Cathedral of Learning at Pittsburgh

Cathedral of Learning is the tallest building on the campus of University of Pittsburgh, it is also the 2nd tallest educational building in the world. It is 535 feet tall with 42 stories. There are classrooms in the building. It was built from 1926 to 1934. The university on the other hand was created in 1787.

When we visited Pittsburgh during August 20 -24, 2020, we could almost always see the building anywhere in east end of Pittsburgh, the university district, in the streets on Forbes avenue, 5th avenue, or Blvd of the Allies, on CMU campus.  During that time we went to Schenley Park, the large city park next to CMU and Pitt, for picnic a few times, and it felt that the cathedral was right next door to the park. The last day at Pittsburgh during this trip, it was a beautiful sunny day, we walked over to the Cathedral to take a closer look of the grand building and went inside.

View of the Cathedral from Schenley Park

View of the Cathedral from the mall of Engineering on CMU campus

View of the Cathedral from street - Ode to Space

Monday, August 24th, was a beautiful day at Pittsburgh. We got up early, took the grab-and-go breakfast from the hotel lounge and went on walking to the building from the hotel, a mile distance along Forbes Avenue. The Cathedral has a elegant court yard around it. There is a log cabin in the coutyard, southeast to the Cathedral, which symbolizes the origin of the university of Pittsburgh on the 18th century frontier of  early United States. The Heinz memorial chapel is at northeast end of this court yard.

Despite the covid-19, the building was still open to public. All we need to do was to have our temperature measured by an infrared machine. 

The consequence of the pandemic was obvious, there was no guided tour, the tables and chairs in the open area were wrapped in plastics.We walked around the commons room, and then went the highest floor accessible by elevator, 36th floor, to have a bird eye view of Schenley Park, Pitt and CMU campus on southeast, Point State Park, downtown high rises and the three rivers on the west. We then went to 3rd floor where most nationality rooms are, the famed nationality rooms were all locked. But we did have a view of the commons room from the 3rd floor balcony. 

We did not linger too long there because of the noon time flight home. We will have to wait for next time to see the Cathedral in normal condition, and the famed elegant nationality rooms in person.

The Cathedral of Learning

The Log cabin next to the cathedral

The commons room

Entrance to the commons room

Sign to the nationality rooms on the 3rd floor

View of commons room from 3rd floor balcony

Heinz Memorial Chapel northeast to the Cathedral

Glimpse of Pittsburgh

Sending Nicholas to a college at Pittsburgh this weekend, made it the 3rd time I visit the Steel City. But I barely visited any places in the city the first two times, had a vague memory of it. This time I had plenty of time to walk around.

A unique feature of Pittsburgh is that  three rivers join with each other at point state park. Allegheny river from northeast, Monongahela river from southeast, merge to form Ohio river. Another significant feature is the direction of the rivers flow. My impression is that east of continental divide, rivers typically flow to east or south, or southeast. Allegheny flows southwest, Monongahela flows northwest. Ohio river starts flowing north and northwest, overall it flows southwest to merge with Mississippi river near Wickliffe. This feature confused me initially as I was wondering which way the rivers flow.

View of Pittsburgh downtown and three rivers from my inbound Airplane

Nicholas and mom walked to point state park for a picnic lunch

downtown Pittsburgh at night

Because of the three rivers, Pittsburgh claims to have most bridges in a city in the world, more than Venice Italy, 446 vs. 400! That's why it is also nicknamed City of Bridges! Many bridges are painted yellow, some green, and a few in rusted iron. The yellow color is indeed related to Pittsburgh Steelers, the color of their terrible towels, when the city repainted the bridges in 2000s. Away from Heinz Stadium, some bridges are painted green, the most common color of all steel bridges in US. 

Bridges over Allegheny River

Pittsburgh is also a city of sports, in addition to NFL football team Steelers, it also has MLB baseball team Pirates, NHL Hockey team Penguins. Both Steelers and Pirates' stadiums are on the north shore of Allegheny river, less than a mile from each other. 

Heinz stadium is across river from point state park 

PNC park - Pittsburgh Pirates' home

Pittsburgh is also a college town, with about 30 universities and colleges, the most well-known among them Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh.  The two universities are right next to each other. 

ca

The cathedral of learning - the tallest educational building in western hemisphere on U Pitt Campus 

CMU's most prominent build is Electrical and Computer Engineering Building 

Reach to the Sky

Grey Heron Sunbathing

 Typically we see grey heron standing by water's edge patiently waiting for fishes to swim by.

by Russell Creek pond

Tuesday Morning I walked around the pond by myself with my camera, nothing special happening. No egrets, no heron.  I did not even turn on the camera.

