So when I made my maiden voyage to North of the Mason Dixon Line, I was ready for a few scraps of woods surrounded by coal smoke-belching factories, possibly manned by children. I should have taken a page from my own book and not assumed.
It was beautiful. I mean the kind of pretty that makes your eyeballs tired from all the looking. It was like here, like Tennessee, and totally different from both. The mountains had large cleared areas for little farms, there were creeks EVERYWHERE, runaway truck ramps on nearly every road. The roads went straight up and down all these teeny mountains and in every valley was a little town that looked straight out of a children's book.
The sparkling water and fall leaves didn't hurt the overall look one bit.
West Virginia was gorgeous, even along the interstate was pretty. Maryland too. Pennsylvania was just breathtaking. I'm so glad we went!
The whole reason for the trip was to take Ben to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. I made the reservations back in August and October 27 was the first day they had an in-depth tour open. We wanted the longer tour because they allow photography.
The house did not disappoint. We have seen the library dvds on it and have a couple of books and of course the Lego Architecture Fallingwater model. But seeing it in person. WOW. All I can say is, go. Seriously. If you love Wright's work or historical buildings or modern architecture or buildings designed with nature in mind-or are an engineer or architect or interior designer...pretty much everyone should go see this house.
Saturday night we stayed at an airbnb berry farm in West Virginia!
West Virginia was beautiful.
Loved this house, it's for sale, $30k
Sutton, WV
Got to Ohiopyle State Park in PA on Sunday and got our yurt, took a walk, grabbed dinner.
There's a little town IN the park, with shops, outfitters, places to eat, markets. Very nice!
Monday morning, we arrived at Fallingwater just after 8.
The tour was great, we loved it.
The famous corner windows!
An AGA! I was really excited to see this.
The main family area:
the steps to the water
I tried to get Matt to pull over later and get a stump I saw on the side of the road so we could have a Wright-inspired cocktail table of our own!
He would not.
More of the corner windows.
The guest house pool, it's 6 feet deep and spring fed. Water is 55 degrees.
We went to get lunch, it was drizzling all day.
Since it was so chilly, after we ate, we picked a loop on the map and drove through a few small towns.
We went back to the yurt to nap, I was done for.
After a good 45 minute rest, it was time for hiking and more food!
Cucumber Falls
We went to a nearby town to get gas and bought food at the grocery and came back to fix it at the yurt.
Then it was time for bed, it might have been 8. hahaha. We were tired.
Tuesday, we got up and packed up and headed out. I got us an airbnb for the night in Elizabethton, TN and we had all day to get 6 hours down the road.
It was warm and sunny, so we opted to stop to hike. I routed us through WV to stop at Seneca Rocks.
The trail is short and steep!
Wednesday, we went over to the Blue Ridge Parkway and drove it to Asheville and headed home from there.
