Pittsburgh On The Cheap: Day 4

Day four in Pittsburgh started with Marla heading to a meeting.  While she did that, I started our lunch of broccoli and noodle casserole that she wanted to try.

We cooked together when she got home and it turned out to be delicious.  After lunch, we headed for the Pittsburgh Zoo.  We had not been here together since she was three.  It was fun to take a leisurely trip to the zoo on a Monday.  There were no crowds and we could linger and watch the animals as long as we wanted.  It was especially fun to watch the Mama elephants with the young ones.  They seemed to enjoy watching us as much as we liked watching them.  Not so the primates.  They spent a lot of time hiding from us humans or looking the other way!

 

After the zoo, it was time for me to head back to Central PA.  Marla drove me to the bus station at the Convention center.  This time Megabus was right on time.  My hubby had downloaded the megabus app so he knew my exact ETA.  It was good to get back home.  It was a great visit in Pittsburgh for not a lot of $$!

Costs for Day 4
Zoo tickets for two $28.00
Parking for Megabus $3.00
Bus home $15.00

Total for day 4:  $46.00

Grand Total for the trip: $196.36

Avg. Cost per night:  $65.45

My (Cheap) Trip to Pittsburgh Day 3

Day one and two of my Pittsburgh trip were pretty discounted.  Day three was a little more expensive, but not by much :)  Sunday started with a long walk on 5th Avenue. Marla was sleeping in and I needed to MOVE. I walked to Mellon Park This park was filled with gardens and sculptures. There was a band playing in the park and lots of people were enjoying their Sunday morning there.

I walked back to a local coffee shop and got an iced tea. It's just what I needed after a walk on a hot day. Now it was time to do some of the weekend chores, so we headed for groceries. It was lunch time so we split a maranara and mozzarella pizza. We got ingredients to make a yummy broccoli and noodle casserole for Monday's lunch. Next we met my college roommate and some of Marla's friends in Southside for dinner at Local Bar and Kitchen. I split a buffalo chicken wing salad with Wanda (my roomie). Marla, Tony and Sarah split buffalo chicken dip. I don't know about the dip, but the salad was delicious and we didn't even need any dressing. Marla got a drink called a Yuinserita. It's a margarita with a bottle of beer in it. Sounds gross but tasted good. I found Frambois (rasberry beer) on the menu which made me happy. Wanda and her husband Curtis pulled the "pay the tab while I went to the restroom" trick. Thanks so much guys. I really appreciate your generosity! More savings for the cheap trip to Pittsburgh.

Since my roomie paid the tab, we went to a bar down the street and I bought her a drink. Then we headed to Love Yogurt so the younger crowd could get a treat. They had all kinds of yogurt flavors and toppings. After a stop at Starbucks to hang out, we said goodbye to Wanda and Curtis and got to see Sarah's cute apartment and her pet cat. It wasn't dark yet and we were feeling a little bloated from all the food and drink, so we stopped off at Schenely Park for a walk. It was a beautiful place to watch the sun set over the Pittsburgh skyline. On the way home we stopped for a Red Box movie.

Day 3

Tea at coffee shop $2.06

Lunch at the grocery store $7.90

Groceries $46.45

Parking in Southside $4.00

Love Yogurt $19.45

Drinks for Wanda and I $9.00

Big Box Movie $1.28

Total Cost for day 3 $90.14

Check in for day four and a complete total tomorrow.

My (Cheap) Trip to Pittsburgh Day 2

Yesterday, I posted my first day in Pittsburgh.  It was pretty inexpensive.  Day two was even cheaper.
On Saturday Marla had to work. She works with young kids on an Americor program. On this day, they were tie-dyeing t-shirts so I tagged along to help. It turned out to be a highlight of the trip and very inexpensive. We set up shop on the sidewalk outside the center. The kids dropped in from 1 until 3 p.m. I helped by giving directions when it got a little crowded and with general clean-up. The people (adults and kids) were friendly and they really seemed to enjoy tie-dyeing the shirts. We even had a few adults try it when we were finishing up. We ate our subs for lunch while we worked.