But I continued to scan the surroundings,  as I reached the west side of the pond, I noticed a large grey wing in a pine tree just above my head. Backup a few steps, I saw a big great grey heron standing in the tree.

I stood by the tree to observe it.

It stood there, looking into east and the pound, turning its head from side to side, preening. I moved around taking pictures from different angles.

Then I noticed that the heron opened its wings, seemingly to dry the inside.  After a while it closed its wings still standing there to enjoy the sunshine.

By then I was there over 10  minutes. I was hoping the heron would take off so that I could take a picture of it. A few minutes passed, it did not move at all.

I decided to leave it alone, just then a guy with a dog walked by. He saw me taking pictures of the heron, and made a conversation with me saying that he never saw heron standing in the tree before. His voice was not too loud. But our chat apparently annoyed the big heron, it took off from its perch, screamed as it flew over the pound, made a turn and left the area!

I felt a bit guilty because I disturbed the great heron from enjoying the sunshine in peace. 

In a tree by the pond 

Preening

Sunbathing by opening its wings 

Wings back to normal positions

Flying away with a scream!

Kayak on Lavon Lake at its SW Corner

 To try out our new inflatable kayak,we went to Collin Park at Southwest corner of Lavon Lake this morning. 

We arrived at Collin Park ~ 8:15 AM. It was a hazy morning, and not too many people at the beach, one family was swimming, a boy and a man were fishing. A old lady came by to give us a ticket reminder to pay fee on the way out.

Due to practice last night it took us about 10 minutes to  assemble the kayak, and inflate it on the grass by the parking lot. Not bad, close to what the kayak manufacture advertised. The kayak, with paddles, water bottles, camera with telephoto lens, was about 50 lbs. Lily and I carried it to the beach without trouble. 

Lily and the new inflatable kayak

Lavon Lake

With many coves along its shoreline, not too many motor boats, Lavon lake is good for kayaking.

We paddled along the west shore of the lake, going north. 

Despite years of experience, we had a hard time to paddle straight! This is primarily due to our inexperience with the flat bottom inflatable kayak. We had to slow down or stop to adjust kayak's orientation. 

Passing a portion of shoreline with mangroves,  we reached a sandy beach, saw killdeers and American crows, and hundred yards away one man sitting on an otherwise deserted beach. His dog ran to the water's edge to check us out. 

Mangroves

Killdeers on the sandy shore

quiet shoreline

paddling north

At the northern tip of the Collin Park, there is a cove. We turned into it. First we noticed many ducks, and then I saw a grant egret at the end of the cove, a snow white in green, it felt that we were back to Everglade!

Then Lily's phone ringing disturbed the tranquility - the ducks took off and flew away - quite a scene - like what we saw at Bosque de Apache , of course at a much smaller scale. The egret, on the other hand, stayed, turned around and flew to the top a mangrove. A few minutes later, it disappeared from view. We turned around, and paddling back to the south tip of the park, where we parked our car. Getting used to the kayak, this time we paddled straight and fast.

A little bit over 1 hour on Lavon lake, we enjoyed it the way only kayaking can provide. 

A solo egret at the end of a cove

Startled 2nd group ducks took off, 1st group had more ducks

 

Notes

1. Inflatable kayak saves place, and is easy to transport. but it is hard to paddle straight. But with experience it was not too bad. Also we will use the fin next time kayak on flat water.

2. kayak by oneself requires more planning, e.g. where to get into water. We put the kayak in where it was muddy. On the way out of water, we paid attention to the beach, and landed at a more rocky/sandy beach. 

3. Collin Park charges relative high entry fee, but the fee did not lead to clean beach, or toilet. 

Simply Electrifying

This is a book on the history of electricity by Craig Roach.  The first 6 chapters of the book was very interesting and fascinating. The rest of the book, in my opinion, mostly are not related to the history of electricity, it seems that the author just wanted to fill the pages, make the book as long as possible and also make political statements on histories remotely related to electricity 

So my suggestion is to read only the first 6 chapters of the book, ignore the rest.

Here is a brief recap of the history of electricity. 

