Steel City

What's the first image in your mind when you think of Pittsburgh? Probably dirty waters flowing past rusty steel mills under dreary skies. For the more sports-minded, Pittsburgh evokes thoughts of nasty black and yellow uniforms. If each of a city's three professional sports teams are black and yellow, then the entire city must be seen through that drab lens.

These preconceptions couldn't be further from the truth. Chad and Kate Oberholtzer gave us a tour of the Steel City which totally decimated our misconception of the town built on three rivers. Aside from the outstanding tour guidance, here are the highlights:

6. The record number of Super Bowl Championships that the Steelers have won, the place that the Pirates finished in the 6-team National League Central last season, and the numeral in the tens and ones digit of the Penguins all-time greatest player. Could there be a more better reasons to visit a city?

5. The world ranking of the ice cream store, Dave and Andy's, that we visited. All of the ice cream and waffle cones are made on-site. After double scoops of birthday cake, malted milk ball, cookies and cream, and cookie dough, our intuitions led us to agree with the USA Today rankings having Penn State's Creamery one spot ahead of Dave and Andy's (but the waffle cones were without equal).

4. The world ranking of the burgers we had at Tessaro's restaurant. Fourth place seemed a little low because the burgers were dee-lish. Its too bad that the two women at the adjacent table didn't order burgers. Feeling jealous of our heavenly half-pounders dripping with cheese and condiments, they complained about their fish being too buttery (shouldn't have ordered fish) ... and about the olives in their martinis (shouldn't have ordered martinis) ... and about the poor iPhone coverage in the restaurant (shouldn't email during dinner) ... and about the men in their lives (those men don't deserve this).

3. The number of rivers in Pittsburgh. The Allegheny, Ohio, and Monongahela drew the first settlers to the area centuries ago, and their beauty continues to do so today. Nevermind the signs that read, "Avoid bodily contact with water for fear of unidentified disease," or the crochety Canadian geese that guard their precious waters like a big business CEO protects his yearly bonus - both groups are usually caught with their pants down taking ownership of dirty goods that are not really theirs.

2. The number of beautiful stadiums/stadia/stadii (whatever the plural of stadium is) along the rivers. Heinz Field is a beautiful structure that houses a capacity 80,000 Terrible Towel-toting fans every Sunday in the fall as they cheer on their perennial powerhouse Steelers. PNC Park is a beautiful structure that houses a fraction-of-capacity 10,000 fans hoping to cheer on the Pirates if they ever have a winning season (they having the longest current losing season-streak).

1. The number of nights we stayed in Iron Town (also known as "Una Noche" to 98-Degrees fans). Chad and Chad spent the evening in the hotel's hot tub while Kate and Kathi watched a double-episode of "What Not to Wear" (it was on TLC and it was live as Chad and Chad walked shirtless and in short shorts down to the aforementioned hot tub).

0. The number of exotic dancers in Pittsburgh's Strip District. It's not what you think. It is actually a really cool flea/farmer's market.

STEEL CITY - WE'LL BE BACK TO VISIT AGAIN SOMETIME!!