Thursday Doors – Pittsburgh Leftovers

Family, Thursday Doors 73 comments
Is Kennywood Open?

A busy couple of weeks, and a door research project that yielded more questions than answers has left me without the doors I was planning to share today. So, like any good little protégé of Norm, I’m reaching into the junk drawer of door photos for a few good photos that failed to make the editor’s cut on an earlier post.

The title is clear, today’s doors are left over from the various door posts that resulted from the family gathering in Pittsburgh last November. Faith and I drove to Pittsburgh from Connecticut, while my brother drove over from Iowa. After a little more than 48 hours of eating, drinking, cheering and sighing the deep sigh that only losing to Dallas can cause, we all headed home.

I explained most of the doors in the captions. You can click on any photo in the gallery to start a slide show. That way, if you’d rather just look and move onto the other doors, you can. If you want to full experience, the story behind the doors, the upgrade to First Class, click on a photo. If you don’t quite know what to make of this post, if you’re new to Thursday Doors, let me explain:

Each week, the master door photographer, Norm Frampton, virtually beckons his followers to join him in a quest to find and catalogue all the interesting doors on earth. If you want to see this week’s collection, saunter on over to Norm’s place. Look at his doors (to see how it’s done) and then look for the blue frog. Click that little tadpole and join the world of doors. Add your doors if you’re so inclined.

As for the featured door, some explanation may be required. Kennywood is an amusement park outside of Pittsburgh. It opens in May and stays open in some form, until October. That has nothing to do with this door. This is the inside of the Men’s Room door at Eat’n Park. “Kennywood’s open” was (and apparently still is) one of the ways fathers would tell their male children that their zipper is down.

In addition to the main gallery of doors, there is a separate smaller gallery of our transverse of Mt. Washington via the Fort Pitt Tunnel. The Pittsburgh terminus of the tunnel is often referred to as Pittsburgh’s Front Door. I think I’ve shared a photo of that before. If you want the entire experience, you can skip the gallery and watch the video at the bottom (1:46).

Welcome to the Fort Pitt Tunnel – a 3,614 feet (1,102 m) long shortcut through Mt. Washington.
Keep going. there’s an exit up there somewhere.
Drive toward the light
Step inside the front door

The doors gallery spans the entire trip. There are photos from the drive down, several from the different places we visited (not including those previously shared) and a couple from our ride home. I included one of PPG Paints Arena, since the Penguins enter the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs tonight, and I included Eat’n Park, because it is Faith’s favorite attraction, other than perhaps, Heinz Field

Gotta love those big red doors
Faith at Eat’n Park in Dubois, PA, on the way to Pittsburgh.
Not the doors Faith wanted to see when she took over driving. This is what I-80 looks like in PA. A few slow trucks passing a few slower trucks.
Not sure what they’re building but that looks like a door and those are clearly cranes. This is just inside New York on our way down.
The vacant lot is where my maternal grandmother lived. The house was home to an Aunt and two of my favorite cousins.
PPG Paints Arena. The doors open in about 15 minutes. Let’s Go Pens
Eat’n Park in Squirrel Hill
Faith at Eat’n Park in Squirrel Hill. On the way out of Pittsburgh
Every Eat’n Park has this inside the Men’s Room
We parked on this street when I went to get pictures of Allegheny General Hospital
This is a side door to the University of Pittsburgh Art Gallery
This is either a door to the Carnegie Library or the Carnegie Museum. The buildings run together.
Doors to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Roadside barn on the way home.

Ride with us through the tunnel. It’s OK, Faith is driving.

73 comments

  1. Wow! Doors and cranes in the same shot. Jackpot right? I love the Squirrel Hill shot. And the “have a nice day” iconic smiley face. Hope our day is a good one Dan. Still having beautiful, albeit it dry, weather here. 👏🏻

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    1. Jackpot indeed, Cheryl! They do so many things with that Smiley face. They make a brand of cookies with that in the frosting. If the Pirates ever make it to the playoffs, they put a chocolate patch over the left eye. They’re too cute.

      We are clearing up here, but still a bit of wet in the air. I hope you are already gearing up for a great weekend!

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  2. I wonder wonder the guys at work would think if I pasted a Kennywood sign inside their door. “Huh? What does THAT mean?” That’s too funny.

    My favorite door photo is the one of the trucks on I-80. Glad I wasn’t behind those doors. I groan and roll my eyes every time a truck goes to pass another truck on the interstate. Ten miles later they may have succeeded. Can you all just stay in the right lane and go an appropriate speed? :-/

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    1. I laughed the first time I saw the sign. I instantly remembered what it meant, and I think I checked.

      The funny/sad part is the number of times Faith will ask if I want her to drive for a while, and then we hit construction or a convoy of trucks, half going 55 and half going 57.

      Thanks for reading, and may you never know the sad sigh that comes from losing to Dallas.

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  3. Enjoyable as always. I took I deep breath when I saw the PPG sign. My father worked for them for almost 40 years, here in Canada. I still where the watch they gave him for 25 years.

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  5. There should be a Kennywood sign in every men’s washroom ;) I love your random doors. There’s always a little bit of everything, even cranes.
    I took the tour through the Pittsburgh tunnel with you. I felt like I was reliving university days and the trip back and forth between Windsor and Detroit through the tunnel under the St Clair River … except it didn’t exit onto a bridge. It just dumped the driver unceremoniously into downtown traffic on either end.

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    1. I was a little kid when that tunnel opened and we took a Sunday drive through it. I still remember trying to see from the back seat (no seatbelts back then). Originally, the tunnel had a tiled (apparently) false ceiling, so it was rectangular, not arched. The tile was so clean and reflective that it was much much brighter.

