Pittsburgh

Well, a couple months ago, with help of talking to family and friends, I decided to take Samantha with me on the GACRT (Great American College Road Trip).  GACRT is something that Dave Sachs and Nate Stone started 14 years ago.  They have been going to a difference college football stadium each year.  Given they are Iowa fans, we usually hit up a Iowa road game and this year was Iowa at Pittsburgh in September.

As I documented earlier, I thought this was a good time to take Samantha with me.  It gave us some 1-1 time as well as Michelle some 1-1 time with Meredith.  University of Pittsburgh plays at Heinz field which is downtown so the trip was in a central location with good weather.

Samantha was super excited to go on the trip.  I was super excited to go to a Pirates game Friday night.  Our itinerary was aggressive but I wanted to keep Samantha busy.  I was afraid she was going to be bored.  When I explained the trip to her, her biggest excitement was that we were staying in a hotel.  When I initially made the trip, this thought didn't even really cross my mind but I do understand why that would be exciting to a kid.

 She was pumped at the airport and she even got her first MAD magazine.  I knew Uncle Bryan would be pumped to hear that news!

All the excitement wore her out as she fell asleep on the plane before we took off and slept the whole flight.  I liked that because we were going to the baseball game at 7 pm.

Pirates stadium is a beuatiful stadium right off of downtown.  We didn't make the whole game but we did find the gift shop where Samantha did a great job picking out gifts for Michelle and Meredith.

We sang the 7th inning stretch from the bridge outside the staidum looking in.  It was a pretty cool experience. 

Samantha wanted me to take a picture of the building that had rainbow lights at the top of it.  We saw it on our walk back to the hotel.

Of course when we got back to the hotel, we ordered some room service dessert and watched a movie, The Maleficent. I feel asleep but she stayed awake for the whole thing.  Ha!

The next morning we headed to Jerome Bettis' restuarant before the Iowa game.  We were there awhile so Samantha watched cartoons and drew a picture.

Then, it was on to Samantha's first college football game!  Of course, she had to play in the jumpy house outside the stadium first!

Here she is inside the stadium.

Around halftime, Samantha told me she wanted to go back to the hotel. Given that in the last 24 hours, we had flown there, been to a baseball game, been to a football game and been doing a lot of walking, I understood.  We left in the 3rd quarter to head to hotel but we were done walking!

This little bridge was outside our hotel on the sidewalk.  Samantha loved it.

So back in the hotel,, we had some serious r&r and ordered more room service!

We met up with everyone later for dinner but then headed to airport super early Sunday morning.  Our flight home was at 6:25.  It really did not phase Samantha.  We were home before Meredith and Michelle were awake!

What I learned is that she loved staying at a hotel.  Michelle and I are already making plans to stay at a hotel this winter downtown Chicago with the kids.  It will be a great escape from the winter months.  I am also glad I made the decision to do the trip with her.  1-1 is always good and I want to thank everyone who helped me make that decision.