mother's day

I just can't say enough good things about two newish Pittsburgh institutions, the Komen Race for the Cure and the Pittsburgh Children's Museum. This Mother's Day our family took part in/visited both. The race is a 5k run/walk and a one-mile walk, and although I wasn't all that motivated this rainy morning I did manage to get myself down there (via bicycle, to avoid parking hell) and once I saw the tens of thousands of people waiting to take part in the race or walk I was energized. (Two members of my family are survivors, so it's now an obligation at least to give money to the Komen Foundation, but we try to actually get down for the race and have done so in Austin, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles.) It was a good race, too many people in Schenley Park to actually get a good start and a low time but it's a fun race. I like it almost as much as the Run Around the Square in Regent Square.

Coming home, I realized that a rainy spring day, a restless 2 1/2 year old, and a small house were going to end up driving me crazy, so I proposed that we have Mother's Day brunch at a deli and then spend an hour or so at the Children's Museum over on the North Side. First of all, that Allegheny Center area is just an interesting neighborhood--old Allegheny and the Mexican War Streets have beautiful architecture, and the buildings comprising the Museum and its vicinity (especially the spectacular Allegheny Regional Branch of the Carnegie Library, which is closed indefinitely "due to lightning." There weren't any special exhibitions at the Museum (like the Arthur exhibition that closed recently), but it's got tons of interactive stuff for a fidgety 2 1/2 year old.