      We could use the Kennywood sign at work – agreed. Thanks

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      1. That’s a good point. It didn’t occur to me that the insides of these tunnels probably start off as something other than black. With all the car exhaust, it’s inevitable that it will get grime-y.

        I haven’t been through the Detroit tunnel in a long time, but I always remember the smell of exhaust. On a hot summer day it was rather overwhelming.

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  6. Thank you for explaining the sign because I didn’t get it, but then I had a good chuckle. :-) Tell Faith she has good driving skills; and, of course, I was partial to the barn door. Wishing you a sunny weekend because maybe it will blow north towards me after it allows you to dry out. :-)

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    1. Thanks Judy. Faith is a good driver. I remember the first time we went through the tunnel, I had to warn her about the view. “It’s going to be amazing, but you have to get over two lanes to the left before we get to the end of the bridge.”

      The sun is fighting the clouds here, but it’s not exactly winning.

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  8. Nice! Number 914 and barns are where it’s at for me, but your junk drawer’s a sure winner :)
    As you may suspect, we can’t get hardly anywhere northeast without driving through Pittsburgh. I had to laugh at slow trucks passing slower trucks — you’re not kiddin. Personally, I think all of Pennsylvania is trucker land, and when I get to New York or back to Ohio, I’m like, “Where’d they all go?!?”
    That tunnel sure does make you appreciate the view after :)

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    1. Thanks Joey. I like the reflections in 914. I-80 and I-81 in PA are the worst roads. They always have been. It’s also deer-carnage highway. We avoid I-80 on the way home, because we’re normally leaving from downtown, but on our way down, we stay at a hotel off of I-79, so I-80 is a better choice as we can avoid city traffic. This comment and Judy’s makes me glad I decided to include the barns. I really do like them.

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  9. The Men’s Room door sign is funny. When I was younger, if a girl’s slip was showing from the bottom of her skirt, we always said, ‘It’s snowing down South.” I said that after I moved to the South, and no one knew what in the heck I was talking about!
    I love the barn doors but that video was awesome! I felt like I was on a roller coaster.

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    1. I’ve never heard that expression, Lois. I’ll have to ask my wife if she remembers that. I remember saying “Kennywood’s open” when I was in Georgia, out of habit, and I got a seriously blank stare. I’m glad you took the video ride. It does a much better job than the photo sequence.

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  10. I love the Kennywood sign once you explained it and I almost always enjoy leftovers. Yours heated up well the second time around. :-) When I think of Pittsburgh, I always think of tunnels and hills, the latter always being between you and where you want to go. We’ll see what happens with the Penguins and the Caps tonight. Should be a good game.

    janet

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    1. Thanks Janet. Without Letang, I’m not sure we can beat the Caps. I hope we can pull it off, but it’s going to be tough. Hills, tunnels, bridges, Pittsburgh was such a travel challenge. I swore I would never live on the other side of a river from where I worked. I managed to survive for almost 30 years, then our company moved to the east side of the Connecticut River and now I have to choose one of three bridges.

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  11. Dang it, Dan! I just get comfortable with the whole TD photo format and posting and linking thing, and you up the bar by adding VIDEO! How is an old troglodyte supposed to compete with that?? BTW, love the whole Pittsburgh experience this week (esp. the Kennywood Open one)!

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    1. At the time I was first hearing that little reminder, there was a ride at Kennywood called “The Wild Mouse” so the expression was often augmented with a few ad lib’d expressions.

      I’m glad you enjoyed this.

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  14. The tunnel was a bit scary, it looked very narrow. Do large trucks use it, too? I had to laugh at the Kennywood sign, Dan. In Ireland, particularly Dublin, we used to say, ‘There’s cheese on your chin’ but it’s not said much nowadays.

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    1. Thanks Jean.That expression would take some time to understand. Anyway, yes, large trucks use the tunnel, but residents know to a) maintain speed and b) stay in your lane throughout the tunnel. At the time this opened, it was clean and crisp and a much better experience than the Liberty Tubes up the road a mile or so. They are just over a mile long, and they were dark and narrow by comparison.

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  22. Love the memories associated with your photos, especially the one where your two favorite cousins used to live. The red brick house reminds of the row houses in Baltimore. Love this pic. And of course seeing Faith accompanying you on your adventures is lovely.

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      1. I also like to return to familiar places, although sometimes it can be a bittersweet emotional journey. I still think that I could do the Thursday Door Challenge. Maybe because I’m reaching the end of the A to Z one :)

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        1. I will catch up this weekend. I follow too many people who did the challenge this year. The nice thing about Thursday Doors is that you have until Saturday to post and you can do one Thursday or all of em.

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  23. I saw your title and I was expecting food ;-)
    The junk in your drawer is better than most of my rejects. The University side door and the museum door were my faves.
    And thanks for explaining the sign – it had me scratching my head too.

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  24. I studied at Duquesne University for a year and a half. I remember the tunnel entrance. And hanging out at Carnegie Library with my boyfriend. One of my roommates married and lived in Squirrel Hill. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

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    1. I’m glad I hit a few high points for you. When I was in grad school at Pitt, I spent a lot of time in the library and in the museum (I was a commuting student, so I couldn’t go home between classes). Thanks for dropping by :)

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  31. Here are the fabulous doors: The Carnegie Library doors (with scrolling above), the red brick building with wooden door (black pediments above door and windows), and the University of Pittsburgh Art door (with beautiful white pillars holding lamps) were great Dan.
    The barns, both weathered white and crisp red with fall season displayed were pretty.
    The photo of Faith really made me smile so her door photo was extra special! :)

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