Search Results for: kimpton hotels

In June and July of 2016 I took my 11- and 14-year-old sons Teddy and Tommy on a large, looping road trip from Delaware to Wisconsin and back again. Over nearly three weeks we drove 2400 miles, rode the ferry across Lake Michigan, drove in and out of Canada, listened to Books 1 and 2 of the Harry Potter series, and ate innumerable French fries. For a week in the middle my husband Matt joined us as we hung out with his family; but the rest of the time I was solo parenting (and driving).

In a few instances on this journey (hashtag: #momtomted) I was given discounted or complimentary stays or tickets to attractions, either by invitation or because I asked. This was true of our stay at the Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh where we stayed for two nights, one of them free, one of them at a discounted rate. You can always count on me to tell you when I’ve gotten something for cheap or free and to also share my honest opinions and stories.

A stroll or bike ride around Pittsburgh’s downtown or a ride up one of its mechanized inclines definitely offers a picture of the city’s 19th- and 20th-century industrial past, but of course Pittsburgh was important long before there were any steel mills. And since my older son Tommy is a big history buff (as is his mother) the three of us decided after lunch on our second Pittsburgh day to ride our bikes back over to Point State Park and the see what we could learn at the Fort Pitt Museum.

This museum is a wonderful place to get a primer on Pittsburgh’s 18th-century origins as well as the region’s role in both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. In 1754 the British arrived at the point and built the first of a series of forts. They were quickly overthrown by the French, who mere months later constructed Fort Duquesne, which they held until 1758 when they set fire to the fort before abandoning the land to the British (including a young George Washington) who built what was then the most advanced fort in the new world, calling it Fort Pitt.

The coat of arms for William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham who was Prime Minister during the French and Indian War. Can you tell where the Steelers get their colors from?

The British used the fort until 1772, when they abandoned it to private ownership. The Continental Army ended up taking control of the fort and using it as their far western outpost during the Revolutionary War.

The original fort is mostly gone, but this map shows its shape.

The first floor of the museum includes a detailed replica of Fort Pitt with audio explanations about all its component parts. A nearby exhibit offers a chance to see what day-to-day life was like in the fort in the fort during the middle of the 18th century.

Do you think he’s ready for frontier life?

There are canons, replicas of the barracks, and a trader’s cabin – in addition to being an important military outpost, the fort was also an economic center where colonists and native people traded everything from furs to firearms. It was here that we all learned why American dollars are called bucks.

I’ll take two childrens’ shirts and 4 bars of lead please….

The exhibits upstairs tell the story of the struggle for the region between the native people, the French and the British using artifacts, video, placards and maps.

We probably spent about two hours inside the museum – Tommy and I read just about every panel, and Teddy had retrieved a scavenger hunt from the front desk that kept him occupied for most of that time as well. One of the more fascinating exhibits told the story of European colonists who were captured by the native peoples, sometimes for ransom. It was full of complicated and compelling narratives of the fraught relationships between the people who lived at what was then the frontier.

Point State Park is a perfect place to cool off on a summer day.

When we were all finished, we retrieved our bikes and blinking in the bright sun, headed back into the 21st century, riding to the end of the point where Teddy promptly removed his shoes and dipped his feet in the large fountain. It’s a great spot to contemplate what Pittsburgh was like before steel bridges crossed its rivers.

It took us about fifteen or twenty minutes to ride back to the Hotel Monaco. By now I felt quite justifiably tired and triumphant – not only had I successfully navigated the boys all over downtown Pitttsburgh on bicycles, I had put the bikes back on the rack on my car, a task usually taken care of by my husband. That I did this on the street in front of the hotel with the valets watching me, amusement in their eyes, only made my success that much sweeter. I was ready to relax a bit.

My well-earned glass of prosecco.

Happily, I had come to the right place. One thing I absolutely adore about Kimpton Hotels is their evening wine hour, while these vary slightly in their particulars from hotel to hotel, one thing is always the same: they offer a chance to sip something tasty while kicking back in style. The Hotel Monaco in Pittsburgh does not disappoint on this front. In addition to beer and wine, their wine hour features flavored syrups to create custom iced teas. The boys quickly became involved in a game of chess while I sipped prosecco and wandered around and looked at the quirky decor.