Marla worked until 7 p.m. so I took the bus downtown to try out a self guided tour I had downloaded onto my phone from Robert Morris University. Are you apprehensive about riding city busses? You don't have to be with Hop Stop. This app will make navigating any bus, subway or train in any major city easier to navigate. All you have to do is type in your starting and ending destination and you will know exactly where to get the bus and exactly where to depart. The tour was great. I got a lot of background information on some of the major buildings in the city. The only downside was I couldn't go inside any of the buildings because it was Saturday and they were closed

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That's me in the reflection of the PPG building. Right after this picture was taken, I stopped at Starbucks in Market Square for a snack and a bottle of water. After I finished the tour, Marla picked me up near Duquesne University. We headed back to her place and changed for dinner. We went to a place called Beernutz. It was a local bar and restaurant. It had the best hamburger I ever had (and I've had a lot of burgers). Marla's roommate worked here and gave us her meal discount so some more savings for my trip on the cheap. Yay!

Total cost for day 2 in Pittsburgh:
Soda for lunch $1.00
Snack in Market Square $3.80
Supper at Beernutz $14.62

Total: $19.42

Check in tomorrow for day three!

My (Cheap) Trip to Pittsburgh Day 1

How cheap can you do a trip to Pittsburgh?  Does three nights for under $200.00 sound like a good deal?  Here's how I did it last weekend.  First of all, my daughter lives there, so I was able to stay at her apartment.  That was a big savings right off the bat. Even the cheapest hotels in the Pittsburgh area are about $70.00 per night. I saved at least $210.00 by staying with a relative. I arrived late Friday afternoon via Megabus. There is a non-stop route that runs from near my house to Pittsburgh at least twice a day.  My round trip ticket cost $30.00.  I didn't have the headache of driving into the city, dealing with traffic or the bad weather.  I had three hours to myself to do some reading and studying.  Megabus is always clean and comfortable.  Sometimes it runs late as it did on Friday afternoon, but I wasn't on a schedule, so no big deal.  All I did was text my daughter when we were about there and I had a ride waiting for me when I stepped off the bus.  Let the fun begin!

We were both hungry so we headed to Squirrel Hill, a Pittsburgh neighborhood, to get something to eat. We stumbled onto an antique car show just starting in the street.  We spent some time looking at the cars and browsing in a vintage shop called Avalon.

We headed to Uncle Sam's sub shop. I had a mediterranean sub and Marla had a cheesesteak.  Of course it wouldn't be Pittsburgh unless you had a huge mound of fries on top of your sandwich!

We each ate half of our subs and decided to keep the other half for our lunch the next day.  That gave me incentive to finish all my fries (uh-oh healthy diet blown).  We dropped my luggage at Marla's apartment and met her boyfriend, Tony, for gelato at Mercurio's in Shadyside.  This place has delicious gelato and some tasty oven fired pizza.

The total cost for day 1 in Pittsburgh
Megabus: $15.00
Parking in Squirell Hill: $2.00
Squirell Hill car show and browsing and Avalon $0.00!
Subs at Uncle Sam's $17.44
Gelato at Mercurio's $6.36

Total $40.80

Day one was fun.  Is it possible to have a cheaper day than $42.00?  Check back tomorrow and see...

 

Planning The Trip is Half The Fun

Going on a trip is fun, but planning a trip can be almost as much fun.  Trip planning is even more fun since you can search the Internet and use mobile apps to find fun things to do and good deals on hotels, restaurants, car rentals etc.

I am working on planning three trips right now.  This weekend, I am going to visit my daughter in Pittsburgh.  Just for fun, I am going to see how much fun we can have on the cheap. I am going to travel by Megabus.  They go nonstop from my hometown twice a day.  A round trip Megabus ride to Pittsburgh is only $30.00.  I can't drive that cheaply. I am working on things to do and places to eat that won't break the bank. Stay tuned to see how I did.

