Alevacation part 5

2010/07/06

I had set up today to introduce Ale to Joel. When we were all still in high school he was the one that drove us down to the big city on the weekends because he knew all the roads. I was using this as my thinking when I figured maybe he could take us somewhere that was a little hidden, a little under the radar but still cool. His idea was different. He works at the Tribune Review so he got discount tickets for the Carnegie Art and Natural History Museum so we went there. Not my original idea but still cool. We did stop at my work on the way past so Ale and Lana could meet but Lana didn't have her phone on her and we couldn't get a hold of anyone so we waited 10 minutes and just left. Her loss.

Joel's discount was buy one admission get one free but due to some snafu with the lady we ended up getting buy one get all the rest free so that was cool. We had a good time. First we saw the Natural Museum side, the old architectures, the dinosaurs and gemstones then we saw the Art Museum side. I've been here a bunch of times but not for a while so it was nice to check things out again. I think Isaac had came here recently with Penn Pals because I remember him telling me how awesome he thought the dinosaurs were.

When we were done the plan was to go to Schenley Park and play some disc golf because I borrowed some discs off my friend Billy (Carl) but the consensus was that it was far too hot to do anything outside if we could help it so Joel suggested we check out the new Rivers Casino. I had never been there before (gambling was not really my thing) so we thought why the hell not. On the way over we stopped to check out where the Pens play. She got to see and get a picture taken in front of the old Civic Arena before they tear it down so that was cool. Next time she comes here that building will probably not be here anymore. She also got to see the new arena but it was not done yet and we couldn't check it out as much. At least that one will still be here when she comes and I'm sure I'll end up taking her to a lot of games and events there.

It's funny that almost the exact same thing happened here as the last time I went to a casino. On my honeymoon in Niagara Falls Lisa and I went to a casino and for some reason she didn't bring her ID so when we tried to walk in they said she couldn't enter. We continued walking around until we came upon another entrance and no one said anything. We walked right in. So when we parked in the parking garage and took the elevator down and the guy carded us to get in and he (for whatever reason) didn't accept Ale's foreign ID as legitimate I knew exactly what to do. We took the elevator back up one floor, got out and took the stairs back to the ground floor and walked around to the main entrance. No one was standing there and we walked straight in. Yay slot machines. We texted Joel that we made it in but he said he had already lost $5 and was on his way back to the car. Lol. That didn't take long. We saw a complimentary drink machine so we got some pop and then we did a quick look around and I made sure we walked out right past the guy that wouldn't let us inside in the first place. We met up with Joel and by that time he needed to head back to start getting ready for work.

We went back to my mom's and she cooked us a nice home cooked turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and all the good stuff. I don't think she and Ale talked all that much. It's funny that people think they have to say different stuff to her or something because she's from far away. I don't get that. She's as normal and awesome as anyone from around here. Since this was the first time she was at this house I gave her a tour. I wanted her to see it because we may end up buying this place from my mom when she moves away. We thanked my mom and went back to Jim's to crash until the next day.