Point State Park Walkabout

Slowly but surely fall is arriving to Pittsburgh.  While the leaves are starting to turn colors and there are pumpkin flavored treats everywhere, the afternoons are still warm enough for you to walk around in shorts and a t-shirt.  Today I decided to head out and explore Point State Park.  While I have biked around this small park within the city limits, I have yet to visit the Fort Pitt Block House.

The Fort Pitt Block House is the oldest authenticated structure in Pittsburgh at 251 years old.  This redoubt (a fancy word for a building outside a larger force used for protection) is all that remains of Fort Pitt.  Two years after the Revolutionary War ended, Fort Pitt was destroyed, but the Block House was spared as someone was living in the structure.  In 1894, the building was given to the Daughters of the American Revolution to be preserved.  Today it is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.

The iconic fountain, located at the end of the point, is where Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers come together to form the Ohio; the area is also referred to as the Forks of the Ohio.  After four years of upgrades, the fountain repoened in 2013.  Fun fact: the water in the fountain comes from an aquifer which runs under the park.

I headed back through the park, tootled around downtown and then to the Three Rivers Heritage Trail.  

Look at those Sister Bridges! 

150 volunteers worked with local artist Kim Beck to complete the 900-foot long mural along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail.  According to Beck's website:

"The weed silhouettes were inspired by weeds growing along the riverfront, and the title was inspired by a journal entry by Henry David Thoreau:  'There they stood in the midst of the open river on this shallow and weedy bar in the sun the leisurely sentries lazily pluming themselves as if the day were too long for them. They gave a new character to the stream. Adjutant they were to my idea of the river, these two winged men.'"

Back through Point State Park and over the Ft. Duquesne Bridge to where I parked my car.
All in all, it was a very successful five mile walkabout. 

I will definitely be back in a week or two to check out the changing leaves!

Autumnal Bliss!

My most favorite time of year has arrived ... AUTUMN!!!  

Here's to cooler weather, cozy sweaters, apple picking, fall foliage and much, much more.

#‎NursesShareYourStethoscopes‬

I'm not one for standing on a soap box, but in light of comments made on The View about Miss Colorado's recent monologue I couldn't help myself.

As a nursing student one professor told us that while medicine treats the disease, nursing treats the human reaction to the disease.

I, like so many other colleagues, have had to defend myself and explain I am more than 'just a nurse' and while I was smart enough to cut it in medical school it was not my calling. We do more than clean up poop and give bed baths; there is nothing sexy about the scrubs we wear or being covered in someone else's bodily fluids. Day in and day out, nurses (and PCT's) monitor you or your loved ones for minor changes in vital signs and mental status. We double and triple check to make sure your orders and medications are correct. We chart, we analyze your lab results and we spend MUCH more time with you than the doctors (nothing against many of the hard working, compassionate doctors I have met over the last two years, that is just how it goes).

Over the last few years I have experienced the joy of parents meeting their child for the first time, reviewed diagnoses and medications with patients until they fully understand their discharge instructions and held the hands of family members as a loved one took their last breaths.

So tomorrow I will put on my scrubs, don my 'doctor's stethoscope' and head to work with nearly 4 million other registered nurses. The job is truly a calling and I for one could not be prouder to be part of the most honorable profession in U.S.

'The mountains are calling and I must go.'

This weekend the BF and I decided to head out to Sugarloaf Mountain to enjoy some of the last moments of summer.  We wanted to get an early start to the day to avoid the Labor Day hikers so thankfully a friend of a friend let us camp in their yard. 

The morning started off a little misty, but as we made our way around the trail the sun was shining and the crowds started to descend.  This is what I get when I ask for a "ponder life shot."

After several trips to the Frederick area, we made out way to Flying Dog Brewery.
Sadly the tour was sold out, but that didn't stop us from trying a few beers. 

After a morning of hiking and an afternoon of tootling around DC we definitely got out steps in for the day!