Hubby and I are planning a winter trip to Key West.  I am really excited about this one!  We decided to fly to Miami and drive Highway One.  We hear that everyone should drive into Key West via Highway One at least once.  We are flying back directly from Key West.  We will be taking part in a Food and Wine Festival held there each winter.  Our winery owning friends are reserving room at the Southernmost Hotel.  We will be going to lots of activities; a beach party, a Key West Stroll and maybe a sunset catamaran cruise.  Can't Wait!

The third trip is to Washington, PA for the Color Me Rad 5K.  This is a fun event to raise money for Ronald McDonald House. Participants wear white.  While they run or walk the course, the Bomb Squad throws colored paint powder made from corn starch.  When you are done, you look like a rainbow.  A big colorful finale is planned at the finish line.  My sister and I have decided to participate and my daughter plans to be a bomb squad member.

These trips are going to keep us busy planning! Looking forward to them is just as much fun as taking them. I'll keep you posted on all the fun.  If you have been on any of these trips before, let me know what you did.  Maybe I can add that to my list of things to do.

Staycation

So I just got home from my awesome vacation to Sunset Beach NC. Now a million things were pulling me in a million different directions; the phone, the news and the the chores around the house. I was feeling a little frazzled. It was time for a short staycation to recharge my batteries.

Now you may think the choice a bit strange, but this cemetery is one of the most peaceful places there is near my house. I might as well enjoy it while I am still here right? So I put my beach chair and my reading materials in the car and off I went.

The beautiful trees offered much needed shade on this 90 degree day. A light breeze was blowing and the birds were singing just for me. No one else was around to distract my studies or my thoughts. I spent about an hour

and a half in the Milroy cemetery just reading and relaxing. When it was time to go, I felt refreshed and ready to face the rest of the week. What's your favorite place for a mini staycation? Comment and let me know!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunset Beach, North Carolina

It's only fitting that I start my new blog with my vacation to Sunset Beach, NC.  My family has been vacationing there since the mid 80's.  We fell in love with the place after my cousin John moved to Wilmington and raved about how nice it was.  He was right.  Sunset Beach is a little slice of heaven right here in the USA. It's a long trip from PA so when our kids were little, my dad started renting the beach house for two weeks.  That has allowed us to explore a little.  There are SO many things to see and do there.  Let me give you some highlights in pictures.

The Beach

Long, white sand beach, water temps in the 80's by the end of June, waves that won't steal your swimsuit, no jellyfish, no horseshoe crabs, cooling breezes all day long and no crowds.

The Island

Beautiful and refeshingly not commercial, but close enough to lots of fun spots if you want to leave the island.  Here's a few suggestions:

Have dinner at Roberto's

They have great Italian food, steaks and seafood and it's just minutes away in Ocean Isle, NC

Take a ghost tour!

We've done several ghost tours in the South. This year, we went to Georgetown, SC.  It was about an 1 1/2 drive from Sunset.  First we had a great dinner at Limpin Jane's..

then we took the harbor walk.  At dusk, we took the Georgetown ghost tour with William, a lifelong native and history buff.  His stories were great, some were first hand ghost experiences he and his friends have had.  They were added to the documented stories revolutionary war era to the present.

Work Out

We took a spin class and a group pump class at the Fitness Studio.  They were fun and they helped work off the dinner from Roberto's and Limpin' Jane's!

Visit Southport, NC. 

It's a quaint town on the Cape Fear River.  You can take a tour, shop, or if you are lucky enough to be there over the July 4th weekend.  Run or walk in the Freedom 5K, come to the street festival and see one of the ten best fireworks displays in the nation!

Taste some wine

Visit Grapeful Sisters Winery and campground. Amy will surely give you some great Southern hospitality! Call ahead to get a picnic basket lunch.  Eat and sip wine on the wrap-around porch.

If you decide to take a vacation in Sunset Beach, prepare to go back again and again because you are going to love it.  If you have been there, let me know about some of your Sunset Beach favorites.