There are always fun things for kids to do in Kimpton Hotel lobbies.

For dinner we decided to go a bit farther afield than we had during the rest of our visit and took an Uber car over to the far side of the University of Pittsburgh campus to Dinette, situated in the rapidly gentrifying East Liberty neighborhood. The seasonal, fresh pizzas and salads were worth the trip, even if they were out of roast peaches for the burrata salad. It didn’t feel like much of a compromise to instead eat the tenderest butter lettuce and corn. And since the pizzas were sized for one person, I was more than happy to order one with anchovies and jalapeños.

So many yummy, grown-up things on this pizza.

I was just patting myself on the back for another fun day of family travel as a solo parent when we left the restaurant. But what was this? The Uber app wasn’t working. It wouldn’t load. After trying unsuccessfully for 25 minutes to summon a car I realized it was getting quite late and that the streets around us were pretty empty – in fact I didn’t see a single cab. I wasn’t quite sure what to do so we headed back to the restaurant, which had since closed. Happily the Sonja Finn the chef-owner was sitting at the bar and one of the kind kitchen staff (I regret to this day that I didn’t get his name – thank you again kind stranger) called us a car using his Lyft app, refusing to take any money from me for it. While we waited for our ride, Sonja took Tommy upstairs to see her rooftop garden where that divine lettuce I had eaten earlier had grown.

Utterly exhausted and satisfied from our day, we were so happy to sink into our luxurious beds back at the Hotel Monaco – in addition to adorable decor, our room boasted wonderful soundproofing, perfect for a family who had filled themselves up and worn themselves out on plenty of Pittsburgh fun.

Note: I’ve actually completely stopped using Uber since last summer because I have a lot of concerns about their business practices, so if I were to take this trip now I’d probably arrange for a conventional taxi in advance. But I wanted to share this story as a cautionary tale for the many people I know who rely on it. It’s yet another reminder that it’s always good to have backup plans when you’re traveling with kids. And up next: With one more morning in Pittsburgh, we make the most of our time in the strip district before once again hitting the road for our next stop in Sandusky, Ohio. And in case you missed the first four installments of my summer 2016 road trip posts here they are:

• A summer stay at Capon Springs Resort
• Songs, stories and memories at Capon Springs Resort
• Pittsburgh with kids: Inclines, ice creams and a swell hotel
• Pittsburgh with kids: Biking the ‘burgh

In June and July of 2016 I took my 11- and 14-year-old sons Teddy and Tommy on a large, looping road trip from Delaware to Wisconsin and back again. Over nearly three weeks we drove 2400 miles, rode the ferry across Lake Michigan, drove in and out of Canada, listened to Books 1 and 2 of the Harry Potter series, and ate innumerable French fries. For a week in the middle my husband Matt joined us as we hung out with his family; but the rest of the time I was solo parenting (and driving).

In a few instances on this journey (hashtag: #momtomted) I was given discounted or complimentary stays or tickets to attractions, either by invitation or because I asked. This was true of our stay at the Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh where we stayed for two nights, one of them free, one of them at a discounted rate. You can always count on me to tell you when I’ve gotten something for cheap or free and to also share my honest opinions and stories.

Biking across the McCullough Bridge in Pittsburgh

I’m a big believer that one of the best ways to see any city is from the back of a bike. You can cover more territory than on foot, but you move more slowly and with freer access than you would in a car. It’s a particularly great way to tour with children because they love being outside and moving. And as more cities around the world become bike-friendly this type of exploration only gets safer and easier – especially because the creation of bike trails in cities usually inspires someone local to start offering tours.

Pittsburgh is no exception to this rule; as the industrial areas of the city are repurposed, trails and bike lane are being installed and not far behind these developments came the advent of Bike the Burgh tours. I found this truly small (as in one-person) outfit online and used the website to book a tour for myself and the boys on our first morning in Pittsburgh.

Can you tell why Kimpton Hotels call their lobbies “living rooms”?

