Last day in Pittsburgh...

I'm in the airport heading back to Madison after a good morning roaming the streets of Pittsburgh.  I woke up and jumped on the bus to take me up to UPMC Children's hospital to meet some people in the lab I'll be working in this summer.  I thought it would be fun to stop by and introduce myself.  The lab is pretty big, so I am just hoping that I don't get lost within its masses.  I am not that great at wet bench stuff and I have a feeling there will be a steep learning curve.  I haven't done much microscopy, virus work, or any real wet bench experiments, so it will definitely be a summer to learn a bunch of new techniques.  I've also never had the opportunity to work with animals, and Dr. Hackam's lab has quite a few strains of mutant mice they are working with, so perhaps I'll get a shot to try out a lot of new areas of research.  We'll see!

UPMC Children's Hospita, brand new!  The research towers are around the corner!

After meeting everyone, scoping out the cafeteria, and enjoying a perfect orange, I made my way back down to Shadyside.  I just took Friendship Ave all the way back to our new apartment.  I wanted to pass by it again to get a better feel of the building and the area.  It's even closer than I thought to Whole Foods, and just down the road a block I realized that there is Paul's favorite store.... Walgreens!  This is the first Walgreens I've run into while in Pittsburgh!  CVS stores are pretty popular, but I managed to pick an apartment by a hidden Walgreens!  Booyah, now Paul has a clearance rack to clear out.  I have yet to check out Trader Joe's, but I'm sure that's the first thing that mom and I will be doing once she visits.

Our new apartment building/house!  We are on the second floor and it's currently getting a new roof, hence the ladders and temporary door covering - how exciting!

After getting a feel for the apartment, parking situation, and taking a look at Sharp's Edge, I walked down Centre Ave for a quick bite at Panera.  They were out of whole grain bagels, so I cashed in my free coffee and ate my own granola bar like a cheap-o haha!  I took Aiken over to Walnut and did my last trek down Walnut and the expensive shops and headed up Negley Hill!  I walked back to Squirrel Hill to gather my things from Emily's condo and take a quick shower.  It was so nice out today, and it was actually pretty warm.  I was sweating while walking around!  I packed up my new internal frame suitcase and headed out after slipping the keys under Emily's door...  It was such a great feeling to head home knowing that everything is taken care of.  I did my last and final hike down Forbes to Oakland to get on the 28X.

Just an example of the beautiful houses I've been walking past all weekend!  There's some really pretty, historic real estate and of course don't forget the scattered stone roads...

I don't want to know how many miles of walking I put on this weekend.  My feet are killing me and I am very excited to be off of them for a few days.  I'm sure once we land in London it will be back to walking great distances each day.  I hope the puma's can handle the walking and are nice to my tootsies! Footwear takes up a lot of room in my suitcase, so I'll have to think twice about what shoes I take.  It will be a challenge to pack for 20 days out of a carry-on bag.  Another adventure I'm sure!