Monday, August 1, 2011

Pittsburgh wrap-up

So it's been almost a week since we headed to Pittsburgh for the U2 concert and I realized that I hadn't written a thing about it. To sum up the experience in as few words as possible, it was quite the tragicomedy.

We arrived in Pittsburgh to find out that we had no hotel room. And, since we had planned on showering and cleaning up before the show, that was quite a blow. We had also planned on parking at the hotel, so that became another issue. The hotel (a Hyatt Place) was incredibly condescending and cruel, which only ensured that we will never stay at a Hyatt again. I spent a few minutes in full on break down mode, but eventually shook it and decided we could make the best of it.

So we found a parking place close to the stadium and set out to find food and a bathroom where I could change clothes. We found a packed restaurant, where they were so busy that they couldn't even promise we would get a seat before the concert started (which was about 4 hours away at that point). So, while we couldn't get food, we could get into the bathroom.

We then decided to go back to the stadium and wonder around a bit, find a place in the shade, and chill for a bit. So we got huge containers of lemonade and a bench and watched the crowd for a while. Then we eventually returned to the car to soak up some ac and charge our phones and ipods before the show.

Once we went in to the show, we got some stadium food and actually found a nice, breezy place to sit and eat. Then we found our seats and got ready for a great show.

And it was one heck of a show.

The kids loved it and Hunt realized that he really did like concerts. We sat and sang, with me leaning over to Hunt so he could hear me sing the words and would know what the songs were. Unfortunately, Rena started feeling sick to her stomach during the encores and we had to leave a couple songs before the show actually ended.

After we got out of there, I was determined to just drive on home but, of course, that just wasn't possible. We made it about an hour out of town and I decided to stop and at least see about getting a room. The hotel I tried had a lovely, very southern woman at the desk and she set us up in their very last room.

The next morning, we all woke up feeling better. We lazed around in the room and all gradually took our showers and got ready. Our mood was so much better that we decided to head back into Pittsburgh where we had a nice lunch at a little diner, got our favorite popcorn, and then went to buy massive quantities of the best BBQ ever (Pittsburgh BBQ Co.). We headed home then and got back just in time to have a BBQ dinner with Not-So-Ex.

So, while things definitely didn't go as planned, we pulled through in the end.