The day started in the Hotel Monaco’s peaceful lobby here with I enjoyed a complimentary cup of perfectly brewed coffee while the kids slept in a bit. (Ah, the perks of having older kids! Part of the pleasure of my solitude was watching a dad chase his child who looked to be about 13 months old and was still in his pajamas. It had clearly been a very early morning.)

No, he did not eat all of these pancakes.

After rousing my children and covering us all in lots of sunblock, as it was another gorgeous but not-too-hot day, we fueled up with a breakfast at The Commoner restaurant that included some of the biggest pancakes I’d ever seen. The valet was kind enough to bring up my car so I could get the bikes off our rack, and we headed off to the designated meeting place, only a few blocks from our hotel at the corner of First Avenue and Ross Street.

I know the boys both look bored in this picture, but I think it’s just because they were listening carefully.

Our guide was Val, the owner and operator. She is a native of the Italian Alps who studied art and architectural history in Munich and Rome before meeting her husband, a Pittsburgh native. Her enthusiasm for Pittsburgh was that of an outsider who surprised herself by falling in love with her adopted home – she clearly had set out to eagerly learn everything she could about its history and buildings and decided somewhere along the way to make a living sharing that knowledge with people. Her English was flawless and her interest in the city totally infectious.

We started our tour with a few stops downtown – including one in Mellon Square, adjacent to our hotel. Val asked us to imagine how dirty downtown Pittsburgh used to be during its more industrial days and told us that in general residents avoided downtown unless they had to for work. Tommy and I were able to chime in and share information about the old Alcoa headquarters building that overlooked our hotel since we had done our research the previous evening.

These magnolia trees never lose their blooms.

Using bike lanes, we moved north to the Pittsburgh Cultural District where an artist named Tony Tasset has created magnolia blooms that can be enjoyed year-round. Here Val talked about John Heinz, the late politician and native son who worked with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust to revive the area’s façades and building and to sponsor performances and public works of art.

We headed through the Convention Center, which swoops out over the Allegheny River and has a walkway designed for pedestrians – and cyclists – that runs under the building. I wish I had snapped a photo as we rode through as the path descends seventeen feet from Tenth Street to a plaza overlooking the river. The path is sinuous and surrounded by both pools and walls that flow with water. The boys loved it and I loved watching them so much that I forgot to pull out my camera. Even if you don’t take a bike tour of the city, I highly recommend wandering down here as it’s the kind of public space that children really enjoy.

We rode for a while along the river, through a former industrial area that is slowly being reclaimed by nature and gentrification. Our next stop was on the edge of an area called The Strip, which in the early 19th century was home to the mills and foundries that drove Pittsburgh’s economy, including Andrew Carnegie’s first mills. The neighborhood changed in the late 19th and early 20th century and became the hub of wholesale produce distribution in the city. Many of the old buildings associated with these industries have been repurposed as apartments or studios and the neighborhood is now a mix of restaurants and shops selling food, spices and goods from all around the world. We someone how squeezed our bike caravan down the busy, brilliant streets past a rainbow of sundresses billowing in the breeze, past a small church with a gray steeple that for many years was used not for mass but as a concert venue and bar but was now being reconsecrated and used for worship again, past murals and Steelers t-shirts and a fish market. It would have been easy to spend the better part of a day here.

Val teaching Teddy all about the Heinz Factory.

We crossed the Allegheny at the David McCullough Bridge, named for the famous historian and native son and rode around the perimeter of  the original Heinz Factory, once the site of the manufacture of my younger son’s favorite condiment and now converted into expensive lofts where players for the city’s professional sports franchises and employees of Uber and Google live. We even saw Uber’s self-driving car, which the company is testing in Pittsburgh.

I prefer the original Alcoa Headquarters.

We rode along the Allegheny River taking in views of the Three Sisters, as the trio of graceful yellow bridges that cross it are called, and the kayakers paddling underneath them. This portion of the ride included views of the baseball and football stadiums as well as the new Alcoa Headquarters, perhaps not quite as interesting as the old but equally gleaming and geometric.

Teddy looked ready to try kayaks next.

