2013-11-08--Pittsburgh, PA (Part 1)

Dripping with character, the Strip District is a place like no other. One visit and you can sense the energy and vitality of "The Strip", as it's called by locals. With its gritty atmosphere, The Strip is alive with energy. And one look around and it's easy to envision what must have been like in decades past. Old factories and warehouses have been converted to lofts and upscale residential living. The Strip District gets its name from its geographic location. It's a mile-long stretch of land located directly northeast of downtown Pittsburgh. "The Strip" is just that—a narrow strip of land sandwiched between the Allegheny River to the north and an immense hill to the south

Awesome little store. Well, actually it's not that little. Obviously they kill it when it comes to pasta, but they have all kinds of stuff. It's a full market where you can buy produce, cheese, sauces, etc. We had a blast just looking around. Didn't even buy anything. Whether you are a local or a tourist like we were, it's worth checking out. Iconic grocery store.

The Heinz family has long been prominent in Pittsburgh's business, civic, political and philanthropic arenas.

We spent over two hours in The Senator John Heinz History Center, time well spent. Pittsburgh's history is deep and rich.

Pennsylvania's and Pittsburgh's role in the Civil War was pivotal. Only New York supplied more troops to the Union effort. The Keystone State's manufacturing power--weapons, ammunition, locomotives and more--was decisive. And, of course, the battle of Gettysburg was fought here, the epic conflict that broke the back of the Confederacy.

Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He was also one of the highest profile philanthropists of his era; his 1889 article proclaiming "The Gospel of Wealth" called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and stimulated wave after wave of philanthropy.Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and emigrated to the United States with his very poor... 
View More parents in 1848. Carnegie started as a telegrapher and by the 1860s had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges and oil derricks. He built further wealth as a bond salesman raising money for American enterprise in Europe. He built Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million (the equivalent of approximately $13.5 billion in 2012), creating the U.S. Steel Corporati

George Catlett Marshall, Jr. GCB (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959), was an American military leader, Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense. Once noted as the "organizer of victory" by Winston Churchill for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II,[4] Marshall served as the United States Army Chief of Staff during the war and as the chief military adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.Marshall's name was given to the Marshall Plan,... 
View More subsequent to a commencement address he presented as Secretary of State at Harvard University in the spring of 1947. The speech broadly outlined for Europeans to create their own plan for rebuilding Europe after WWII, funded by the United States. Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize for the plan in 1953.

Jonas Edward Salk (October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995) was an American medical researcher and virologist. He discovered and developed the first successful polio vaccine.

The chapel was a gift of German-American Henry John Heinz, founder of the H.J. Heinz Company, who wanted to honor his mother, Anna Margaretta Heinz, with a building at the university. Upon his death in 1919, Heinz’s three surviving children (Howard, Irene, and Clifford) added to his bequest in order to memorialize their grandmother and honor their father. Their choice of a chapel for a memorial was guided by the concepts of education and religion which Anna Margaretta Heinz imbued in her children.

Oakland is the academic and healthcare center of Pittsburgh, one of the city's major cultural centers, and is Pennsylvania's third largest "Downtown". Only Center City Philadelphia and Downtown Pittsburgh can claim more economic and social activity than Oakland.[1] The neighborhood is urban and diverse and is home to several universities, museums, and hospitals, as well as an abundance of shopping, restaurants, and students. Oakland is home to the Schenley Farms National Historic District which encompasses two city designated historic districts: the mostly residential Schenley Farms Historic District and the predominantly institutional Oakland Civic Center Historic District.

The Nationality Rooms are a collection of 29 classrooms in the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning depicting and donated by the ethnic groups that helped build the city of Pittsburgh. The rooms are designated as a Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation historical landmark and are located on the 1st and 3rd floors of the Cathedral of Learning, itself a national historic landmark,[4][5] on the University of Pittsburgh's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,... 
View More United States. Although of museum caliber, twenty-seven of the 29 rooms are in almost constant use as functional classrooms and utilized daily by University of Pittsburgh faculty and students, while the other two (the Early American and Syrian-Lebanon) are display rooms which can be explored only via guided tour. The Nationality Rooms also serve in a vigorous program of intercultural involvement and exchange in which the original organizing committees for the individual rooms remain as participants and include