Belmont Cty Ohio and Pittsburgh PA

On to Pittsburgh

We got up the next morning, Sunday, and went back out to Belmont and attended the 11:00 AM service at the little United Methodist Church there. It was a typical small-town service complete with the preacher coming in just before the service (she had had an earlier service in a neighboring town).

After the service we drove on to Pittsburgh. We did this for 2 reasons. First, we wanted to see Martha & Chris, and second, we had train tickets from Pittsburgh to NY for Monday.

The drive took barely more than an hour. We met Martha at the Phipps Conservatory. This meeting was nostalic because we were there to help Martha and Chris celebrate their anniversary, and not coincidentally, they had gotten married at Phipps.

Phipps had changed since last we were there, particularly at the front entrance. And, for the most part, the changes were positive. The front entrance is much better now than it was. A definite improvement.

They were more or less, between shows, however, they still had many beautiful displays. In addition to the flowers they had several glass sculptures

Chihuly sculpture in the entrance hall.

Most are the work of an artist, Dale Chihuly. They are part of what had been a big showing of his work during he previous year. They were, in my humble opinion, nothing short of spectacular. I am glad that Phipps has kept a few of the pieces as part of their permanent display.

After we finished at the Phipps, we had dinner with Martha, and then adjourned to her place where Chris, who had been on a field trip that day, joined us. We had the traditional "present opening."

Then we left our car with them, and Martha took us to our hotel.