Welcome

Were here! And the hotel left us a little note.

We met up with the rest of the photogs tonight for a BBQ. We got our
bikes and are ready to hit the town tomorrow.

Keep checking during the day because I'm going to try and post as much
ad possible.

Tampa

Just landed in Tampa. Pretty bumpy landing.

We chose the very last row. Why? Because were cool.

Not from my phone

Everybody say "Thanks Nabil!!!" for letting me crash with him for a few nights. And he's only one week from finishing grad school too.

I made it back from Pittsburgh yesterday evening. And I had quite the welcome for me waiting in my room.

Two birthday gifts from Misty
Two bottles of Mona-Vie from my parents
And my new 400 lens

So I did a lot of unpacking yesterday, I'm still not quite done yet. I got tired and just decided to crash last night.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from my trip not taken with my cell phone.

First, a couple shots from Point Park. It's the point where the three rivers meet. They have a fountain where people can just hang out.



A couple shots from after a Pirates game. The first one is of the Roberto Clemente bridge (spelled correctly this time) after Friday's game. And the other shot is also on the Clemente Bridge of a Sax player entertaining the crowd walking back to their cars.


Since we spent a majority of our time at PNC Park watching the Pirates lose, I've got quite a few photos from what many call the best ball park to watch a baseball game.

The last few innings of Sunday's game, we walked around the park to see some different views. Before the game, we walked around the outside of the stadium... and payed tribute to a couple late, great Pirates. Honus Wagner and Roberto Clemente.



I'm going to call it quits for now. I'll post some more non-baseball related pictures later.

Detroit

I'm ok the plane in Detroit about to take off for New Orleans.

Detroit had this cool water thing that I hung out at for a while.

They also had a really cool tunnel with fun lights and a people mover.
I took some pictures with my Leica, so I'll share those when I get
back. I planned to go back and fourth in the tunnel but got
comfortable in a chair with a bag of pretzles and some twizlers. And
that took up my hour layover.

Later Pittsburgh

Leaving Nabils house on the way to the airport. I never really sent a
good pic of the skyline so this is the best I can do.

The last supper

We went to see the new Batman movie last night. I thought it was
pretty good. I haven't followed the batman series very closely, but I
still enjoyed this flick.

Anyway, when we got home, we decided not to go out and eat. Instead,
we heated up some pizza and watched the Yankees vs. Red Sox game.

We both decided that was a good idea because of how much we ate during
the game. A little bit of pizza hit the spot.

Here are the final totals from the All You Can Eat afternoon.(with the
regular price for the item in paraenthises)

Nabil:

Nacho (6)
Burger (5)
Mt. Dew (2.50)
Popcorn (3.50)
Burger (5)
Peanuts (4)
Diet pepsi (2.50)
Sierra mist (2.50)

Total... $31

Matt:

Nacho (6)
Hotdog (2.25)
Mt. Dew (2.50)
Popcorn (3.50)
Nacho (6)
Mt. Dew (2.50)
Mt. Dew (2.50)
Burger (5)

Totoa..... $30.25

Each ticket cost 40 bucks. So I think we pretty much broke even. Our
seats were on the top row in right field, just foul of the foul pole.
We were in the shade of a huge sign and caught a nice breeze off the
river. So it was very comfortable up there. And we could turn around
and watch boat traffic against the skyline.

I'm packing up to head home now.

Quick Tid-Bit

Douglass county

Point Park

Pittsburgh lost... Again.

To burn off the calories from the all you can eat buffet... We took a
stroll down to point park. It's the point where three rivers meet.

It's pretty cool.

Mmmmmm

I don't think Nike+ is going to like this.

All you can eat

Round one...

Two nachos
Two popcorns
Two Mt. Dews
One hotdog
One hamburger

You're only allowed 4 items per trip.

Were going to keep track of what we get, then compare the total with
the normal concession stand. I bet we come out ahead.

21

J.P. "Honus" Wagner... And Nabil

Walking around outside before the game.

The rental

A Subaru Legacy.

21 bridge

The Roberto Clemene bridge.

The Pirates lost by three. But there were 15 total runs. And 22 total
hits. And 4 or 5 home runs. So it was an exciting game.

Game 2

Free hat night!

Looks like the Bucks will lose tonight. But we got free hats. OH! We
just hit a home run. Only down three with 2 outs in bottom of the 9th.

Tomorows game... All you can eat at the concession stand. Yea, it's
awesome.

Farmers market

On the way home from Fallingwater, we stopped at a farmers market
along the side of the road.

Nabil got some veggies and we both got some homemade peanut butter.
The jar says it tastes great on toasted marshmellos and on hot dogs.
So, yea.

Fallingwater

Wow... This house was amazing! Built right into the side of a hill
over a waterfall.

The living room had steps that went right down to the river. So the
family could just walk down and put their feet onto the water, or fish.

The family that lived there (the Kaufmann family, a rich guy from
Pittsburgh) had a staff of servents... And the servents had a staff of
servents. Servents for servents.