Modern electricity started with Benjamin Franklin's famous kite experiment using kite to draw electricity from lightening. Even though there were debates on if he did the kite experiment or not, the sentry box experiment* he proposed was performed by a French scientist Thomas-François Dalibard to demonstrate that lightening was electricity (1752).  Because of this experiment and understanding, Franklin proposed to use lightening rod to protect buildings.

The most important scientist for electricity is Michael Faraday, an Englishman, who received little formal education, was one of the most influential scientists in history. Through experimentation (1812 - 1831) he established the relation between magnetism and electricity. These observations form the basis for the concept of electromagnetic field. Further more his invention of electromagnetic rotary devices, along with James Watt steam engine made electricity generation independent of  hydraulic power, and become practical.

Based on Faraday's experiments, James Maxwell developed concept of electromagnetic field and formulated the corresponding mathematical  theory for electromagnetism, and thus the well-known Maxwell Equations, 1855 - 1861. He also established the equivalency between electricity, magnetism and light. He had profound influence on Albert Einstein and the development of the field of special relativity.

James Maxwell (from Wikipedia)

Franklin, Faraday and Maxwell created the foundation for electricity, which in turn ushered the era of great inventions and wide applications of electricity. 

Samuel Morse's invention of Morse's code (1832-1833) led to the telecommunications.

Thomas Edison's numerous inventions, including light bulbs, made the electricity to improve human life. One blemish in Edison's glorious career (1877 - 1930, **) was his opposition to alternate current (AC). 

The prominent proponents and inventors related to AC were Nicola Tesla and George Westinghouse.

By now, electricity can be generated anywhere from steam engine (and later nuclear material), and AC made long distance transmission of electricity possible.  

Another important figure in the history of electricity is Samuel Insull, who established electricity exchange and democratized the usage of electricity (1892-1920s).

That's pretty much the electricity as we know it today, including generation transmission, and usage.

* sentry box experiments : large box with people standing on insulation, a rod 40 feet into sky to draw lightning.

** GE is originated from Edison General Electric Company
 

 

Mt Elbert Trip: Miscellaneous

Some other aspects of our Mt. Elbert trip.

The most prominent structure at Leadville, CO is the church on 7th street. Our hotel Inns Cloud happens to be on the street as well. So the white tower of the church served as our landmark to locate our hotel. 

Annunciation Catholic Church, with Mt Elbert and Mt Massive (right) in the background

During covid-19 pandemic, the lodging and dinning are main concerns.

The Inns Cloud's policy was:  mandatory face-mask indoor, no house cleaning during guests' stay, 6-feet apart in common areas. We cleaned the room when we first checked in. We used the inn's kitchen for breakfast only. All the guests at the inn, including hostel guests living in the basement,  were all courteous, and mindful of the situation.  So we had no issue at the inn.

front yard of Inns Cloud

Master bed in our room

bunker bed  

Except breakfast, the dinning food were all from restaurants' carry out. We had TexMex, Italian, American and Chinese food. We had the meals in the hotel room, out at patio, and better yet by the Arkansas river or in a park. We had only one indoor meal during the trip, on the way home. 

First meal at Leadville, CO

Lunch from take-out by Arkansas river

Lunch in a community park at Amarillo on the way home 

On the way home, we took a detour to Colorado Springs to visit Garden of the God. It was the worst experience we had  due to poor planning - we went there on 4th of July around 11 am. It was so crowded and we were vary anxious and lost the mood to enjoy the rock formations. Making things worse, the rock formations at Garden of God are disappointments to us, not meet the expectations mainly due to the fact that we have been to Utah Arches, Zions and Bryce canyon national parks. 

Garden of God

 

Rock Formations at Garden of God

Pikes Peak in the background of Garden of God

I enjoyed the rustic scenery along US-287, but there were reckless drivers on the road. We stayed away from them, and rested as need to prevent fatigue and drowsiness. Like everywhere, due to low density and low frequency of people at the rest area, birds moved in. We saw a lot of true sparrows at the rest area.

 

a 1-car accident on US-287, July 4th, 2020

A true Sparrow at a Rest area by US-287

Overall, we enjoyed Mt Elbert trip very, much, leisurely paced, cool and beautiful weather, amazing vista, diverse landscape, rich geology and of course summited Mt Elbert.

Sunset at Walsenburg, CO

Take it All in