Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

I always pictured Pittsburgh as a run-down, industrial, depressing old steel mill town. I never had any interest to go there but knew that it was another ballpark I'd have to cross off my list. When Daily Candy sent out an email a few months ago about all the fun things to do in Pittsburgh, I knew I could sucker convince my mom to take me on a weekend getaway to P-Town. She loves baseball just as much as I do, remember? So we planned our trip for shortly after I came back from India.

I couldn't have been more wrong about Pittsburgh. Not only is the city unbelievably beautiful but PNC Park quickly climbed to the top of my list of favorite ballparks. Of course, CitiField will always be my #1 but PNC Park? Definitely takes the #2 position.

The Park is right on the water!

As always, we decided to get to the park early to walk around and explore. All of the streets around the park were closed to traffic which was awesome since it allowed all of the baseball fans to roam around all of the restaurants within the vicinity.

Hello Roberto Clemente!

We decided to eat inside the park and see what the food was like. As soon as we walked in, we were given programs (that's never happened before, you usually have to pay for those) which not only listed the starting lineup for both teams but also detailed the park and its food options...including the plethora of vegetarian options.

PNC Park. You just won me over. I had a fantastic veggie burger with some ballpark fries and it was delicious! (Mom had a regular burger which she was very happy with.) We made our way to our seats to eat and as soon as we sat down, I was absolutely amazed by how beautiful the park is.


You have a perfect view of the city skyline and the Clemente Bridge from just about every seat in the ballpark. By the time we finished eating, the game was about to start. We were going to go for beers but I had just run and wasn't feeling too hot so we decided against it. I know...who am I??? Anyway, they showed this awesome video clip that is kind of like a movie trailer for the Pittsburgh Pirates...but like real Pirates...not the baseball ones. It was pretty cool. PNC Park definitely takes advantage of their jumbo-tron which is great. (It could have been a little bigger though.)

The sun setting on the field was awesome.

The Pirates were playing the Cardinals which means we got to see Albert Pujols at bat which was super exciting. Not only is he Dominican (heyy!) and extremely philanthropic, but he's one of the division's leading batters. Of course, he scored the first home run of the game giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead but Andrew McCutchen came in and hit a 3 run homer giving the Pirates the lead int he 3rd inning. And then fireworks went off. YES!

And it's just as pretty at night under the lights!

The Pirates held on to their lead until the 6th inning when the Cardinals took a 4-3 lead. Another Pirates homer brought the game to a tie and extra innings! And in the 11th inning, Garret Jones hit a walk-off homer bringing the Pirates a 5-4 victory. (And then more fireworks went off and I loved it.)

Pirates Win!

It was quite possibly the most exciting baseball game I've ever seen live and I loved PNC Park. Everything from the food, the staff, the fans, the team, everything was awesome and I would absolutely go back to PNC for another game.

I'm thinking May. To coincide with the Pittsburgh Marathon. Any takers?