Fallingwater At Last!

Our day started with a little Apple excitement.  The new iPhone operating system came out and we “had” to download it before we did anything else.  Mine took a while, but was successful.  Mona’s went fast but was problematic…causing her to deal with problems right up to the moment we checked out.   Finally, she was done.  As I was at the front desk checking out I hear someone exclaiming, “No!  Stop!  No! No!  Don’t do it!!!”  I turned around and much to my surprise it was Mona!  She had left her iPhone in the room and needed the key back.   Mona was just about to lunge across the desk to grab the room key, but luckily the desk clerk pitched it to her before it was too late. Just glad she made that discovery before we were in the mountains!

Now we were off to Fallingwater.  Ever since I’ve known Mona she’s talked about Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings and especially about Fallingwater, his masterpiece.  This year, we’ve visited several of Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings including Taliesin and Taliesin West.  However, today was to be THE Frank Lloyd Wright day….visiting Fallingwater at last!

The beauty of Fallingwater begins when you first turn into the drive.  The road gently weaves its way through the tall oaks of the 5000 acre estate leading you to the open air Visitor Center.  From the Visitor Center we walked ten minutes on graveled trails alongside the rushing Bear Creek.  We hadn’t even seen the structure yet, but Wright has already done an outstanding job of including the beauty of nature into his design.

We turn the corner, and finally there it is!  Fallingwater!  I could go on and on about Fallingwater’s design…the amazing use of cantilevers (radical for the 1930s); the two paint colors: ochre to match the leaves of the rhododendrons that abound here, and Cherokee Red – FLW’s signature color; and finally the use of stone quarried about 500 yards away.  No…I won’t bore you with all that…I’ll just let some pictures speak for themselves.

Not sure if you could tell from the pictures, but Bear Creek was a part of the design of the house and it flows along/through the first level and ends in a waterfall.  You can hear the sounds or these falling waters throughout the house.  Here’s a link if you want to learn a little more about Fallingwater:  http://www.fallingwater.org/explore?to=0

Finally, it was time to leave.  We wove our way back through the mountain roads to get to Route 40, the National Road.  This was the first major federally-built highway of the new United States.  It was started in 1811 and served as a major artery for settlers heading west.  It started in Cumberland, Maryland and stretched all the way to Vandalia, Illinois. It was intended to go to St. Louis, but the government ran out of money!  The road was marked every mile with mile-markers as shown in this picture.  (We learned all about them because there was a geocache hidden in one of them!)  I could tell you much more about this road, but I’m practicing restraint!

We got off the National Road at I-68 and then followed the Potomac east.  Then we were treated with incredible vistas as we drove up and down the Allegheny Mountains….seeing the beginnings of fall colors.  Finally, we turned southwest, headed for Washington, D.C.  We ended up in Springfield, Virginia, at the home of Margaret and Pete.  Margaret is a life-long friend of Mona’s. I got to meet them in 1998 when Mona and I first visited D.C. and we’ve been friend ever since.  We visited for a while and then they treated us to dinner at 2941, a cool dinner spot near the Beltway.

We’ll be in D.C. a couple of days….not sure yet exactly what we’ll be doing, but we’ll keep you posted!