The Allegheny River Along The Strip

Back in early October, when the weather was still lovely (and by that I mean not raining, wtf December), we decided to do our second river exploration. The first time, we were on board a Just Ducky Tour, inches above the water. This time, we decided to head down to the Strip District and see what views of the Allegheny there were to be had.

The original plan had been to go to Washington’s Landing, which is a little island off the Allegheny that was once an industrial area and is now residential. However, the 31st Street Bridge has been under some construction, and as it’s the only access to Washington’s Landing, we decided to go a little further toward town in the Strip District and check out the views around the famous Cork Factory.

This is the Heinz Factory as seen from across the river. The factory is there, as well as the Heinz Lofts, which are super neat (albeit expensive) apartments.

And this is the view down the Allegheny River, away from town. If you look all the way at the very end of the photo, you can see the 31st Street Bridge, and then a little section of white boats, which is the Washington’s Landing Marina.

There’s actually a nice bike/walking path along the river here, part of the fabulous bike paths our city recently put in. One of our goals for 2012 is to do the bike trail along all three rivers (last year, we biked the Eliza Furnace Trail, which goes along the Monongohela).

The Cork Factory was previously just that: a run-down, abandoned factory, where you could sneak in to take dramatic pictures for your band’s CD artwork, or use as the set to a movie you were filming. Now, it’s a fancy apartment building with shops and restaurants (like the fabulous Cioppino, where one of our Yelp events was held).

This is the 16th Street Bridge, which is one of my favorite bridges in the city. It connects the Strip District and the North Side.

After all that exploration, we were quite hungry, so we headed into Oakland to knock another restaurant off the list. This time, we stopped into Crepes Parisiennes on Craig Street to split a yummy lunchtime crepe.

We got a breakfast crepe, which comes with sausage, egg, and cheese, and added mushrooms and spinach in as well.

Oh man was it delicious! The little side salad was quite yummy as well. At Crepes Parisiennes, you order at the counter, take a little number to your table, and then your food is brought over after it is freshly prepared on the crepe machine (which is one of those fabulous ones that looks like a record player – love it!).

They also have tasty coffee to enjoy with your meal. We’d been here once before waaaaaay back in the early days of our relationship, when we lived in Oakland, but I think we definitely need to come back more often! Crepes Parisiennes has two locations, on Craig Street in Oakland and Filbert Street in Shadyside. They offer savory crepes (like the one we got here), but also dessert crepes with fruit and Nutella.