The Steel City

Recently we took a trip to Pittsburgh to celebrate Roy's Dad turning 50.  His Dad is a HUGE Steelers fan and has never been to their home turf so we decided the perfect 50th birthday present was tickets to the game!  We were there for 3.5 days and tried our best to get as much in as possible.  Trey, as always, was the perfect traveler and such a trooper for all the activities.  We got in around noon on a Thursday and picked up the rental car and headed to our hotel to check in.  Roy's parents got in around 5 so we headed back to the airport to pick them up.  Everyone was pretty hungry so we decided to try out Primanti Brothers.  This restaurant is frequently shown on The Food Network and is know for their sandwiches with fries and coleslaw on them.  It was pretty tasty!

Friday morning was the tour of Heinz Field.  It was pretty cool to get to see the football stadium close up.  It took almost 3 hours to see everything.  The tour guide took us pretty much everywhere and let us take lots of pictures of everything!

The luxury suites which cost $45,000 a year to own.  PLUS you have to buy a ticket for each individual seat inside the suite.  The windows slide open so they can feel like part of the crowd on nice days or stay warm when it is snowing.  Crazy rich people!  Oh, and Trey was passed out for about an hour of the tour.

Roy and Trey hanging out in the press box.  He decided to wake back up!

The Steelers locker room.  I was surprised that the lockers were so small.  I just assumed they all had personal lockers that they left stuff in permanently.  Nope!  All they have in them is gear on game day.

Under the stadium on the ceilings is a ton of tubes running to the concession stands, bathrooms, kitchens, etc.  Notice the tubes labeled beer.  That is one heck of a keg!

And then on to the field!  Aaaaaaaaaaaa!  The grass was so nice!  They were still working on lining it since we were there Friday and the game wasn't until Sunday.

After the field tour we headed to Station Square and grabbed some lunch at Joe's Crab Shack.  Then it was on to the incline.  Cable cars that run up and down the mountain to take tourist up for a good view of the city.

While at the top I discovered an awesome setting on my camera for landscape photos.  Perfect timing!  Pittsburgh has a great city line.  You can see the stadium on the far left.

Saturday morning brought a new adventure.  We were only a 2 hour drive from Canton, OH and decided it would be a sin to not go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame while being so close!

When we first pulled up the building looked really small and we were questioning our decision to go!  It ended up being really neat though and had A TON of stuff inside.  Things from way back in the day when football first started........

The room of heads which is every class of Hall of Fame inductees since the beginning group with their year.  This picture is only about 1/4 of the room.

We had to take a time out to feed Trey!

Then we got to the room of The NFL of Today which had the best exhibit in the building........

After spending 4 hours inside The Hall of Fame we had seen it all!  We grabbed some lunch and hit the road back to Pittsburgh.

Finally, it was GAME DAY!  The whole reason we made this trip.  Roy's Dad was pumped up!  We got to the stadium almost 2 hours early.  Wandered around and people watched quite a bit and then headed to our seats.  Let's go Steelers!

We quickly realized that holding Trey the entire game was not going to be fun.  Plus it was sunny and he was getting hot.  The seat we were in were bleachers so we decided to make him a spot to play under the seats.  It was perfect!  He could stretch and kick.  And was also shaded from the sun a bit.  His favorite toy while under there?  Our pant legs!  Silly guy.

Trey living it up at his first NFL game!

We had a great time in Pittsburgh.  It was the perfect little weekend getaway.  But like all trips, it seemed way too short!  Monday came and it was time for everyone to part ways and head home.  Roy and I now have one more football stadium checked off our list.  For those of you who don't know, a couple years ago we made it our goal to hit every NFL stadium before we die.  4 down so far (Arizona, Tampa Bay, Miami, Pittsburgh) 28 more to go.