After crossing the river back to the downtown area, we took a quick tour to the tip of the city where Fort Pitt once stood and which is now home to the Point State Park Fountain. Val then led us to the nearby Market Square, which was laid out in the late 18th century and still feels older than many other parts of the downtown (Val said she likes it because it feels European). The square was full of a farmer’s market when we arrived and made our way over to the adjacent PPG Place, with its domineering Philip Johnson-designed castle of glass.

The PPG building has to be one of the most photographed in the city.

It was full of children playing in the water jets – I could see the boys wishing they were wearing their swim trunks.

If you’re looking for a place to cool off in Pittsburgh, this is it.

By now it was time to say good-bye to Val and the group, who headed back to the starting point, because both my boys were ravenous. Happily Val recommended that we lunch at Primanti Brothers right there in Market Square. This local favorite, which actually started as a food cart in the Strip District, serves French fries and coleslaw inside its sandwiches.

They put everything inside the sandwich in Pittsburgh – and I mean everything.

Thanks to Val, I definitely felt like we had started to get to know Pittsburgh. It was the perfect introduction.

We all loved Val – she was friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgeable.

Travel-with-kids tips

• Val offers a number of different tours year-round in all kinds of weather (although not in “rain, snow, or ice” as her site says). Tours during the colder months are offered by reservation only – check her website for details.
• During nicer weather it’s a good idea to book in advance, especially on the weekends when the tours tend to fill up.
• Our Beauty of the Burgh tour was pretty much completely flat and only about 7 miles. We stopped often so that Val could tell us things, so there was plenty of time to rest.
• We had our own bikes and helmets, but there are several options for visitors who don’t have bicycles with them – Val has a deal for a discounted rate with a bike rental shop (they close in the winter, so this only an option in warmer weather). She also starts her tours near a bike share stand where bikes can be rented by the hour using a mobile app and returned at a different location. The bike share bikes are one-size-fits all and will only work for older kids who are tall enough to ride them. And if you stay, as we did, at the Hotel Monaco, the hotel has bikes you can use. Although rental shops usually offer helmets, if you’re planning to rent bikes on a trip and have a way to bring your own helmets I always recommend doing so – that way you know you’ll have the best fit for you and your kids.
• Val also offers tours in German.
• If you’re interested in biking Pittsburgh on your own, BikePGH offers downloadable bike maps as well as link to other cycling resources.

Up next: Our day wasn’t yet done! Join me as we learn a lot about Pittsburgh history, relax during the Hotel Monaco wine hour and eat more great food. And in case you missed the first three installments of my summer 2016 road trip posts here they are:

• A summer stay at Capon Springs Resort
• Songs, stories and memories at Capon Springs Resort
• Pittsburgh with kids: Inclines, ice creams and a swell hotel
• Pittsburgh with kids: Fort Pitt history with a side of pizza

Like this post? See some of my other stories of biking with kids:

• Why I love biking with kids
• Paris with kids: See the city by bike
• Beautiful biking on the Stowe Recreation Path
• Madison on bikes
• A bike ride in London

In June and July of 2016 I took my 11- and 14-year-old sons Teddy and Tommy on a large, looping road trip from Delaware to Wisconsin and back again. Over nearly three weeks we drove 2400 miles, rode the ferry across Lake Michigan, drove in and out of Canada, listened to Books 1 and 2 of the Harry Potter series, and ate innumerable French fries. For a week in the middle my husband Matt joined us as we hung out with his family; but the rest of the time I was solo parenting (and driving).

In a few instances on this journey (hashtag: #momtomted) I was given discounted or complimentary stays or tickets to attractions, either by invitation or because I asked. This was true of our stay at the Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh where we stayed for two nights, one of them free, one of them at a discounted rate. You can always count on me to tell you when I’ve gotten something for cheap or free and to also share my honest opinions and stories.

