Need information for Pittsburgh trip kids NEED fun?

In addition to what was said above.....Kennywood has wheelchairs if you need one (or bring one). They are available on a first come, first basis, so you may have to get there early to get one. You can get discount coupons for Kennywood right now by looking at Pepsi cans, some offer a $5 discount to the park. The Kennywood calendar says July 1-6th is Celebrate America week, so they may be having their nightly fireworks that week.

The Waterfront is a great place to stay (close to Kennywood and Sand Castle and lots of great shopping and restaurants nearby). Zoo is not to far from Waterfront. Some construction there, but should be done by the time you get here. (Courtyard Mariott at the Waterfront does have an indoor pool).

Definitely do the zoo if you can. They have a new exhibit, Water's Edge and it's pretty neat. The polar bears swim right above and around you as you walk the tunnel underneath their habitat.

There is also the Carnegie Science Center if your kids are into that. Another place of interest may be the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center. Inside the History Center, they have a Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum which is neat to see. (http://www.pghhistory.org/)

Another fun thing is the Just Ducky tours, it's a tour on land and water which will tell you about Pittsburgh and show you different places. http://www.justduckytours.com/about.php

I'm sure you and your family will have fun here in Pittsburgh!!

Well for hotels you might want one in downtown since it is pretty close to everything. But, you might find cheaper rooms in monroeville.(it's hotels will come up when you search pittsburgh on hotels.com). From monroeville you won't be too far from the zoo or kennywood. For kennywood just go to their website and look at the directions "from the east".

Beware though, since you are going during a weekend you might hit a lot of congestion on the parkway east(I-376). They just closed part of this week, but it shouldn't affect your directions since you will be getting off at the edgewood/swissvale exits..just be prepared for a lot of congestion if that is a weekend they are closing it. Look at either kdka.com or wtae.com a couple days before you go, if it's closing that weekend they will have it as a major story. Kennywood is fun, and it should be good for disabled because I don't recall there being any steps.

As for the zoo, it's great for disabled, there are no steps, and they have elevators as an alternative to the escalators at the entrance.

To get to the zoo from monroeville, it's pretty easy:

In monroeville get onto 48(probably where your hotel will be) and go north to the 22 intersection(stay in the second land to the right..the first lane is a right-turn only lane onto 22) go straight through the intersection and then turn into the entrance lane to the parkway east. Once your on there, go for about 5 or so minutes(no traffic back-ups on this part of the parkway), and once you see the churchill exit signs get into the left lane. Then once you take the churchill exit(it's marked well by the signs) you come down the exit ramp to an intersection with a traffic light. The exit lane is one lane and then spreads out into three, one straight, one left-turn, and one right turn. go into the right turn lane, and turn onto the road which is 130(west). Take 130(it's very windy) for a while until it comes to a T-intersection. At the T, make a left(it's a stoplight) and continue on that road for a bit. Then you will see signs for the zoo, and the road for the zoo is on the opposite side of the road at a stoplight intersection, with a gas station right beside it.

Also, there is sand castle water park which has a great wave pool.

Hope your two nap? That always seems to be the best way to handle longer car trips with young children. :) We took a two day road trip (about 800 miles) to visit my in-laws this spring and I found a few fun ideas I wished we could have used with our son. One idea was to give each child a roll of masking tape and have them build a tape wall between them. The idea here is that since older kids tend to do the _he's in my space_ thing, you can give them a constructive and cooperative way to define that space. Sure, you'll end up with masking tape all over the back seat and roof and floor and whatnot, but it cleans up ridiculously easy and it's cheap. I imagine this would only work with your sister's kids, but your 2 year old could get in on some of his own tape action as well. Remember that you can let the kids use cookie sheets as a play surface. The raised edges keep things from rolling onto the floor (crayons, toys, whatever). We did this with some cheapy army men from the dollar store for our son and he was in heaven.

The best hotels would have to be the West Mifflin Hilton and the Homestead Waterfront Marriot.

Don't go to the zoo, it smells like CRAP!!!! It is way too small!!!! I recomend you don't go there and go somewhere else. What's in pittsburgh anyways?