Things to Do in Allison Park

Wildwood Highlands serves an all-ages buffet of adrenaline-filled rides and fun-soaked activities that visitors can access with fistfuls of tickets. For five-minute intervals, go-karts whip through a winding, 1,000-foot course that challenges mini-motorists' reflexes, hand-eye coordination, and familial bonds with each cutoff to the inner rail. Visitors can captain bumper boats through the 5,000-square-foot Wildwood waters, thumping vessels as they pass fountains and circumvent the island. Woody's Den enchants small children with calliope music and magical animals who steer tots toward the spinning slime-bucket ride and old-fashioned train. Two 18-hole miniature-golf courses school putters in the principles of geometry and psyching out competitors with inopportune coughs and cackles.

Wildwood's arcade entices button smashers with more than 70 games that they can play to win tickets, which can be redeemed for prizes such as stuffed animals, action figures, and pocket-sized copies of the Federalist Papers. While bouncing from attraction to attraction, thrill seekers can recharge their energy with pizzas, wraps, pretzels, and cotton candy at the snack bar.

Wednesday-Night Wine Flights merge science and education, two ideas that have been divided since a series of high-school chemistry teachers was arrested for dancing on laboratory tables in 1987. Sample three wines that have been hand-selected to complement three Cassis appetizers. Small-plate possibilities from the menu of French-influenced American fare include dumplings, baked brie on toasted baguette slices, and black-olive tapenade with sliced radish dippers. The owner and head chef selects wine and food pairings a week prior to each flight, so if you'd like to know what comestibles are coming, check the Cassis Facebook page on Tuesday evening, or simply call ahead.

A nonprofit arts organization, Pittsburgh Musical Theater has energized the tapping of toes for more than two decades. The historic Byham Theater dates back to 1903, when the venue was originally erected as the Gayety Theater, and now fills its flashing marquee with Broadway shows, dance troupes, and films.

Cut & Sew Studio is a fully equipped studio space that offers beginning students and advanced stitchers an inviting environment to sharpen needle skills. All tools are provided on site, eliminating the need to find a suitable wagon to tote a sewing machine to class. Button buffs and daring darners can choose from a variety of interesting classes taught by fashionably educated Cut & Sew owner Catherine Batcho. Thread greenhorns can enlist in the two-session Intro to Sewing class ($50, four hours total), which instructs newcomers in the art of bobbin winding, machine threading, and stitch adjusting while crafting a simple patchwork pillow stuffed with soft, downy phoenix feathers. One hour of open studio time is also included in the intro class. Not-so-beginners can opt for the three-hour Zippers, Zippers, Zippers class ($45), in which participants learn to pull off a variety of zipper styles, including invisible, lapped, centered, fly, and the comical over-the-mouth. Anyone is welcome to sign up for open studio time ($10 per hour). Group classes and weeklong kid camps are also available; see the online calendar for upcoming classes.

Pittsburgh Symphony was founded in 1896, and its ambitions were as big as its sound right from the start—Andrew Carnegie, an early backer, and Victor Herbert, a flashy conductor with a taste for the theatrical, reportedly claimed that theirs was the best orchestra in the country. The century that followed was no less dramatic, studded with conductors who made a lasting impression with their own distinct styles, a Depression-era hiatus, and even a run-in with the law for flouting a statute forbidding secular music-making on Sundays. The resulting controversy renewed public interest in the Symphony, vaulting it once again to its current status as a nationally renowned organization.

Converted from an opulent movie palace into the Pittsburgh Symphony's home in 1971 when Americans swore off movies in favor of high culture forever, the magnificent Heinz Hall delights audiences with stellar acoustics. Two 15-foot crystal chandeliers and an array of Levanto marble columns cast a glow over the Great Hall.

Guests take their seats inside the grandiose Carnegie Music Hall, a space lauded for providing superb acoustics for chamber music and a challenging venue for games of Marco Polo. The venue is tucked inside the same building as the dinosaur bones and European masterworks of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Art.