Birmingham to Pittsburgh

Today I'm writing to you from Pittsburgh, PA!  I have joined Jesse on his current business trip while on my week off from school. We started our drive on Saturday morning and made a few stops along the way to enjoy some good food (of course) and some sight-seeing.

After a long detour around some wrecks on the interstate in Nashville we arrived at The Cookery, a small cafe in Nashville that has an amazing mission for the homeless in their community.

We arrived and placed our order, only to realize that we had walked into the middle of a senior citizen trip from a local church. The head chef came out to greet them and tell his story, then brought all the guys out of the kitchen and introduced them. Chef Swayn was homeless himself at one point in his life, and through desperation and brokenness found Jesus. He started reading the Bible and other Christian books at the public library and would pray for food when he was hungry and God would provide. He was amazed that Jesus would love and give to him. While in Texas, someone invested in his life and helped him get a job and eventually he came out of homelessness. He learned various culinary skills along the way and became a chef. He moved to Nashville and now uses his restaurant as a mission. He hires homeless men in the community and teaches them how to cook. And I don't mean flipping burgers. These guys were serving various international, made-from-scratch meals. Chef Swayn is originally from Australia, so he had incorporated some of his native flavors and dishes into his menu. He would literally go out in the streets and hunt these guys down, giving them small tasks at first to see if they would come back and actually receive his offerings. But he doesn't just give them a job, he has a mission center that houses them and they are all in a program that teaches them about Jesus and works to teach them other skills besides culinary skills so that they can work in whatever field they prefer once they make it to the end of the program. They work to find them jobs later and keep up with each of them to ensure that they haven't turned back to alcoholism, etc. that would turn them back to homelessness. He was amazing and it was beautiful to witness his passion for these men and his community. He is living out true servant hood and the love of Jesus!  At The Cookery, I ordered the Moroccan Chicken Salad and Jesse had the Australia Meat Pie. Both were delicious, but the meat pie was amazing - it was like the best, tender beef stew you've ever had wrapped in a flaky pie crust, served with thick cut fries sprinkled with a yummy spice mix.

Onward we drove, through beautiful Kentucky, then Ohio. We stopped in downtown Cincinnati for dinner at the Senate. It was obviously a popular place when we arrived. They are known for their gourmet hot dogs among other things. Jesse had the Korean dog (with kimchi, braised short rib, sesame seeds, and pickled cucumbers), while I had the Lindsey Lohan (with goat cheese, caramelized onion, bacon, arugula, and balsamic) - maybe named because it was a hot mess to eat.  Both were delicious, and we followed them with Pretzel Beignets and Caramel Marscarpone.

Back on the road, we made it to Columbus, OH to stop for the night. We awoke the next morning and went to their zoo and aquarium. It was a huge zoo with many impressive exhibits to enjoy, but there were a LOT of people there. We found out after the fact that moms got in for free for Mothers Day. We still had a great time even though we had to dodge a million strollers along the way.

We also paid tribute to Mother's Day since we were not with our own mothers on their special day.

Unique to their zoo was a flying bat exhibit. It was a little creepy but they were hanging close to the viewing glass so we really got to take a close look at them wrapped up sleeping.

They also have an Australian exhibit which has a walk through kangaroo area. They were rather sleepy animals, but one Joey did come out of his mama's pouch while we were there. It was precious!

There was also a koala bear, and I wanted to hold him. I'm pretty sure I would react to a koala like Kristen Bell does to a sloth. (If you haven't seen that... google it.)

 The aquarium was small, but they had several tanks, with one giant wall at the end. A nice relaxing exhibit after the zoo chaos.

We made it into Pittsburgh Sunday night and have done a little exploring through the city. Stay tuned!