Just Ducky Pittsburgh

For our first anniversary, we decided to do something neither of us (or Emry) as ever done: go on one of those ducky tours.

I’m sure most of y’all have seen them in Boston, or Charleston, or any major city where there is both land and water to tour. The “bus” is an old World War II vessel used on both land and see, especially during invasions like the beaches of Normandy. Very timely that we should be riding in them on the 71^st anniversary of D-Day.

Of course, you would never use these vehicles in war now. As you can see from the picture below, this vessel now painted bright red, would be a sitting duck. (Quack, Quack, Quack!) If you can’t quite make out the name of the vessel, it is Dahnthan Dottie. This is Pittsburghese. Mine is still rusty, even after a year, but this can be interpreted as “Downtown Dottie”. I’m afraid I will never have the correct accent to speak Pittsburghese, but put a clothespin on your nose, say “downtown” and you’ll come close.

 Emry and Ed with Dahntahn Dottie.

The tour was very fun. The tour guides more than a little lively with lots of quick (and quack) facts about Pittsburgh. We did a lot of quacking, disturbing the citizens and other tourists (especially all the young, cute girls going to the Taylor Swift concert that night) with our quacking. We saw a great deal of Pittsburgh from both land and water. Seeing Pittsburgh from its rivers was a nice point of view, but I wouldn’t take a tour in one of the ducky boats if I wanted to see the rivers themselves. It would take months…

 Pittsburgh from the Allegheny River.

So, what did I learn about Pittsburgh? Well, the first Big Mac was made here. As well as the first banana split. PNC Park is made from imported steel. (I’m in agreement with the tour guide that this may be why they haven’t won a World Series before or since moving there. Something like the “Curse of the Bambino”. I mean, why does the “Steel City” import steel to build their own baseball stadium?) There was once 17 inclines going up Mt. Washington. They were built so the coal workers wouldn’t have to climb all those stairs, but the inclines were so expensive to ride the workers wouldn’t spend their money on them. So, the city hired “ghosts” to scare the workers off the stairs into taking the inclines. Now there are two inclines remaining that are something fun to do. (I haven’t done them yet, but when I do I will take a larger bill for the machine because they give back dollar coins in change.) Pittsburgh’s theatre district is second only to Broadway in the number of theatres it has. And there are 446 bridges in the city of Pittsburgh. This is three MORE than the city of Venice.

I think the most information thing I learned has to do with Pittsburghese. Another thing Pittsburghers say a lot is “Dahn-thar” or “Up-thar”. (Interpretation: “Down there” and “Up there”.) The tour guide helpfully told us that when you use either of these terms, it really doesn’t make a difference which way you’re pointing. Just point and use whichever one comes to your tongue first. That has been very helpful…and explains why I’m always getting turned around and lost in this city.

Truly, it was a very fun way to spend our first anniversary. Even Emry had fun!