Trip to Pittsburgh December 2008

Santa managed to get 4 tickets to the December 28 game between the Steelers and Browns and put them in our stockings, so we made a stop off in Pittsburgh on our way home to MI after spending Christmas in NC. 

We arrived Saturday evening at the Omni William Penn Hotel downtown.  Here are a couple of photos:

We took a walk Saturday night and had dinner at Cafe Milano (there was a flyer in the hotel lobby).  Sunday morning we got up, failed to get a family picture in the hotel room without Finn blinking from the flash, had breakfast at Starbucks (which we had scoped out the night before), and then walked down to the stadium.  The weather was pretty good...windy and not nearly as warm as the day before but generally comfortable since our seats were in the sun.

Unfortunately, the game was meaningless since the playoff fates of both the Browns and Steelers were already set, but the Steelers coach had decided to play his starters to win anyway.  It was fun to be at the stadium with the enthusiastic crowd enjoying the domination by the home team.  The low point was the 15 minutes Big Ben spent on the turf before being carted off with a concussion just before half time.  Here are some more photos.  We're sporting our jerseys in the first photo: mine (Mwelde Moore) received this Christmas, Lisa's a Jerome Bettis that we recently picked up at Salvation Army here in Midland, and the boys wearing the jerseys (Polamalu and Roethlisberger) that they received at Christmas a year or two ago.

That last photo gives a good view of the Steelers hats Lisa made.  After the game we walked back to the hotel and then walked to McCormick & Schmick's for dinner.  Monday morning we got up and hit the road for Michigan but not before shopping for Steelers-gear at Goodwill and Walmart.

Here's some video:

I'm thinking we might try to make this the first of an annual pilgrimage to Pittsburgh for the Moore family.