I love the rain!

So usually I am not a rainy day fan unless I am able to stay home on the couch watching the tv, falling in and out of sleep. After moving to Pittsburgh, I have a whole new appreciation for rain. These are some pics of how the scene has changed since we have been here. I don't have any to capture the first couple weeks which was basically snow & no sun.

Then we got to this point in late March...some sun, mostly brown but the evergreens.

Just made for some depressing drives to work...

Then came the rain!! I mean boatloads (to take a quote from my nephew Grayson) of rain! Look how pretty it is getting! The hills are covered in gorgeous shades of green. I can't wait for this summer and the fall when we start to see reds, oranges and yellows in the mix!

This is the business park we work in - called Southpointe. It is basically just huge office buildings built in the hills with a golf course all throughout.

This new place I call home is really starting to win me over ;-)

exploring the strip district

So today after trying another church...we decided to go exploring in the Strip District. This is such a neat area of Pittsburgh. It was once the home to US Steel, Westinghouse and The H.J. Heinz Company (that's right ketchup)!

Now it is more of an 'eat, live, play' location. Some of the old Heinz buildings have been renovated into lofts. There are tons of neat restaurants serving everything from breakfast to seafood to coffee. We were most excited to see all of the fresh markets - fish/seafood, meat, produce, cheese and many more. They had cool specialty shops and vendors all along the sidewalks.

We had lunch at Wholey's (http://www.wholey.com/index.html). We had some sushi & crab cakes which were all yummy. It is absolutely amazing how much this market has to offer. They have every kind of fish/seafood you can imagine - over ice and in tanks (in case you want it live). They go through 40,000 lbs of ice a day keeping everything fresh! WOW!! We were super impressed. I am looking forward to learning many seafood recipes and making great use of this fun spot.

We also really liked the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company (http://www.pennmac.com/). I have never seen a place which sells hundreds of different specialty cheeses deli style. Now perhaps I just haven't been out much, but it was exciting for me.

They also had all sorts of pastas, olive oils, olives, produce and deli meats. Dave and I picked up some risotto & penne and are already searching the internet for fun (albeit easy) recipes.

We wrapped up our time there checking out the flower shops. It was a great way to spend a Sunday in our new town. I am sure we will go back!

The only other way we would have rather spent today would have been with our moms! We miss them dearly and can't wait to see them again.

Happy Mother's Day to the moms in our family, in our circle of friends and those moms-to-be! We love you and SO appreciate everything you have done this year!