Greetings from pittsburgh in pittsburgh ...

Greetings from Pittsburgh,

Ben and Kayaks

In Pittsburgh lives Jenn's uncle Bruce with two of his three children Ben and Julia, the latter who was in NY at a swimming contest. Anna currently is living in NY where we will party with her later in the week. We met up with Bruce first and then jumped into his car for a quick tour of the city as we headed to where Ben works. Ben is a kayaking coach and when we arrived we changed into our bathing suits for some kayaking. After a short introduction to kayaking and how to paddle correctly we were in the water (the Allegheny River). We paddled three miles to a boat ramp next to Pittsburgh's new baseball stadium. Ben locked up the boats and we walked the city street to the FireWater for lunch. After all that paddling, we were starving for a hot meal. We had a good time during lunch learning all about what Bruce and Ben are up to.

Downtown Pittsburgh

We then jumped back into our kayaks for the 3 mile paddle back. Along the way, Dave and Ben saw a rope swing and decided to dock their kayaks. Yahoooo yells Dave and Ben as they swing through the air like escaped chimpanzees and falling into the river below.

Jumping back into Bruce's car for the second part of their tour of the city, they drove to a tram (the Incline) that brought them to the top of a hill overlooking the city. We then got to see Bruce's office at Duquesne University School of Law. Bruce was very happy to see that copies of his article on The Constitutions of Sustainable Capitalism and Beyond. We were first to receive a copy and he signed it for us with a nice note. Then it was back to Bruce's apartment as we waited for his girlfriend Patt to arrive.

Pittsburgh Crew

Jenn got into Bruce's car while Patt climbed up into our truck as I followed Bruce back to Ben's work. Patt was excited to be a passenger in our BIG diesel truck and we had a good laugh along the way. Ben was supposed to be playing in a kayak polo game, but not enough people showed up. I could not believe that no one would show up to play when Ben was offering free food and beer! We stayed and hung out with Ben after Bruce and Patt left. I helped Ben drink some of those beers and then we went into the weight room where I struggled with a 185lb bench press.

We gave Ben a ride to his apartment and along the way he showed us the housing units his mom, Stefani, was the architect of. It is nice to see positive things happening in the community.

Goodbye for now.