We visited several sites in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The Carrie Furnaces, located in Rankin, PA, are a series of archaic blast furnaces operated by US Steel and shut down in 1982. The site is now preserved as a historic site, managed by the Rivers of Steel Heritage Corporation. The Husler Building in Carnegie, PA was built through financing from a local physician, Dr. Husler in 1896. The lower level was an early A & P Market, while an upper level housed The Star Theater which opened in 1905, and a dancehall, and later a rumored speakeasy opened during Prohibition.
The Yellow Dog Workers' Village was built by the Limestone Mining Co. as housing for its employees from 1915-1925. It was mostly abandoned within the last 2 decades. The exodus was quite abrupt as you can see in some of the images.
Finally, we explored some downtown sites where there was a juxtaposition of the old and new.
We travelled first to The largest city of Chile, Santiago, then toured the central portion. Its a lovely large clean and relatively safe city which is very reminiscent of North American cities. We then flew south to Puerto Montt in the Patagonian region of Chile. We were met by 3 days of constant rain, resulting in a mudslide avalanche taking out our return road. Luckily our bus and driver were waiting for us on the other side. We still had to cross the mud on foot. Excitement. Along the way, we visualized breathtaking mountains, a glacial lake with its aquamarine color and the inactive Volcano Osorno.
A recent trip to India was amazing. Our trip was with National Geographic Expeditions and lead by Nevada Weir. We confined our visit to Ragasthan State, Delhi, and of course Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. The culture, food, lifestyle, even driving are so very different from what we are accustomed to. We went to several different venues from big city life (New Delhi) to the tiniest of villages where things that we take for granted don't yet exist, such as electricity and running water. Some of it felt that we were back in biblical times. Enjoy!
It seems logical to divide Costa Rica into two categories: natural beauty, and adventure. In some ways the country can be an amusement park for adults with varied activities. Here we show some of these: white water rafting, kayaking, and zip-lining. Taking a small plane flight in the country was quite an adventure in addition.
Activities including fireworks in downtown Pittsburgh,a concert by Joe Greshecky as part of The Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh, Balloonquest in New Castle, a carnival in Chippewa, The Beaver County River Regatta, The Pennsylvania Tour bicycle race that started in Philadelphia and ended in Pittsburgh, and finally quiet reflective moments on the lake in Beaver County's Brady's Run Park