As I discovered last summer having a guest is wonderful, but it is very intense. We went to eleven different places, not counting the things we just drove around and restaurants. We had a great time; Betty is a wonderful guest; I saw a lot more of Pittsburgh.  On Friday we started at the Warhol, primarily to see the Darger exhibit. Betty knew a lot about Darger but had never seen so much of his work. Although this was my third visit to the exhibit, and I am not fond of Darger, it was fun going again because Betty had a lot to say about him. My favorite thing in the museum is this lion:

This is a more interesting view than head on.

From the Warhol we went to the Frick house, Clayton. Again, I loved seeing it with Betty because she is so knowledgeable. We each have very different areas of interest within the wider field of art and architectural history. So we always have a lot to contribute to each other.

Saturday we started with the French and Indian War at the Sen. John Heinz Regional History Center. This is a wonderful exhibit about some of the most important events in the early history of our country that continue to affect us today, even though we don’t think about them. We concluded our day with Joyeux Noel, a heartwarming but very graphic film about the Christmas truce during World War I. With all of these films and exhibits about the agonies and atrocities of war, I cannot understand how we continue to permit our young men to fight.

Sunday we went to church. It seemed appropriate after all that war, but we really went to see the architecture. Ralph Adams Cram built three churches in Pittsburgh. We drove around the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Homewood that did not seem to be open. Then we went, briefly, to the Palm Sunday Service at the Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside, and concluded at a later service at East Liberty Presbyterian Church.
As we drove to H. H. Richardson‘s Emanuel Episcopal Church on the North side of Pittsburgh, we stopped at Temple Sinai, a reform Jewish Temple in Squirrel Hill housed in the former Worthington mansion. We finished the day with a visit to Duquesne University to see the Duquesne Union designed by Paul Schweiker and the engineering building by Mies van der Rohe.

Before I took Betty to the airport today we stopped downtown to tour the Allegheny Courthouse and Jail, also by H. H. Richardson. This is the first time I have seen inside those buildings. They are amazing.

My whirlwind tour of Pittsburgh is finished. Tomorrow I go back to my Japanese Art class, and on Wednesday, we are all going to New York for Pesach and I will have three whirlwind days in New York, hopefully seeing more Japanese Art.