"Michael, we're bigger than US Steel" (Plus a special THX to Red K and Tiffany Lamp)

Folks, apologies for my tardiness, but it's been a crazy few days in New York and Pittsburgh. Forgive the brevity of my prose, but I am short on time and internet facilities where I am staying so therefore short on style (and links and detail and shit)...

Recap: Wednesday 3 April in NY - The Metropolitan Museum of Art (AKA The Met) took up most of my day. And yet, neither Iona Chef nor I feel like we've scratched the surface of that amazing place. By 4pm, it felt like we'd done the art/history equivalent of eat a ten-course degustation menu with wine matching and were ready to go home and sleep off the stomach pump. And yet, off we went to Les Halles for dinner, then an off-broadway show - Avenue Q - which was hysterical. I had been meaning to see it for ages, and I finally did. A scream!

Thursday 4 April in NY - Shopping at Century 21 in the Financial District. Scored some handbags, sunnies for me and Muddy, a wallet and a lovely wool jumper. Noice. Then an early night in preparation for the pre-dawn departure for Pittsburgh PA.

Friday 5 April - NY/Pittsburgh -  a rented car ride through the dark streets of NY and its outer boroughs to LaGuardia Airport. Fairly seamless check-in and security scan (all pretty efficient - removing the shoes, however, is annoying) followed by a yummy breakfast and on-time boarding and departure. The Delta Airlines flight was comfy and very civilised.

Arrival in Pittsburgh was also painless and stress-free - the Airport bus took me almost to my door (Courtyard at the Marriot) for the princely sum of $3.75. The hotel is lovely and well located in the Cultural District (Pittsburgh, like Cleveland and other depressed Rust Belt towns is desperate to reinvent itself as a cultural town - every spare space is a museum, convention centre or dedicated historical site - nice try, Pittsburgh, but no cigar).

Andrew Carnegie (US Steel) was a robber baron philanthropist of the first order but there's nothing here that comes half-way close to the cultural sites/pursuits/public spaces of NYC.

Having said that, I had a lovely time yesterday, walking across the Andy Warhol Bridge to visit the Andy Warhol Museum. AW, Pittsburgh's greatest artistic export, is adoringly displayed in this museum which houses his collection, his personal archive (including his 'time capsules') and is currently exhibiting works of others who were greatly influenced by him. The current exhibition is narrated by trash director John Waters on the in-house audio tour - most apt.

An afternoon cable car ride up the Duquesne Incline took me to Mt Washington, and some of the best views of Pittsburgh, or indeed any city for $5. Wow. Some good snaps to show for it.

But the highlight of Pittsburgh was the surprise last minute ticket I won in a 'box office lottery' to see "Book of Mormon", the hit Broadway musical by Matt Stone and Trey Parker which is touring nationally. Awse. $25 and I got a front-row seat next to the orchestra pit. Woohoo! Like all of their musical works, it was sooooo wrong. Crude, rude, lewd and bloody hysterical. Almost as funny as the geeks and freaks who are staying in town for the Star Wars/Trek convention.

This morning was the pilgrimage to the home/estate known as Fallingwater, the weekend retreat once owned by the Kaufmans (wealthy Pittsburghers whose department store eventually became Macy's) and the jewel in American architect Frank Lloyd Wright's design crown. I was a little nervous and tentative - what if it disappoints? Fortunately, it didn't.

It was, truly, to use the tour guide Marjorie's oft-repeated word - spectacular. Oh my. A house built over a waterfall, during the Depression, designed by a man, who at that stage in his career, was on the nose, in a remote and difficult location. Breathtaking. And typical FLW, the interior furnishings are as striking as its exterior. An adolescent wish come true. Thanks to Slim Venetian for leaving her Art History books lying around when I was a child...

Red Karpitz and Tiffany Lamp, my trusty chauffeurs / navigators / companions got us there promptly and safely. A quick lunch and tour of the gift shop, and then we were off to Kentuck Knob, another (lesser, later and smaller, but still quietly impressive) FLW commission less than 10 miles away.

Back at the hotel now, it's getting on evening as I tap this out in the hotel's Business Centre, while Tiff and Red rest and recuperate upstairs. Plan is to take them out to a special dinner for helping make this special day happen.