Burgh with an "H"

If April showers bring May flowers, what do Mayflowers bring? Pilgrims.

My mother loved that joke. She repeated it every spring. As the calendar clocked over, I decided it was time for Vaga Bond to chance the weather and head north of the frost line for a few weeks.

One of the benefits of using Tampa International Airport is that Southwest has a direct 6AM flight to Pittsburgh that gets me on the ground for an 8:30 AM pickup. The trick is that I need to get up at 3AM to catch it. What gets me up versus hitting the snooze button and missing the flight is the promise of a cup of Café Con Leche Ybor City coffee from their shop at the airport. I adore great coffee. This is hands down the best coffee I’ve ever had. It never disappoints.

Landing in Pittsburgh we descended through an overcast sky the color of Pantone 2C. My graphic designer and print friends will get the reference. It's a cool gray shade that everyone in Pittsburgh will recognize. It coats the sky pretty much from October through April. Today, though, the sun was peeking through the cloudy blanket, and I saw early signs of spring: the Bradford Pear and Redbud trees were in bloom. The daffodils and some tulips were putting on a brave show. The winner though is the reckless purple azalea bush in front of my sister’s house. It was fully in bloom and taking a real chance with a dusting of snow in the forecast.