Pittsburgh

First, a stop at Penn State. It was less idyllic than I had imagined, and definitely dominated by the stadium. It's truly as if the place only exists for the stadium and the rest of the university exists as an afterthought around it, as some college football fans might be quick to point out.

After a drive through the countryside, I arrived in Pittsburgh. A visit to Carnegie Mellon was in order, as I had never been and had always wanted to go. It was a pretty urban campus with modern art installations mixed with a bit of ye olde classical architecture. Fun fact: it's difficult to leave a building at CMU once you enter it, not because it's so lovely inside (some admittedly were, including one that had a zebra-themed cafe just aside a statue-lined colonnade), but because every exit sign leads to a dead end with a locked door, and by the time you've made it to that spot, you've forgotten how you arrived there in the first place. Pretty campus, though, as aforementioned.

There are meters in downtown Pittsburgh that cost 25 cents for five minutes. Coming from Sunbury, where 25 cents is worth a solid hour, it really makes one think. Specifically, it makes one think that 25 cents for five minutes is asinine.

It was national free donut day, so I was sure to nab my free donut. My friends Matt and Cathy brought me to a great local roadhouse for dinner. Great to see them.

Onto Ohio and Michigan!