School Starts Tomorrow!

I can't believe that school starts tomorrow! It seemed that it was just yesterday that we were staring at 12 weeks of summer break.

Teen daughter and I went on our trip to Pittsburgh a week and a half ago.

We first drove to my sister's house, which is just north of Charlotte on Lake Norman, on Wednesday.

On our way we had to make our stop at the South Park Mall to check things out!

We left empty handed believe it or not! 

When we arrived at my sister's she informed me that she and her two boys would be making the trip to Pittsburgh with daughter, me and my parents. Thankfully the parents drive a Suburban so we had no trouble fitting all seven of us in!

We were on the road by 9:00 am Thursday.

We packed a picnic lunch and stopped at the New River Gorge Overlook to eat and let the boys run off some energy!

Daughter and I stayed at one of my cousin's houses while Sis, her boys and my parents stayed at the hotel. (There just wasn't enough room at cousin's house for all of us!)

Friday we met up with another one of my cousins and her two daughter's for a tour of Pittsburgh. 

I figured out that I had not been up to visit, (except for a quick trip for a wedding 9 years ago) in over 25 years!

We were even able to make a trip over to the neighborhood where my mother grew up!

Her street used to be cobblestones, but sometime in the last 25 years that was paved over. I was kind of disappointed, it used to be the tell tale sign that we were almost at Grandma's house when we felt the bumping of the car as we drove up the street! 

My cousin who was acting as tour guide grew up on the same street and we first went to her old house. Her father died in January and she is going through all the stuff in the house trying to get it ready to sell. I knew my Aunt  and Uncle were the kind of people who never threw anything away, so I kept my eyes peeled as we walked around in the house. I came away with two old chenille bedspreads from the 50's and they were in perfect condition! I found an old tablecloth from the 50's and a lamp that I wanted too! I was actually looking for old christmas decorations, but my cousin had already taken all of that and had it in her attic. She told me when she pulled everything out this holiday season, she would pull out some things to give me.

My grandmother's house has been sitting vacant for 26 years! We found a key and walked down to go take a look around. Last winter after a big snow storm the awning over the front door fell off! It was interesting to walk around inside. It seemed so much smaller than I remembered! But, it has so much potential, I would love to get a

hold of it and do some updates and rent it out! But, that is a whole 'nother story!

 Saturday the weather turned cool and my nephews missed going out to another cousin's house to go swimming. They made up for it by getting to play in the pool at the hotel later that night!

 Saturday night we met up with another group of cousins and went out to dinner. It was nice to catch up with them. We ate at Primanti Brothers
I got their sandwich with fries and cole slaw on it! It was really very good!

 We had a good trip coming home last Sunday. We got to my sister's around 5 o'clock and daughter and I transferred our luggage into our car and took off for the last three hours of the trip.

I was exhausted when we got home!

I couldn't believe that my dad, at 80 years old, could drive all that way and it didn't even phase him! We even offered to drive a bit but he said he was fine!

Everyone had a great time and now daughter wants to go back in October for my cousin's daughter's wedding! I guess we'll see.....