These pictures are from my trip to the SIGCSE 2025 conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsyvania. Pictures are from my Fujifilm Finepix HS50, my iPad Pro, and, on the ski stop, the camera on my Pixel 6a phone.
Tuesday, February 25
With this being a driving trip rather than flying, I needed to reserve the day for travel so why not leave a little earlier and stop to do a little skiing on the way? So I left right from school dropoff around 8 and drove to Scranton for a few fun hours of skiing at Montage Mountain. Pictures are on a separate page. After skiing, it was still a long ride to Pittsburgh. Even so, I decided to take a little more US 11 than I-81 at first. Once onto I-80, it was a pretty easy ride over to I-99 then to Altoona, where I got a quick dinner from Chick-fil-A. But then it got dark and rainy and the ride across US 22 to Pittsburgh was a lot less pleasant. I arrived in the area before 8 and took a little to figure out just how to get to the Drury hotel's parking. I was in the room not too much later to rest up for the conference. [36 Pictures from the Roads]
Wednesday, February 26
As usual in recent years, Wednesday was my main event of the conference: an all-day affiliated event with the SIGCSE Committee on Computing in the Liberal Arts. Lunch was near the convention center at Condada Tacos. The convention center was also setting up a dinosaur event for kids that we could see from some of the corridors [2 Pictures]. I walked to dinner with a colleague at Proper Brick Oven and Tap Room [Picture]. Both were very good! In the evening, I learned that the Drury Plaza hotel is the former home of the Federal Reserve Bank of Pittsburgh and the lower level still has the vaults [6 Pictures].
Thursday, February 27
This was another full day at the conference, mostly attending sessions and meeting with colleagues. I saw the paper my Siena colleagues presented being named as a best paper award winner at the opening plenary [Picture and Video]. I got lunch from a Thai place nearby and had a chance to walk to the 9th Street Bridge [7 Pictures]. Dinner came from the conference reception at the convention center.
Friday, February 28
This was my last day at the conference, as I would need to be on my way early in the morning on Saturday. My main obligation was to participate in our Birds of a Feather session, which was very successful. Otherwise, I took some pictures of the Allegheny River from the convention center's observation deckl [5 Pictures]. Dinner that evening was with colleagues at Primanti Bros. in Market Square to do a Pittsburgh thing. The company was good but the food was just ok and not really my thing (just put my fries on the side, thanks). I don't need to go back to one again. On our walk back, we passed (and almost didn't notice) the Liberty Avenue Musicians [2 Pictures]
Saturday, March 1
The conference wasn't quite over, but I wanted to get back to make it to Schenectady for the last regular season game at Messa Rink. This meant leaving Pittsburgh by around 6 AM, which I successfully did. There's no great way to get from Pittsburgh to home, but the fastest should be to go north to Erie then east on I-90, which is what I did. There was some rain in the Pittsburgh area which became snow with some icy conditions on I-90 once I got up near Erie. I made a way-too-long stop to get some breakfast at a Tim Horton's and stopped for gas at a BJ's close to Buffalo. Other than quick rest stops and lunch from a Byrne Dairy in Waterloo, that was it. I made it home by a little after 2, plenty of time to get to Schenectady for hockey. [4 Pictures from the Roads]
Copyright notice: All images copyright © James D. Teresco unless otherwise specified. Unauthorized use prohibited.