No matter how often you emerge from the Fort Pitt tunnel, this view of Pittsburgh is always such a complete and utter pleasant surprise. The city seems to say, "Here I am and here I'll stay with or without those steel mills". The more you get to know Pittsburgh, the more its voice seems to add, "And here I'll stay with or without those fancy tall buildings some think I need in order to survive".
But Pittsburgh isn't just a product of steel mills whose capitalist owners sunbathed in the perspiration of their workers; it has a softer side where opera, dance and theater play their role. Along with Iron City beer-drinking sport enthusiasts who proudly proclaim their team the greatest, are artists, writers, musicians and actors who perform in the numerous theaters scattered throughout the city. The innovative Flux group produces "happenings' promoting experimental art work, poetry and music. There is the technical and scientific side of Pittsburgh as seen in the research departments of its renowned universities such as Carnegie-Mellon, Duquesne and the University of Pittsburgh, and in its hospitals to where patients from all over the world throng for transplant operations. There is the religious side of Pittsburgh with its Hindu temples, synagogues, Islamic Center, churches of different denominations sprouting up high, their steeples glistening in the sun. Some are huge, like St. Pauls' and others are small like St. Gregory's.
Pittsburgh is also home to Mr. Rogers, a television hero for the 2-5 year old age group. If you're traveling with children, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History is high on the list of must-go-to places. There, children from 1 to 101 will delight in the dinosaur exhibition.
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