Met up with an old friend at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh

Fang and I in May 2009

Last week one of my best friends, Fang, whom I have known since we were in college together (since 1998), sent me a message that she had a last minute work trip to the states scheduled and that she would be in Pittsburgh this past weekend. She was bringing her oldest son with her and he doesn't do well with car rides so she didn't think she could come visit. So I suggested that we head her way. A 3 hour car ride is no problem for my kids and I wanted to see her. We don't see other often as she lives and works in Singapore. The last time we had seen each other in real life was in early 2009. I had just found out I was pregnant with Jacob and she was newly married. 

The sun came out just as we were entering Pennsylvania.

We had such a fabulous time in Pittsburgh on Saturday. We left Mount Vernon at 6:15 in the morning in the pouring rain. We drove in a rain for most of the trip. When we entered Pennsylvania the sun poked through for a few moments as a sort of welcome. We arrived in Pittsburgh around 9:15. We were meeting Fang and her son at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History at 10:00 so we had 45 minutes to walk around and show our kids a little bit of downtown. We walked around the outside of the museum and the kids were fascinated with the dinosaur replica and the fountain that was outside.

We met Fang and her son Jordan in the museum and it was so good to see her. We spent several hours at the museum catching up with one another and enjoying the exhibits. They have a world class dinosaur exhibit, including some of the first dinosaur bones ever found. This includes the very first T-rex. Rebecca thoroughly enjoyed that part of the museum. 

They have several interesting exhibits, including a hall of gems, a botany hall, and exhibits about animals. It was definitely worth the price of admission. 

They had a live animal show and Jacob and Benjamin were brave enough to touch the snake and lizard that they had.

We also had lunch at their cafe and just talked and laughed. The museum also had several interactive areas for the kids to play and relax. There was definitely something for everyone! 

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is connected to the Carnegie Museum of Art and both are included in the price of admission. Given that we had 2- 4 year olds with us, we decided to skip the Museum of Art. We probably spent about 4 hours in the museum. When we left, we decided to meet up again at Station Square about 10 minutes away for the rest of the day.....