Where are the kid unfriendly places in Western Pennsylvania?

Oh, and http://www.klavonsicecream.com/ I suppose they would fall under the umbrella of being extremely kid friendly, but part of the reason I love to take people there is to show off the water line from the St. Patrick's Day flood in 1936.

Well, it turns out that most of the options were closed for the year, closed because it was Monday, or closed because of state budget cuts. So that left us only the nationality rooms at Pitt (which she loved) and Fallingwater (which neither of us liked.) If they had been open, we would have gone to Bayernof (you need to call a day or two in advance to make tours, for any one using this in the future), LeMoyne / Bradford house, Frick House or Old Economy Village (which hit the news while we were trip planning for abruptly losing all its funding). We still had fun, and now you all have given my husband and I plenty of things to do in the spring. Thank you!

Nice to see fellow Morgantonians here ;-) -- If your Mom is into a bit of history, you might enjoy the http://www.nps.gov/FRHI/index.htm at Friendship Hill. It's right outside of Point Marion. A small and understated historical site. It also has the benefit of being close to Apple Annie's restaurant in Point Marion. The food is pretty standard fare but the cakes are to DIE for. -- Wright's other local house, http://www.kentuckknob.com/, is close. It's not as spectacular as Fallingwater but it has a very cool sculpture garden with all kinds of weird installations. -- Also echoing the http://www.wvpentours.com/ in Moundsville, if you're not squeamish. It was a bit much for me. -- the http://www.donnan.com/Palace_of_Gold.htm, just outside of Moundsville. Out in the middle of nowhere, totally unexpected, and totally worth it. -- also, have you been to http://www.saintanthonyschapel.org/, home of thousands of Catholic relics? It's pretty astonishing.

I was going to recommend the Bradford House, the LeMoyne House, and the Century Inn, but I see I've been scooped! Have you toured the http://www.pitt.edu/~natrooms/pages/address-location.html in Pitt's Cathedral of Learning? Because they are awesome. And luckily for you, they're currently http://www.pitt.edu/~natrooms/pages/holiday_info.html -- the best time to see them, in my opinion. About the http://www.pitt.edu/~natrooms/pages/about_nr.html. Or you could tour the http://www.youghioghenyglass.com/contactus.html factory. Apparently they make the type of glass used by stained glass artists. There's also a retail gallery/outlet.

Seconding the Johnstown Flood museums. Interested in trains/transportation? Altoona is less than 90 miles from Pittsburgh. They have the Railroaders Museum which has some trains you can get in and touch. http://www.railroadcity.com/index.php Horseshoe Curve and the Gallitzen Tunnels are nearby Altoona, and there is a funicular to take you to the top of the Horseshoe Curve. The Allegheny Portage Railroad shows the almost-forgotten twenty year period when canal boats went from Philadelphia to Hollidaysburg, then were portaged over the Alleghenies and back into canals to get to Pittsburgh. http://www.nps.gov/alpo/index.htm

I live in Bedford County (about 99 miles east of Pittsburgh on the Pike). Bedford (county seat) has antique stores, a fair number of interesting old houses, and some history with a self-guided walking tour -- check in at the http://www.bedfordcounty.net/ for the walking tour). Bedford also has the National Coverlet Museum (kind of interesting, actually) and the http://www.omnihotels.com/FindAHotel/BedfordSprings.aspx?ysmchn=GGL&ysmcpn=general+bedford+springs&ysmtrm=bedford+springs+hotel&ysmtac=PPC&ysmgrp=hotel&ps=general+terms&cid=psnb (recently restored to an expansive and expensive state of luxury) which is a ginormous hotel (for the area) currently being run by Omni. The Springs has a quite-pricey spa, an historic eighteen hole golf course, and several expensive places to eat, definitely worth at least a drive-by. They're sort of reservation-happy, though, so if you want to eat there, plan accordingly. The county has fourteen covered bridges, most of them visit-able (the visitor's bureau has a map so you can drive around and look at 'em if you want). Heck, a lot of them are car-driveable. (Burr Truss and Kingpost construction styles) They're popular for people to take pictures of, if you're into that. November isn't our prettiest month, though... Everett (next town east along Route 30) has the Union Hotel on Main Street, just redone and reopened this fall, they do a quite tasty lunch menu and I'm told the dinner menu is just as good. I'd go there to eat, probably on the way to or from one of the covered bridges. Prices at the Union are way more reasonable than at the Springs. There's also a walking tour of Everett available from the BCVB. This really is late in the season for touristy activity where I live -- November is not good weather and a lot of our stuff runs April through October because of the weather. The first two weekends of October are a huge craft fair and fall foliage festival in Bedford. Lots of people attend that. (Our trees usually peak second weekend in October for color.) Geology people might enjoy driving down to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideling_Hill on I-68 which is a really great example of a syncline with a walkway along the cut face so that you can see it in detail. It's one of the better examples of Visible Geology around here. Civil war fun -- I think http://www.nps.gov/anti/index.htm is an under-appreciated civil war battlefield. It has a nice self-guided by-car tour. Antietam (not Gettysburg, which is surprisingly flat to my eyes) was the place that cemented for me how terrain wins and loses battles. Highly educational stuff. Antietam is located down I-70 into Maryland and then off exit 29A. It's about an hour from Breezewood (PA turnpike exit) but as a bonus, you'd go right past the Sideling Hill Cut (above) and could pop by and check that out, too. The two abandoned PA turnpike tunnels (Sideling Hill and Ray's Hill) are now a walking and bike trail, about which you can learn more http://www.pike2bike.org/. It says it's not "officially" open but they don't run you off if you're on bikes or on foot. (I live next to the abandoned turnpike and am an authority on this subject.) Fans of urban decay will probably enjoy checking out the tunnels but it's getting a bit late in the year for extensive hiking and biking and stuff. Closer to you, I have done the http://www.jaha.org/FloodMuseum/oklahoma.html and the http://www.nps.gov/jofl/index.htm for same. I found them really interesting and well-presented, a nice and educational day trip chock-full of local history. Also, note that Normal-People Deer Season starts the Monday after Thanksgiving. There's archery and muzzle loader and other stuff before that, but Normal People Deer Season starts Monday after Thanksgiving and runs for two weeks. The county is overrun with hunters during that time.

-Take a hot bath and shop at Berkley Springs just over the border in Maryland. There are also some interesting hiking and abandoned railway tunnels along the way. -Dolly Sods in West Virginia is pretty, and a good spot for exploring. Nearby are the quaint towns of Thomas and Davis -Have high tea at either Sunnyledge or in the tea house at Frick Park. If she hasn't seen it already, there is a small art museum and an auto museum around the corner. If you're loaded, there's always a nice spa day at Nemacolin.

Gettysburg is just over your time restriction but it is absolutely worth it.

I'll speak up for my hometown, Wheeling. It is home to http://www.wvculture.org/sites/wvih.html which is where West Virginia's founding fatehrs met to argue and decide to break away from Virginia. Nearby is the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeling_Suspension_Bridge which at the time of its construction was the longest suspension bridge in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oglebay_Park as others mentioned is a very large park outside of Wheeling with a http://www.oionline.com/museums/ and the http://www.oglebay-resort.com/fol.htm is currently running which is a large series of lit holidays displays that you drive through. Some are static, other incorporate mechanical movement and animations. For the slightly more macabre, just south of Wheeling in Moundsville is the former http://www.wvpentours.com/. They offer tours of the place and is very imposing. Literally next door to the pen, is the http://www.wvculture.org/sites/gravecreek.html which is one of the large Indian burial mounds of its type. There is a museum there as well.