That's A Wrap on Pittsburgh

It's Saturday and I thought I'd just pop in real quick to share a few more pictures from my weekend in Pittsburgh! We didn't hang around too long on Monday morning, just packed up the last of our things and made our way to a breakfast spot called First Watch. I had the most delicious Lemon Ricotta Pancakes topped with fresh strawberries - so very delicious, even if they were so very bad for me!

 

We made our way through the Pennsylvania countryside toward Shanksville, stopping along the way to check out some covered bridges that seem to litter the area! Weirdly enough - they were all red! I have to wonder if that was a requirement back in the day? All covered bridges must be red in color! 

The final stop on our weekend trip was the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania and I don't think it even occurred to me until we were there that we were visiting mere days ahead of the 19th anniversary of September 11th. I honestly don't know what to say about this Memorial - I found it so arresting; likely because of the stories of the 40 passengers on Flight 93 and the choice they made on September 11th.

The black walkway that leads you to the building is meant to mark the flight path of Flight 93 and stretches past the building where the exhibit is housed and to an overlook spot where the pathway breaks and then picks up again along the white Wall of Remembrance. The Wall of Remembrance appears as a straight line from above but when you are alongside it, you can see that it wavers - a design decision that was made to indicate that on September 11th each of the 40 passengers on Flight 93 made a choice to fight back.

The final piece of the Memorial is the Tower of Voices - which has 40 individual wind chimes that play in the breeze. The final chimes were added on September 5th and each of the chimes is quite large, so it requires quite the stiff breeze to move them. It was a windy day when we were in Shanksville but the breezes weren't enough to make the chimes sound. It's also the largest musical instrument of it's type and nowhere else in the world do chimes of this size and magnitude exist.

Pennsylvania is a lovely state and Pittsburgh is such a hidden gem! I cannot recommend enough that if you're looking for somewhere to visit, Pittsburgh should be on your list! Even if you have to wear a face mask while you explore - get out and explore!