Braddock, Pittsburgh, Shadyville, oh my!

Week two at Braddock begins today, though at a bit of a delay as Farmer Marshall is out this morning inspecting a new potential farm site. So far, the "farming" side of things has been a breeze- mostly because Marshall needs to make sure we have the intellect of 10 year olds before he gives us any tasks that have the power to destroy viable crops =). As such, we've weeded a bunch, thinned strawberries, planted a variety of seeds (beans, okra, greens, parsley, etc), re-tied some tomato plants, and cleaned garlic and onions to be sold at their weekly Farm Market.
I realized this weekend that, due to the short bursts of time we will be spending at each site, my knowledge in re: techniques, tricks, etc might not expand much, as we will be, and will be treated as, novices at each place we go. Which I should have thought of before, but ey. It just makes my desire to get a full time farm internship when we get back to Seattle that much stronger, in order to build on what I do manage to pick up on this trip.

Braddock is pretty low key. I've spent a lot of time just walking around, the hanging out and writing by the river, and watching the rollercoaster across the water continually scare the bejesus out folks. We did wind up in the South Side of Pittsburgh on Saturday, where I spent more time walking along the Monongahela River, and generally exploring the neighborhood. So. Many. Tattoo Shops. on East Carson. I also spent a little time at the Beehive Coffeehouse, and even brought Nym and Una back over there with the promise of crust kids and fresh squeezed lemonade (a craving I have been having ever since we got here). Near by was a bookstore in which I managed to score some book plates with which to craft postcards, and to pick up some touristy "Pittsburgh" postcards to send out as well.

On Sunday I tried out the public transit in order to visit the Monongahela Incline, which is the oldest incline still in operation in States. I was hoping for a chance to check out the Light Rail, but the station I would have hopped on it at was closed for the weekend. My bus took me through a bunch of the neighborhoods, Rankin and Swissvale for example, and through the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon's campuses, which I guess is all in the neighborhood of Oakland. The Carnegie Art Museum, Natural History Museum, and the Cathedral of Learning are all in this area, so I will definitely be back through on another day for a longer walkabout.

Pittsburgh really is the city of Bridges (I read it has 455 bridges??), as I walked across the Andy Warhol Bridge, which is one of the Three Sisters Suspension Bridges, and ended up looking right into some game at some stadium (I know, I know, sorry my sports inclined friends and family members.. maybe it was the Pirates? And I am pretty sure it was baseball??). I also found the Andy Warhol Musuem, but am also saving that visit for another day.

Backtracking through downtown, I found the bridge I needed to get to the Mon Incline, the Smithfield Street Bridge, which is also the oldest steel bridge in the States. Really pretty views from the bridge, and I saw a bunch of boats out and an insanely large barge (heehee, dork).
Riding the Mon was neat- not too scary even though at the very top, you are basically being pulled up almost vertically. The view from the top of Mt Washington is really breathtaking- you can see all of Pittsburgh, it seems, and that is one huge city (you don't really appreciate how compact Seattle is until it takes you the better part of an hour to get from your house to downtown Pittsburgh). Once again, yes, there are pictures, though no, they aren't up yet. I did cull them down last night, and will beg laptop time from Una in order to clean them up and get them on my flickr page.

Marshall just arrived! More later!