My "Not-Cousins"

I recognize that I may have my facts off a bit in this story. Ages my be off. I don't remember Names very well. Timing may vary from other accounts. If you spot a correction, please let me know (but be gentle) and I will fix the mistake. Bear with me...

Let me tell you all a story, turn down the lights, take a sip of your hot beverage, and close your eyes...

I hope you did not actually do those last two things. You are reading this silly, you need your eyes. And don't be ridiculous, this is summer, hot beverages are absurd.

Anyway, long ago, the family of one H. J. Hogle moved from the beautiful and sunny state of California to Poughkeepsie, New York (I had to look up how to spell that). The honorably H.J. in this story is my dearest Gramps who was being moved by IBM to New York to work with their, correct me if I am wrong, Education department there. The rest of the family included my lovely Grandmother, my Aunt Donna, and my mother. My mother was middle school-ish aged and my aunt was in elementary school (see my note above, as I am sure I am wrong). Upon moving to New York, they were blessed with some great Neighbors, some they still are in contact with to this day.

Karen was one of these neighbors, along with her sister, long ago living next to my mother's family. Karen is a fan of culture and large music venues, and is the mother of 3 (... I hesitate to put a number here, I could be wrong) younger children who don't fully appreciate such things yet. But, good news, she has three awesome nieces who love Taylor Swift (and are more appropriately aged). Karen decided that an outing was necessary, and when looking for places Miss Swift would be playing, found that Pittsburgh was going to be the closest to Poughkeepsie. This is where I come in. From talking to Mom, and I am guessing my Grandma and Aunt over the years, learned that I was living in Pittsburgh. A few months ago, I received a very energetic email detailing their plans for Pittsburgh, and was asked if I could meet them for some lunch/dinner before the show. Of course my response was: 'Heck Yes!'

First up on the afternoon tour of Pittsburgh: the Incline! This is a must of course, and I believe everyone enjoyed the ride (well maybe...) and the view was great.

Yeah Pittsburgh!

From here, we headed in to Downtown for an early dinner at... you guessed it: PRIMANTI'S! When talking about where we could eat I was informed that the girls 'are very picky.' But after mentioning that you get fries on your sandwich, that all were sold on such an awesome idea.

Those are the faces of joy...

I know it is super impolite to take pictures of people eating... but it is Primanti's!

And a great surprise, Gwyn also joined us for dinner. And interestingly enough, it was Gwyn's first time at the establishment as well. She has lived here her entire life, and has never enjoyed the greatness.

This may be my all time favorite picture of Gwyn.

For those of you who are seeing these pictures, savor them. I recognize that I just posted 3 pictures of women eating gigantic sandwiches. And some do not like this, so I may take them down if asked. I am just saying, savor them....


From dinner we walked around downtown for a bit and then headed over the Heinz where the show was going to be. There were a ton of cowboy boots and plaid 'farm shirts' and plenty of bedazzled cowboy hats.

Crossing the Clemente Bridge. Gramps, this would be over the Allegheny river.

As you can see the weather is not optimal, but it did not rain all that much. There was some sprinkling early on, but it ended fairly quickly (I think). After making it to the entry gates, we parted ways, and the girls headed in to the show. I was informed the next day that it was: "AMAZING!"


The whole afternoon was filled with lots of story telling and chatting about New York, both now and back in the day. It was very fun to share the city with Karen and the girls. There may have to be a trip up to New York in the near future!

Now that I have tried to avoid misinformation, and have realized that I have a bad memory for detail, I apologize greatly if anyone feels as though something was misreported.

If I get more pictures from Karen, I will be sure to post them. Oh! And a word about the 'Not-Cousin' title: when later asking me about the afternoon, Gwyn referred to them endearingly as my 'not-cousins.' I like that idea.