Oh, and this was just a vacation home for the Kaufmanns.

Ft. Pitt Tunnel

On our way to Falling Water. A Frank Lloyd Wright house about an hour
outside Pittsburgh.

Hall of fame club

We decided to watch the final innings of the game in the Hall of Fame
club. It's a bar way out in right field open to all ticket holders.

That's Nabils friend Brent on the right. He's a KU grad and a 1998
grad of salina central. Meaning he and I ran in the same cross country
race our senior year. He was good. I was on C team.

But as you can see, he's a KU fan. We've done our smack talking,
baught each other a round, and had a good time.

Pirates down one going into the 9th. They had the bases loaded with no
outs last inning, but only got one run on a walk. Such is life with a
bad team.

View from the cheap seats

Freebies

Al Oliver bobble head.... Free

Beer... $4.75 (which at a major league ball park is as good as free)

Cathedral of learning

This building is the second largest building for learning... Second
behind some building at the U. Of Moscow.

It's just a tall building full of classrooms and offices. Pretty
awesome.

Wall

The forbes field wall. It's pretty much just a brick wall in the
middle of the PITT campus. But the history and the stories this wall
could tell...

Home plate

The actual location and home plate of the old Forbes filed.

Babe Ruth hit his final three home runs here. And Bill Mazeroski hit
the game winning home run from this point in 1960.

Ticket.

We got our 9 dollar tickets for tonights game. And that's willie
stargell there in the background

Clark cafe.

At lunch at the Clark Cafe. It's at the old Clark Bar building.

That's Nabil and his friend Jodi

This cafe is under the Tribune offices.

Roberto

Outside PNC park on our way to lunch.

Well be back here for the San diego game tonight.

Really steep

Walking to the bus stop by nabils house. This hill is really steep and
fun to walk down.

Sportscenter and wall of lebron

This is Nabils living room. Where sportscenter is almost always on and
the "LeBron Wall" is always being updated.

One of the more recent updates... A photo by misty from the all star
game.

Steel City, round two

I'm back in Pittsburgh for another weekend of Pirates baseball and whatever else we do.

We're getting ready to head out, but I just wanted to let you know to keep checking back because I figured out a way to post to this blog from my phone. So I'll be posting photos on the go.

First stop today... Lunch.

Second stop... The old Forbes Filed wall.

so stay tuned for the adventures of Nabs and Matt

18 Ten Ten

The Mannings were in town this last weekend for the annual Manning Passing Academy. A camp geared towards high school quarterbacks and receivers. (but Tight Ends and Running Backs can go too)

This years camp had a little more meat behind it because Peyton and Eli are both Super Bowl MVP's now.

Anyway, here are a couple shots and a video I made from the event.






A cool thing happened on Friday while I was shooting the camp. I saw three little kids all wearing Manning jerseys. Two Eli's and a Peyton. I followed them around trying to get a cool shot of all three. I asked their grandpa for their names. He was really nice and told me he was Peyton Manning's high school football coach. I told him that I had taken a picture of him and Peyton last year at this camp.

And he went "OOHHH yea!!! that was you? I loved that picture. They've got it hanging in that restaurant. And it's autographed by Peyton. That was a great shot."

I had forgot that the picture ran in the Times Picayune. And his son owns a pizza place in New Orleans. They had printed the picture, got it autographed and hung it in the pizza place.

So on Saturday, after feeding ducks and playing Frisbee, Misty, Taylor and I went there for dinner. Pretty cool I thought.

here's the three kids...


And here's the picture from the pizza joint.

Sparks Flew, Emtions ran high

I can't quite back this fact up, but I'm pretty sure Friday was the first time since before college I haven't worked on the 4th of July. With the exception of the summer I spent in North Carolina and didn't have a job, I think I've had to work on every fourth of July.

But that didn't stop me from taking pictures.

So Friday afternoon Misty, Taylor and I picked up some fireworks at a local stand, grabbed some lunch, then hit up a Dollar General store for some cheap toys.

We headed over to Val and Dustins place and slid on the homemade slip-n-slide (huge piece of plastic, dishwasher soap and water). After drying off, we ate some crawfish and started popping fireworks.

In past years, I've ether had to not pop fireworks because I've been working, or had to leave the party early to go work.

After a few hours of smoke bombs, waterproof firecrackers in the bayou and other random fireworks, we busted out the cheap Dollar General toys.

Misty got some plastic boats that we strapped fireworks too and pushed them into the bayou.



After the toys were destroyed and the night came to an end, Misty and Taylor went on a sparkler marathon. I don't know how many they went through, but it was a bunch.



I didn't shoot many pictures throughout the night, but Misty did. I know she got some really cool stuff during sunset and me jumping by the light of one of those strobe things. So check with her to see some better photos. But here are a few I did shoot during the sparkler marathon at the end of the night.


We had a bunch of stuff left over, so now we're ready for New Years Eve.