non-science) enjoyment out of the trip. We hit up the famous Primanti Brothers restaurant in the Strip District. We had to wait to get in, but we were quite pleased at the final result! We ordered both a roast beef and cheese and a cheese stake and cheese sandwich. Primanti's are known for having both cole slaw and french fries on the their sandwiches. Delicious! The cole slaw is not the usual mayo-y, sweaty stuff I'm used to. Rather it was tangy, and just had salt and pepper. The fries...well, let's just say I have never met a potato I didn't like, and these were no exception. I highly recommend a stop at Primanti's if you're in Pittsburgh. They have several locations through out town. Another good place to eat lunch: Wholey's Market. Fresh, fast food, good flavor and easy on the wallet.
And finally, it wouldn't be a vacation without a fabric store! We hit up Loom, also in the Strip District. The shop had an amazing assortment of both home furnishing fabric and unusual cottons for quilting. Lots of books, buttons and odds and ends too. The shop ladies were friendly, but they were super slow checking out customers. I think this could have been remedied with a better counter set-up and moving to an electronic c heck out system, rather than writing invoices (seriously? Why are we still even doing that?). But I bought some Charlie Harper note cards (love) and some bee hive print fabric (also love).
Pittsburgh, PA. Worth it.
My roommates and I were able to inject some tourism, site-seeing and general (non-science) enjoyment out of the trip. We hit up the famous Primanti Brothers restaurant in the Strip District. We had to wait to get in, but we were quite pleased at the final result! We ordered both a roast beef and cheese and a cheese stake and cheese sandwich. Primanti's are known for having both cole slaw and french fries on the their sandwiches. Delicious! The cole slaw is not the usual mayo-y, sweaty stuff I'm used to. Rather it was tangy, and just had salt and pepper. The fries...well, let's just say I have never met a potato I didn't like, and these were no exception. I highly recommend a stop at Primanti's if you're in Pittsburgh. They have several locations through out town. Another good place to eat lunch: Wholey's Market. Fresh, fast food, good flavor and easy on the wallet.
And finally, it wouldn't be a vacation without a fabric store! We hit up Loom, also in the Strip District. The shop had an amazing assortment of both home furnishing fabric and unusual cottons for quilting. Lots of books, buttons and odds and ends too. The shop ladies were friendly, but they were super slow checking out customers. I think this could have been remedied with a better counter set-up and moving to an electronic c heck out system, rather than writing invoices (seriously? Why are we still even doing that?). But I bought some Charlie Harper note cards (love) and some bee hive print fabric (also love).
Pittsburgh, PA. Worth it.
