Since spring comes so late here in Michigan, we found the need to pack up the car and go find it ourselves. Perhaps Pittsburgh doesn’t sound like the most ideal of early spring destinations, but it is spring earlier there than it is here in Michigan.

Rand-McNally ranked the Burgh the most livable city in the US in the 1980s. It’s only four or five hours away. It’s definitely a place worth seeing. Having grown up in the area, some might say I have a natural bias, but it is fantastic.

We are tour guides for Kate’s parents this weekend. It such an easy job because there’s so much to do here. We met them and my parents at Phipps Conservatory. It was a sunny day, but it’s hard not to get in a good mood when there is so much color around. The picture to the left is their homage to Keukenhof in Holland.

We ended the evening with a trip to Il Pizzaiolo in Mt. Lebanon. It is one of only four restaurants in the United states to receive the Verace Pizza Napoletana seal of approval — a designation from an Italian organization based in Naples whose charter honors those pizzerias that “defend, protect, and promote authentic Neapolitan pizza.”

Tomorrow brings lunch and art at The Frick, as well as another trip to the Andy Warhol Museum. The city could only get more perfect if the Pirates had a winning season and the Steelers returned to the Super Bowl.