Jan. 1 & 2 Run/Walk: Saturday: New Year's Day Run at 61C at 7:30; Sunday: meet at Starbucks at the Waterfront

Hurray! Another holiday run on a Saturday followed by another the usual Sunday.  New Years Day run: meet at 61C (will they be open?)  Then on Sunday, meet at Starbucks at Waterfront for Homestead run.  A holiday gift:  double RG-time!  This time we'll have to gauge (COVID-wise) whether we're having coffee inside. If we have to go back to constant zoom I may explode.  

But last week we were still in a fairly normal mode, and hung out in the 61C and La Prima with some abandon, after cloudy but merry excursions through Squirrel Hill and the Strip/Herr's Island.  We have notes only from one day but that was quite enough:

• Billie joined us for coffee! At Hillel she became Morah Billie.
• Offspring - the endorsement that never ends.
• Subscribe to socks
• or get serious with Haflinger Felt clogs 
• Read the Squirrel Hill book
• Go to Curative to get a PCR test
• Manischewitz barley vegetable soup tastes the same as it did in the 1960's!  It's the Jewish madeleine.
• Microwavable heated snake from Etsy gets Wendy thru the winter.

Oh, there was so much more but there always is.  Best of all was Lainy's Holiday Ode:

Run/Walk Christmas 2021

 

‘Twas the morning of Christmas, the year ‘21

Of course, we had scheduled a holiday run

 

The weather was chilly, a light rain prevailed

The streets were all quiet, the gifts had been mailed

 

The start time was nearing at 61C

Not knowing which runners and walkers we’d see…

 

And who would appear to run/walk and schmooze?

Turned out to be only the Christmas ‘morn Jews

 

Come Maxine and Wendy, come Roye and Elaine

Who cares that its chilly and pouring down rain?

 

And we weren’t the only ones out and about

Its Christmas on Shabbos, so no one’s left out!

 

The route was on sidewalks, avoiding the mud

Who knew the real threat was a possible flood?!

 

Then, just as we all had really been hopin’

The 61C turned out to be open!

 

And Billie showed up with stories to tell

Mostly about her job at Hillel

 

May your next year be free of a sniffle or cough

Merry Christmas to all and a big Mazel Tov!

Dec. 25 and 26 Run and Walk: Saturday (holiday) at 61C at 7:30, Sunday at La Prima on the strip at 7 per usual

Thanks to Lainy for this info. and to various RG members for the photos (from last 2 weeks):

This Sunday’s run/walk is scheduled for the Strip District and Polish Hill - meet at La Prima Espresso, 205 21st Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.  Christmas Holiday run is scheduled for 7:30 am at the 61C, which we’ve been told would be open (but who knows?)

Last Sunday, runners and walkers looped through Lawrenceville’s main streets and back alleys, feeling hip. We climbed a scary staircase off of Butler Street that led us to new heights in Upper Lawrenceville. We peeked in at the renovated Pusadee’s Garden, where we should have happy hour some day. The mural at Spirit (a former Moose Lodge) was a great backdrop for the group, and another possible future happy hour venue.  Coffee at Convive was boisterous, as usual, and the muffins were delicious. They even said we were welcome to come back. Conversation was heavily focused on planning a GAP trail bike trip to Cumberland in October ’22.

December 19 Run or Walk: Meet at Butler and Fisk in Lawrenceville

The place to meet on Sunday is Convive Coffee, 4032 Butler St. for a Lawrenceville run. There is a hope that, after the depressing dearth of Christmas windows downtown last week, there may be some creative spirit surviving on Butler St.  (We did find one great one though - in photo, Beth is contemplating wearing this outfit to a Xmas party.)

We did get to visit the new I-579 Cap Park - aka Frankie Pace Park, a brilliantly creative way to literally bury the highway that famously cut off the Hill from Downtown, and bring Black Pittsburgh into focus.  Also - who knew the Federal Courthouse had a facade?  And what gabion  baskets are? Walkers watched the sun rise over the Mon on the Duquesne U. campus - runners on the Roberto Clemente Bridge saw it over the Allegheny.

Coffee at Market Square Starbucks (jumping at 8 am on a Sunday!) brought up:

• Perla's Appliances for your next dishwasher, etc.
• Everlane clothes
  
  
• Reduce COVID exposure at movie theaters by going at early bird time (i.e. 4 pm at the Waterfront.)  Then watch: Belfast or C'mon C'mon.
• Also watch: Wait for your laugh (Rose Marie documentary.)
• Listen to audiobook: Ron Howard, The Boys
• Or read it, along with the Katie Couric autobiography
• Go ahead, spit in that bottle and find your roots at Ancestry.com or Myheritage.com.  

December 12 Run: Downtown Holiday Run; Meet in Market Square

 On Sunday, let's run our traditional Holiday run downtown.  Let's start in Market Square.  Parking can usually be found on Fourth Avenue near the rink at PPG Place.  After the run or walk, we can meet at the Starbucks in Market Square.

This past Sunday, Gretchen and Beth led the run on a beautiful portion of the Rachel Carson Trail within North Park.  We enjoyed the beautiful sunrise, rolling hills, wildlife, and fresh air.  It was a really nice route!

We had coffee at a nice little spot called Cafe Conmigo that smelled of fresh pine and had very nice gift items!  Endorsements include: 

• Holiday movies such as "The Holiday," "Elf," and a non-holiday, feel-like-you're-on-a-vacation movie "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar."
• Theatre: The 12 Dates of Christmas
• Shopping: Public Lands in Cranberry for outdoors gear and clothing
• Wearing both a pad and a tampon to be better prepared in life... Is it a metaphor, or just common sense?
• Retreating into different parts of the house if you have a holiday guest that won't stop talking....

December 5 Run/Walk: A new North Park Run with Beth and Gretchen: meet at the Rachel Carson Trailhead (directions in message)

Sunday's plan, with thanks to Beth and Gretchen:

Travel up Rt 19 (Perry Highway) heading north, turn right at Wendy's onto Brooker Drive.  Brooker Drive immediately turns into Conestoga Drive. Park in the gravel parking lot along the edge of the woods.  Here's a map. 

Start of the run - Rachel Carson Trailhead in North Park on Conestoga Drive. The trailhead is roughly located behind Above All Salon and Spa in a strip mall in Wexford. The run/walk will follow the Rachel Carson Trail using the arrows on the brown Allegheny County Park posts. When you reach the McKinney soccer complex turn right and run along McKinney Rd for about 700 ft.  Turn left at a weathered wooden sign and take the path that leads through a wildflower meadow then into the woods of North Park. You can take any number of trails from here, and you may need the map on your phone to navigate back to McKinney Rd.  Getting lost is half the fun! 

Followed by coffee at Cafe Conmigo, 10 North Meadow Drive, off Perry Highway (map)

Last Sunday took us all the way from the Hot Metal Bridge to Hazelwood on the trail - lots of open space, natural landscape, a different view of the Mon, and also of where Pitt and CMU will be cooking up inscrutable futuristic stuff in Hazelwood Green.

And, free coffee (!) and room to lounge around at the Hotel Indigo. 

Speaking of inscrutable, my sketchy endorsement notes this week appear to include nasal strips, Canadian bacon, older dating, naked photos, and JDate. Hope it wasn't recorded.