Mount Davis: The Anticlimactic Climax

           This is the view from the summit of Mt. Davis, the highest point in the state.  Actually, from the summit itself, you can't see anything except the trees that surround you.  It doesn't feel like a ridgeline at all.  This photo was taken from the top of the tower that rises above the treetops.

          It's a pleasant, wooded area.  The pinnacle itself is protected in a "natural area" within a segment of the Forbes State Forest.  There's a good network of trails and some decent views in places.  Here's a shot of the well-known Deer Valley Lake as well as High Point Lake--both to the west of the mountain.  You can't really call Mt. Davis a mountain, as such.  It's just a patch of woods that stands at 3,213 feet above sea level.  It's actually part of a meandering stretch of highlands known locally as Negro Mountain.  Geography is frequently so racial in its epithets.

The Cathedral of Learning

          This is one of my favorite buildings in Pittsburgh.  Its name has an almost Soviet ring to it: The Cathedral of Learning.  It's one of the older skyscrapers around here, towering above the Oakland neighborhood on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh.  The Cathedral has an intentionally Gothic feel to it, with that old 1930s flair.  It's spooky and stately at the same time. It's taken me so long to really embrace this city again...

Fort Pitt Blockhouse

          Constructed in 1764, the Fort Pitt Blockhouse is the oldest building in Pittsburgh.  By 1893, long after the rest of the fort had been torn down, this old outbuilding was being used as a house.  It stands in the Point State Park, which is Pittsburgh's answer to Manhattan's Central Park.  It's a pleasant riverside patch of greenery, park benches, paved walkways, and broad lawns: one of the only truly flat places in town.  It's also where the city got started, with two museums to show for it, as well as the outlines where the old French and English forts once stood.  But alas, it's been undergoing massive renovations, and most of the park has been closed for a long time.