Pirate Flags and Pierogies at PNC Park

The rain continued as we entered PNC Park.

The field remained covered right up to the time the game started. We wandered around, trying to stay dry, as we searched for some food.

Forget your hot dogs. Forget peanuts and Cracker Jack. PNC Park has pierogies.  

Now pierogies rank as one of my favorite foods, so I pretty much had to get them.

They weren’t mind blowing pierogies. They were the same Mrs. T’s pierogies that are currently sitting in my freezer. They were however better than your average undercooked, sorta mushy on the inside, dollar dog night hot dog.  If PNC Park was my local ball park, I’d get the pierogies again.

Usually we like to try the ice cream at every park, but the wet, chilly weather dampened our ice cream craving, so we skipped our dose of dairy.

PNC Park has an eye pleasing view.  The river, the city skyline, the bridges, the occasional boats chugging by, are all very cool.  

We made sure we got seats that made the most of the view. 

The city’s buildings are a lot closer than they are at many other parks and one or two would display special lighting effects for home runs and such.  Our favorite building was one that resembled the Eye of Sauron.

Now our view overall is most likely skewed. We still have fresh memories of our visit to Petco Park in San Diego. Though we didn’t like Petco’s obstructed views, the interior design of Petco was beautiful and impressive.  The interior of PNC Park by comparison seemed kind of bland. Maybe it does fit in more with Pittsburgh’s no frills vibe.  I’m not sure what I was expecting, I wouldn’t want it to cross over into cheesiness,  but I thought that the stadium would be more pirate-y. You would barely know that the team had anything to do with pirates, except for the flags. The flags were awesome.  

Whenever the team got a run, spectators would unfurl and wave their full size pirate flags.  As much I love rally towels, pirate flags are way cooler. For a brief glimmer of a moment, I considered trading my team allegiance for the flags. 

The game turned out to be exciting.  The Pirates stomped all over the Nationals, and since at the time the Pirates were in the running for the playoffs, the crowd’s energy was high. 

We were grateful that we had seats under cover as the rain too unfurled during the game. 

We stayed nice and dry.

The rain gratefully let up just in time for the fireworks display.  

We got to see the fireworks set up as we walked over the bridge on the way to the ball park.

It turned out to be an impressive display. Watching the the fireworks being set off on the bridge, with the city behind it, and the water below, was neat.

I especially liked that they departed from the usual cliché songs that most displays use, in favor of some cool tunes.  I thought that the Bohemian Rhapsody fireworks choreography was pretty sweet.

We were happy to cross another baseball stadium off of our list, and felt that PNC Park was worth the visit for the pierogies, pirate flags and the view.