Last week was my bye week from the tailgating tour, but that doesn’t mean I am going to leave you a week without a tailgate! Surprise! Here is a bonus tailgate for you. The Thursday before my Saturday of tailgating at Penn State, I stopped by Pitt to see how they tailgate when Miami comes to town.

You are looking at PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. You may be asking, “Taylor, why are you showing us a baseball stadium?” Good question. Pitt plays their home football games at the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Heinz field. Heinz field and PNC Park share the same parking lots used in tailgating. My tailgating for the day would occur right behind the baseball stadium. But how to get there?

Cross the bridge.

Pittsburgh is located on the confluence of the Allegheny, Ohio, and Monongahela Rivers, so there are plenty of bridges in this town. PNC Park and Heinz Field lie along the banks of the Ohio River.

The bridge leads you to a walkway. I saw plenty of Pitt fans on this walk, so I decided to follow them to the stadium.

With water next to a stadium, there is a new form of tailgating that can occur. Tailgating on a boat! I only saw a few boats out when I walked past, but this weekend I am going to see “boatgating” in greater numbers. This weekend I will be in Seattle at the University of Washington. Husky Stadium sits on the water and they are famous for their ability to tailgate both on land and sea.

As I continued down the concrete path, I saw it! Heinz Field.

I would return here later, but my tailgating for this game was going to happen across from PNC Park.

My friend Liz ( former teammate at Wisconsin) is in dental school at Pitt. For this game, I decided to visit her and see how her and her fellow dentists tailgate. There are several parking lots between PNC Park and Heinz Field. These are shared by both the Steelers and Pirates for tailgating. Heinz field is the first stadium I have encountered that is in the middle of a major city. In contrast to Happy Valley, this Pennsylvania stadium is about as urban as it can get.

As you can see, the freeway runs right over the tailgating lots. Tailgating at Pitt is pretty simple. You start with…

a bucket of icy cold beer that is used for..

plenty of beer pong. Beer alone is not enough. You need to add in some…

delicious burgers and sausages, but I saw a new grilling item in Pittsburgh.

Pierogies. Pierogies are a dumpling type dish that can be filled with a variety of different fillings. Commonly mashed potatoes, cheese and meat are used. The last ingredient to a great tailgate is…

a large group of friends to tailgate with. I had a blast tailgating with Liz and her fellow dentists. Like all tailgates you have to come dressed appropriately.

At Pitt, as long as you were in a blue or grey T-shirt that said something related to Pitt, you are ready to go. After a few hours of tailgating it was time for the game. I don’t usually attend the games, but this time I did.

It was only a few blocks from our tailgating lot to the Stadium.

I sat high up in the student section of the stadium.

With the sun down, the lights of downtown Pittsburgh turned on. Walking back from the game, the river looked a little different this time.

That same path I walked on earlier in the day looks a little different at night.

Thanks to my friend Liz and all her dentist friends. I had a great time tailgating with you and was definitely impressed with my first trip to Pittsburgh.

As I stated earlier, last week was the bye week on the tour. Tomorrow I am headed to Seattle to see how tailgating is done in the Pacific Northwest. With the College football races heating up, I have some of the best games on the schedule left. Will this lead to the best tailgating? Stay tuned to see!