Summer in Pittsburgh

A modern art gallery located on the North Side, The Mattress Factory has two buildings featuring room-sized exhibitions. Some of it was interesting to me, while some did not strike me as very good. It's definitely a place where you'll find yourself saying "Woah, what is that?" If you're into modern art this is a good place to visit.

To get there you can the 16F bus which will take you right there, or a 500 takes you to a close street where you can walk from. It is not in the best area of Pittsburgh though so you might want to be careful if it is after dark.

As a Carnegie Mellon Student it was free admission, and that might also be the case with other colleges. If not, admission is under $10 with discounts available.

For the 2005 Wings Over Pittsburgh airshow, the Thunderbirds were the main attraction. Each year it is usually either the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels, and this year it was the former. The Thunderbirds are the demonstration team for the US Air Force with six F-16s that show the capabilities of the airplanes along with some cool maneuvers. Four of the jets fly together at all times while two fly solo and do head-to-head flybys and other surprise flybys. The show lasts about half an hour including take-off and landing, and it also takes a while for the pilots to actually get into the aircraft and taxi out, as there is a high level discipline and ceremony to the show.

The Thunderbirds fly the same show at every airport every time, so no matter where you see them it is the same thing. Being six jet air crafts, it does get quite loud and earplugs are worth taking. It is a lot of fun for the whole family, and they almost always perform at airshows, which means there are other demonstrations and attractions. I like airplanes more than the average person, but anybody would enjoy it. They are usually in Pittsburgh every year or two, as well as major airports across the country every summer--if you are near an airport where a performance is scheduled, check them out.

Held at the five year old PNC Park, the Home Run Derby along with the All-Star Game were held in Pittsburgh for the first time since 1994. Featuring the biggest hitters in baseballs, eight contestants try to hit as many home runs as they can in each round. There are four from National and four from American, and after the first two rounds the points are totalled and the two best from each league play a third round, and then the winners of each league from that go head-to-head for the final round.

The Allegheny River flows 461 feet from home plate, so it was fun to see a couple homers get knocked into it and see a frenzy of kayakers trying to get the ball. The back drop of the city is also always spectacular and having a packed stadium made tha atmosphere that much better.

All Home Run Derbies have a fairly extensive pre-game show with singers, performers and promotions, so if you have the chance to get to a Home Run Derby it's fine to get there very early because there will be activities going on. Or you could find the ESPN booth and see if you can't meet a Sports Center news anchor. The pre-game performance for Pittsburgh was whatever band sings "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy."

Though every derby is obviously different every time due to locations, if there is derby coming to your city, it's a lot of fun! Tickets may be expensive, but it's certainly not something you see every day. Just plain fun!