William World News William F. Yurasko's blog v.14 – Nats, Redskins, Capitals, D.C. life, transportation, not so much Penn State anymore,

PITTSBURGH — I am not sure I can overstate what a wonderful combination of architecture, location, size and that is PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. In fact, I only detected one flaw* with the whole ballpark.

No cupholders.
*A unscientific sample of Pirates fans agreed with The Onion that there was another flaw – the [...]

PITTSBURGH — When I was about 7 years old, I determined that adding french fries to the top of a hamburger greatly enhanced that experience and I’ve been doing it ever since. Once, when I was a student at Penn State Hazleton, I had some McDonald’s with me at the beginning of class and I [...]

PITTSBURGH — A few years ago I learned of a book called “The Paris of Appalachia (amazon.com)” Now, using the “Paris of…” for anything is good for a laugh in most cases. I haven’t read the book, but I think the author has a point.
Having spent a weekend in Pittsburgh attending a Washington Nationals [...]

Praise for a gigantic can of Pepsi

Iron City Beer is pretty bad. As in it tastes skunked out of a can or on draft. One friend, with some experience in construction, suggests that it leaves a similar taste as after a day out by a site with lots of steel grinding going on. When I told two Pittsburghers natives that I had an “Arn” this past weekend they both exclaimed “WHY?!”.

There are three things that tend to make a view from a ballpark spectacular: skyline, water and hills/mountains. PNC Park is perfectly situated to show the beautiful Pittsburgh skyline and Allegheny River in all of their glory with Mount Washington visible between the skyscrapers in a few spots. Behind center field, the Roberto Clemente Bridge spans the Allegheny to the Golden Triangle. Many fans eschew parking in stadium lots or using the newly built light rail tunnels to walk over the river to the game. If there is a finer entrance to a baseball stadium, I haven’t heard of it.

Last section of bicycle trail connecting Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., set to open – Post-Gazette
On my list of things I really want to someday is the approximately 335-mile bike ride from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C. via the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Tow Path. The Great Allegheny Passage is expected to be officially completed [...]

DAVIS, W. Va. — My annual ski trip with my friend Ryan took us to Timberline this year. While we had originally planned on going to Hunter Mtn. in New York State, a number of factors prompted us to choose a place close to home. The promising snowfall predictions for West Virginia, 4,000+ feet [...]

STONE HARBOR, N.J. — Springer’s in Stone Harbor is one of the highlights of vacationing on Seven Mile Island. Five generations of my family have enjoyed ice cream from there and it is once again an annual pilgrimage.
This year, I noticed a new flavor, Cease & Desist. It replaced a previous flavor with toffee chips [...]

NEAR WILSON, N.C. — Driving down Interstate 95 south of Washington D.C. and especially Richmond, Va. isn’t the most scenic ride.* The land is generally flat, the road barely curves, every interchange looks the same and there are no sizable towns. I was not relishing the North Carolina portion of our drive to the South [...]