Our departure from Capon Springs Resort was lovely – it was a golden, perfect morning. The first part of our drive as glorious and green and twisting as one could hope for, with purple and orange wildflowers edging the roadside. The spell cast by our three intensely rural West Virginia days lasted until we pulled onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I’ve driven the length of this road many times in the past three decades. But it had been a while since I was on the western leg and I had forgotten about the narrow lanes, sharp curves, tunnels and above all, the numerous semi trucks flying along with little regard for the smaller vehicles in their way (the speed limit for much of this stretch of road is 70 miles an hour). It felt like something of a jarring return to the 21st century, and not for the first or last time on this trip I wished that I didn’t have to do all of the driving, especially since I had three bikes bouncing around on a tenuously attached bike rack at the back of my low-riding Saab station wagon.

But at last we emerged from one last tunnel with our destination in view: Pittsburgh.

Right at home at the Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh

Like all Kimpton Hotels (I’m an unabashed fan girl of this chain, but more on that in a later post) the Hotel Monaco in Pittsburgh is a mix of quirky decor, chic luxury and genuine comfort. Our corner room was spacious and full of fun colors and patterns with numerous bird-and-postage-themed details.

They loved this room – can you tell why?

Although the boys were immediately inclined to sprawl, I knew that they needed to eat a late lunch, so we dropped our bags and headed straight downstairs for The Commoner. The interior of this restaurant manages to be both cozy and post-industrial with lots of dark wood, subway tile and riveted columns.

The lunch portions at The Commoner were huge.

The food is a similar mix of comfort and high concept – Tommy’s mac and cheese had a fried egg on top and Teddy’s burger came topped with smoked cheddar cheese. I enjoyed a butter lettuce salad with cashews, grapes and apples and a flatbread topped with prosciutto, greens and a balsamic drizzle. Portions were generous and the service quick and before we knew it all those trucks I had been dodging for the past few hours just faded into the background. We were ready to explore.

Pittsburgh then and now

Pittsburgh – and me – in 1996. (Nice shoes!)

The last time I visited Pittsburgh was sometime in the mid 1990s when my then-boyfriend, now-husband Matt and I were in graduate school at Penn State a few hours away. I remembered it as a place that was a little gritty and a little hip, a place trying to honor the heritage of the coal and steel industry while also putting the 1970s resolutely behind it. But my memories were more glimpses than anything else.

We were desperately broke, of course, but couldn’t resist occasional splurge trips to the city for hotel stays and meals out. There was a Mexican restaurant we liked near the University of Pittsburgh campus with bottles of an addictive spicy green sauce on all the tables and an Italian place downtown that made table-side fettuccine Alfredo – but I didn’t know the names of either place or whether they were still in business. I remembered practicing pronouncing the name Monongahela (mah-nahn-gah-heela), the river which meets both the Ohio and the Allegheny at the city’s founding place. I know that on one visit to the city for a writing conference I saw August Wilson read from Seven Guitars, which he hadn’t yet finished at the time. But I don’t remember what I learned about Pittsburgh and its neighborhoods from his reading, just that there were many neighborhoods separated by hills and, in the early 20th century, by the ethnicities of their inhabitants.

But I did remember riding a cable car up a shockingly steep incline beside one of the rivers and strolling and taking pictures from the top. And so it was I decided that on our first afternoon the boys and I would get the lay of the land in this same way through a bird’s-eye view of the city and its bridges and skylines.

The cool skyscraper to the left is the Alcoa Building.

We set out on foot from the hotel’s front door, stumbling across a mix of old and new, of beautification efforts like a sidewalk being painted before our eyes followed by some vape shops a few blocks away. My best friend vapes so I decided to pop into one of the shops to pick her up some Vape Juice as a souvenir. I was so impressed by all the different flavors. My friend is currently trying to give up cigarettes so she has switched to vaping as it is believed to be a healthier alternative. I hope she likes the best vape mod I have chosen for her! I was speaking to the store assistant for a while and it was nice to learn more about vaping. She loves sweet flavors so I got her some candyfloss and bubblegum liquid too. I didn’t get her a brand new vape because I’m pretty sure she’s content with the one she’s already got; it’s something similar to this high-quality keyy vape pen. However, I knew that a new e-liquid would be something she’d appreciate and perhaps would become one of her favorites!

