Family Fourth Trip to Pittsburgh


Never one to sit still, I returned from Europe just to fly into another trip. My family and I had planned to explore Pittsburgh for the 4th of July weekend long before a trip to Europe was on my radar. We spent a long weekend exploring the city and the surrounding areas—and loved it.

Pittsburgh reminds me so much of eastern Pennsylvania—windy roads, hilly green farmland, hidden streams and wildflowers and jagged stone sided mountains. We stayed about a half hour outside the city in a small rural town with turkey vultures (ugh) in our backyard, pitch black nights and a nearby pay-and-pick farm stand.

So charming! Minus the turkey vultures.


We visited the National Aviary (which was much cooler than I thought, partly because of a baby sloth!), went 400+ feet up the historic (1877) Duquesne Inline (whoa the views) and walked through the Carnegie Natural History Museum.



The highlight of the trip, though, was a day trip out to Mill Run, Pennsylvania to tour Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Fallingwater house. As a family we’ve long been fans of his work, but the modern “vacation home” he designed in 1935 for a wealthy Pittsburgh family just blew our minds. I especially loved how he built the house into the Bear Run waterfall—there were amazing views, the flowing sound ever-present and even a set of stairs from the main living area that ran directly into the stream. I could live there.


While we got a decent feel for the city, there’s so much more left to explore. Maybe we’ll be back one day.

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