We spent the evening and overnight at Mike's dad's lovely country home. Mike's stepmother Marian is the ultimate warm, welcoming hostess and we had a great time being together.
We were all up bright and early, eating a light breakfast and dressing in many layers. The temp was in the thirties! Here we are, waiting for the Kidney Walk to start at the Pittsburgh Zoo.
This was Mike's team - Walking for Life. Mike's high school friends Jim and Colleen with their three sons and Colleen's mom are on the left of the group. I just loved those boys! I could swear I was looking at the photographer when the picture was taken, but apparently not! Jeremy, Mike, Dave & Marian, Daryl, and Marian's friend Veronica completed our team.
We were especially fascinated/troubled by the behavior of these painted wild dogs. They seemed to be almost attacking each other and were very agitated and noisy. Imagine our horror when we saw on the news later in the day that a two-year-old fell into their midst just a few hours after we had seen them and was mauled to death. I still cannot stand to think about it.
By the time the three-mile walk was finished we were beginning to warm up a bit, but we were HUNGRY! We decided Five Guys would be just the perfect place to go with three energetic little boys. I don't think burgers and fries ever tasted so good to me!
We said our goodbyes to the rest of the team, then headed across town to meet up with a very special friend we had not seen for a long time - Amy Gorno. Her dad Tim was our pastor at Grace for six years, and Amy and Jeremy were like brother and sister. We had such a WONDERFUL time at a little cafe. So many memories, so many twists and turns in our life journeys since then to share with each other. Lots of laughter and some tears. It was hard to say goodbye after a few hours.
Mike, who grew up in Pittsburgh, wanted to take us to the Mt. Washington lookout. Wow!! We went on some steep streets that could rival some of Bellefonte's best! But it was worth it! Of course, it was not a sunny day (I can't remember any of those anyway), but it was a great view of the city with its iconic river and bridges.
It was getting even colder by that time! We were glad we had our warm clothes on from the Kidney Walk.
The guys dropped us off at the convention center to meet our bus, which was supposed to leave at 4:40. But there was a delay of about 45 minutes. We probably stood in line in the cold for an hour and fifteen minutes, but as you can see, we were in a sheltered area and we were REALLY thankful for all the warm layers we still were wearing. So it wasn't too bad. We didn't have any snacks with us for the trip home, but those burgers and fries from lunch stuck with us till we got to the Subway inside Walmart where the bus left us off in State College three hours later.
We walked into our house at 9 pm, tired and happy.
4 comments:
What a great trip! Not only did you get to see some great sights and spend time with friends and family, but you did that walk too.
I saw the news about the little boy and I find it really upsetting, can;t imagine how you feel after just being there.
When I saw in the paper this morning about the little boy being attacked and killed by the dogs at Pittsburgh Zoo, I thought about you immediately, having had read your plans to do the walk. So I came here to find out. Glad you could get the walk done before the zoo was closed. Can't imagine why a mother would put her child at risk by sitting him on a wall like that! Can't imagine the horror! It is hard to think about, as you said. Glad you had a good trip!
nice trip except learning about those dogs and that boy. that is such a tradedy. Never saw those kind of dogs before hearing about the boy falling into that pen. Glad you all had a good time other wise.
Glad you could stay warm =) Sounds like you had a wonderful time. So sad about the child. I thought of you, too, when I heard it...then to know you saw those dogs and what you thought of them....makes me shutter!
Hope you have a great week!
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