I know that she has tried quite a few different types of e-liquid already, but I think I might have found one that she has not used yet! When she first started vaping, I was surprised to learn that you can now get e-liquids for vaping devices that are infused with THC. My friend lives in Canada, where cannabis has been legalized. This means that people who use cannabis for health reasons can get their marijuana fix via their vape devices. I thought this was so interesting. If you would like further information, you can learn more about THC vape liquids here: https://buymyweedonline.com/product/ease-thc-1000mg-vape-liquid/.

This street was being painted as we walked it.

The Smithfield Street Bridge, one of over 400 bridges in the city and one of the oldest steel bridges in the United States, invited us across the Monongahela when we reached it.

I love the decorative detail on the Smithfield Street Bridge.

This was one of the things I immediately loved about Pittsburgh, the way its history is underfoot all the time. They made things here once and the city quietly reminds its visitors of that fact at every opportunity. History here is about utility and common sense.The cable cars at the Monongahela Incline have crept up and down the mountain without interruption for almost 150 years, and why would there be any need to change that fact?

Teddy thought this would be like an amusement park ride. Not so much.

Teddy tried to get alarmed when he saw how steep the ride would be, but that’s only because he didn’t realize quite how slowly the cars move. I teased him all the way up, up, slowly up.

The hill that the cable car ascends and the neighborhood at the top are called Mount Washington, named for the fact that young George Washington used this spot as a place to survey and map the lands around the Ohio River for the British. All along the edge of the aptly named Grandview Avenue there are overlooks filled with visitors and locals alike. Brides and grooms pose here and there are yoga classes. It’s one of those great democratic spaces that gives anyone who comes along the keys to the city via its views.

Ice cream helped them pose for some photos from the overlook on Mount Washington. Well, sort of.

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that the boys, upon seeing a sign for DiFiore’s Ice Cream Delite as soon as we came out of the incline station, requested the purchase of said ice cream, a request which I honored despite the size of our lunch because I hoped it would enable a more peaceful stroll. This was successful until both boys said that they needed to use a restroom when their cones had vanished. Happily, the local branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh came to our rescue.

Pittsburgh – and me – in 2017.

Beer? Check. Sausages? Check. Lovely sunset? You bet. The Biergarten has it all.

Originally I had intended to take the boys out for dinner, but when we got back to the Hotel Monaco all Teddy wanted to do was hang out in our room and watch cartoons. Since the hotel had been kind enough to provide a snack and since we had enjoyed such a big, late lunch (to say nothing of the ice cream) I decided to let him really relax and enjoy himself. Tommy and I both felt like we needed a bit more to eat however, so we headed for the elevator up to the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, the Biergarten.

The Biergarten is the Hotel Monaco’s rooftop restaurant in Pittsburgh.

There, in the full pink glow of the setting sun, we enjoyed beer braised bratwurst, fried pickles and German potato salad laden with salty bacon.

We were supposed to share this bratwurst. We ended up ordering a second one.

Admiring the skyline, since of course we had made it our own that afternoon, we decided that we must figure out what the cool building we could see from our room was. Directly facing the hotel, its facade had shimmering triangles and windows with rounded corners. It looked like a place where George Jetson would work if he had a job in Pittsburgh.

Thanks to Wikipedia, we learned that it was the former headquarters for the Aluminum Company of American (ALCOA), was built in 1953 and contained a radiant heating and cooling system that kept it from needing any radiators or air conditioners along the exterior walls – so it was space age. It was the first skyscraper with a completely aluminum facade, which is only 1/8 of an inch thick and is super lightweight. It used to be called the Alcoa Building, and that’s how I refer to it still, since the new name is the decidedly unromantic and ahistoric Regional Enterprise Tower.

Thus nourished with plenty of pork and information, we headed back to the room for a night in those delicious beds. I couldn’t wait to see what additional wonders Pittsburgh would show us in the morning.

Up next: We take a bicycle tour of Pittsburgh, learn a lot about history and eat a lot more great food. And in case you missed the first two installments of my summer 2016 road trip posts here they are:

• A summer stay at Capon Springs Resort
• Songs, stories and memories at Capon Springs Resort