by Kate
After a month of daily rain on the grey stones of Pittsburgh, a heat wave rolled in shimmering on the gritty concrete.
Scores of university students still in town for the summer worshipped the sun in the shadow of the Tower of Learning (which Casey calls the Tower of Sauron) but on a recent expedition to the great Carnegie Libary in Oakland, we were more interested in seeking shade in a tree lined avenue.
I love these red doors on the Heinz Chapel- appropriate color for the ketchup dynasy, I suppose.
They have organ concerts at the chapel almost every weekend. Someday I will go, and I will write about it.
The chapel and green were beautiful, but the real highlight of our wandering walk was this fountain.
Fountains are definitely one of my favorite things about cities. I love the water in the midst of stone, the playfulness inherent in the art form. I love the fact that people build fountains. It makes me feel connected to and proud of the sweep and scope of civilization. I particularly love this fountain, because it is so beautiful.
Very inviting, on a hot summer day.
All right, so it didn’t take that long before we started teaching Olympia the proper response to a cool fountain on a hot summer day. Thankfully, we weren’t alone. The fountain was full of kids.
There are times when I really do love being in the city- and I think Olympia does, too.
Ok, so now you got me singing the song! That looks like a fun time. I am always interested in Penn, as my Dad was born there before moving to South Dakota. But my Pap-Pap grew up in Penn., as did his parents. We have history there, I suppose 🙂
Me too! I used to love them when I was around them. Sadly for me, they were not always on (we were in the desert, after all), but the kids played and splashed in them all summer long! I never did though, it was mostly boys (Muslim country).
Sofya, I love the image of the muslim boys splashing in the fountains in the desert. That is exactly what I mean about the ancient drive of civilization to make water flow in the desert ornamentally/functionally. I am sad that you couldn’t do it as a girl though.