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发帖数: 209 | 1 1. 52 Great Weekend Getaways AROUND pittsburgh
http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/April-201
2. Weekend Trips From Pittsburgh
http://traveltips.usatoday.com/weekend-trips-pittsburgh-2009.ht
3. Pennsylvania Romantic Getaways
http://pittsburgh.about.com/cs/pittsburghromance/a/getaways.htm
4. Best Romantic Getaways Around Pittsburgh
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/top-lists/best-romantic-getaways
5. Making the Most of Winter in Pittsburgh
http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/topwintersportspgh012611.a
ELAINE LABALME | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2011
Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
--Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, 1945
It's a catchy tune fersure, but staying indoors during the winter months is
not the way to go. Pittsburghers have plentiful options for outdoor fun
when it's cold and snowy and it's in that spirit of fun and camaraderie that
we offer our top ten list. Biggest surprise? A couple of our favorites
take place (gasp) inside.
Keeping in mind "if you look good, you feel good," head over to Pavement in
Lawrenceville for the latest in hats, gloves and scarves, many of them by
designers with ties to Pennsylvania. Xmittens are made from recycled
polyester fleece in a host of bright colors and pair well with designer
Amber Coppings' hats, scarves and shawls. Pittsburgh-based Coppings is a
veteran of Handmade Arcade and I Made It Market and sells her wares across
the U.S. B. ella churns out luxurious wool socks in one of the last woolen
mills in the U.S., located in eastern Pennsylvania. "It's no longer about
the big scarf," says Alissa Martin, owner of Pavement. "Think minimal this
year but with more texture." The hot toddy of fashion?
Take your hot new look to the Cross Keys Inn, a stately brick edifice in
Indiana Township that served as a way station for travelers for over a
century. In the capable hands of restaurateurs Robert and Michael Uricchio,
the Inn is known for its cossetting lounge, where deep leather chairs match
the dark wood paneling keeping company with a bucolic, wraparound mural of
ponds and trees. There's a full-service restaurant, too, but you will
linger longer in the lounge, with its wood-burning fireplace and low
lighting. The Cross Keys burger is a revelation, a half-pound of Kobe and
Angus beef paired with pulled pork and caramelized onions. The Pittsburgh
wedge is drizzled in bleu and you can wash it all down with a Cygnet Merlot
from Swanson Vineyards.
Make like a kid and go ice skating at PPG Place, a cozy sheet of ice that
springs to life by Thanksgiving and melts away in March. The downtown
location will call to mind The Plaza and Eloise and assorted big-city
fantasies in the shadow of PPG's graceful glass towers. Further south, the
outdoor ice rink in South Park has been the place to teach young ones how to
skate for generations. The expansive surface plays host to occasional
hockey games but it's the weekend rec skate, a bargain at $3, that will have
you making circles for hours in the embrace of trees and a steady westerly
breeze.
If you'd rather leave the skating to someone else, pay a visit to the
Penguins new home, Consol Energy Center. Opened in the fall of 2010, our
hockey heroes now boast of the best arena in the NHL, a cavernous space
where every seat is a good one. The lower bowl put you close to the action
and, yes, you will see Sid sweat. If the multimedia introduction that
blasts out of the scoreboard at the start of every game doesn't get you
pumped, nothing will.
Back outdoors, go north for snowshoeing at the Jennings Environmental
Education Center in Slippery Rock. If there's four inches of snow on the
ground and rangers are on site, the center will happily lend you a pair of
snowshoes (traditional or contemporary) and send you on miles of wooded
trails that are as beautiful as they are calming. A section of the North
Country Trail, which runs from New York to North Dakota, traverses the
property and comes with a stead of black cherry trees that's among the
largest in Pennsylvania. Hot cocoa and a seat by the fire await your return
. Equally sybaritic is cross-country skiing in Moraine State Park, where
six miles of groomed trails are maintained on the south shore of the
beautiful, boulder-rich,13,000-acre park. (Don't miss the covered bridge.)
Bring your skis and consider renting one of the park's eleven two-bedroom
cabins complete with kitchen. A chili cook-off, cross-cut sawing
demonstrations and nature hikes are all part of the park's annual Winter
Fest.
At Seven Springs ski resort in the Laurel Highlands, the snow tubing rivals
that found at much larger resorts on the west coast. Sign up for a two-hour
slot and bring a few friends, the better to connect individual sleds for
high-speed flight down perfectly-groomed tracks. If you turn right at the
top of the hill, it's a mellower run than if you veer left; face masks and
goggles will make the ride that much sweeter. On an adjacent hill, you can
partake of an hour-long, guided snowmobile tour. Guides fore and aft lead a
merry band aboard sleek GTX-300 sleds that seat one or two. The ride
starts out easily enough, a conga line of sleds zigging and zagging amid
snow-covered trees. Before long, you reach an open field and it's wheelies
for everyone. The biggest rush, however, is yet to come: flying up, down
and around hilly terrain that is an E-ticket ride. The experience could be
the best-kept secret at Seven Springs, but not for long.
If you feel you've exhausted your wintertime options in Pittsburgh, it's
time to go to...Cleveland. Yep, ground zero for lake-effect snow is a
winter playland all its own. Go ice fishing for perch and walleye on Lake
Erie, tobogganing at The Chalet at Mill Stream Run Reservation, winter
surfing at Edgewater State Park or take the surfing indoors at Kalahari
Waterpark, the largest indoor waterpark in the U.S. Dinner is at gastro-pub
Melt, where the sandwich of the month could be the "Hungry Hungarian
Paprikash Melt," tender, pulled roast chicken, huge homemade dumplings and
creamy paprikash sauce, all smothered in provolone. Go, Cleveburgh!
New Girl In Town Elaine Labalme is a fan of four seasons, by Vivaldi or
Pittsburgh.
Photographs: Sledding; Hats at Pavement; Cross Keys Inn; skating at PPG;
Consol Energy Center; Moraine State Park; skiing; Melt.
Skiing copyright Tracy Certo
All other photographs copyright Brian Cohen |
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