Pittsburgh!!!!!

Last weekend Katie and I decided to get out of town and visit Alice in, ahem, the *second greatest city in America,* (aka Pittsburgh). And actually, after a super fun weekend of many fun things, I might be coming around to thinking that in fact, Baltimore AND Pittsburgh are the two greatest cities in America. 

Saturday included: 

• Snow
  
• Breakfast at the coco cafe.
  
• Phipps conservatory for some fresh oxygen and greenery
  
• The cloud factory
  
• The cathedral of learning
  
• Tea at a fun tea house
  
• A most delicious roast chicken dinner, compliments of Alice

Alice has a lovely apartment in a greatbigoldpittsburgh house...
We spent the morning in the Phipps Conservatory which was all the green growing goodness we could want, a little bit of heaven in the middle of a long winter.
There were rooms full of orchids which were all stunning. Some a little too stunning to post... but this is a particularly lovely little pair of etherial souls.

Some more lovely etherial souls:

Hey mom, check out the size of these pony tail palms...
For some reason this tickled my funny bone. It is my new winter mantra:
Another room was full of miniature old trees in dishes... dwarf ents perhaps. 

En rout to the cathedral of learning, we passed the cloud factory (which, in fact, never ceases producing the clouds that perpetually cover the city... Pittsburgh is apparently referred to as the seattle of the east... which just might be its only downfall, and perhaps why it still only pulls in a close second to Baltimore for the rights to being *the greatest city in america...* in this sun-lovers humble opinion):
We got a good look down through the clouds of the city from the illustrious Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh...

And then thawed out in a fun tea place... Katie and Alice opted for some fancy teas... but I, as many of you well know am a purist when it comes to tea, and don't do fru fru tea. I settled on the all american Chai-tea-latte... which well, isn't exactly the real deal either... what can you do? But I must say, the company was really delightful. 

the Lovely Alice.

Note: for those of you who might be confused, Baltimore's tag line used to be, *Baltimore, the greatest city in America...* Those who have lived here for any length of time tend to fall into one of two camps, a. those who whole-heartedly agree or b. those who wholeheartedly disagree... Go figure. 

Baltimore has also claimed to be *the city that reads.* Currently when visiting this great city, you will see, *Baltimore, get in on it!* (Not to be confused for Baltimore, get it on! as many have...)  Ah, love this city.