(Photo credit: Wikimedia) In August I finally went to Fallingwater - the house in Western PA designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright - which had been on my "bucket list" for many years. I love art and architecture, but I've been put off by Wright as a person ever since I read The Fellowship: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship, back in the fall of 2006. (He was a complex character to say the least.) So while I did very much want to see Fallingwater, I'd never made it a priority - until this summer when I spent most of my time writing my book on engineering innovation after a month in Paris (plus short trips to Chicago and DC, but mostly I enjoyed the quiet and the lack of distraction of B'lem), and I decided that I really had to get out of town before the semester started. Five hours of driving to fulfill my dream, here I come.
It wasn't supposed to take that long, but I refused to take the shorter route because the turnpike has tolls, and traffic near Hagerstown, MD slowed me down to the point that, yes, it took me five hours in ok-but-not-great traffic conditions. I had bought a ticket for the extended tour, where you see more of the house and are allowed to take pictures indoors, and was lucky that it had rained earlier in the day, so that the August afternoon was cooler than usual and very enjoyable overall. (A big part of the tour is outside. Apparently in the summer it is recommended to book the morning extended tours, which are held around 8:30am, instead of the afternoon ones. I didn't know. Glad luck was on my side.)
I loved hearing about the various principles that had guided Frank Lloyd Wright - the horizontal lines, compression (in the corridors) followed by expansion (entering the rooms) to give a sense of space, and the spirals. Also, if you've been reading this blog for a while, perhaps you remember that I love the Southwest, so it'll come as no surprise that I found the decoration, heavy in southwestern motives (Taliesin West is in Arizona), to be a great fit to my tastes. My only complaint was that from the inside this really looked like a house made for the Southwest, as if it'd been lifted to Pennsylvania by mistake. But I loved it overall. There is no doubt that Wright was a visionary.
If you ever need a place to stay in the area, Hartzell House Bed & Breakfast provides amazing lodging and hospitality, and all those positive reviews on TripAdvisor are highly deserved. And the drive to and from Fallingwater, as well as back to the highway, offers stunning views of the Laurel Highlands - the views rekindled my desire to paint again as soon as I can, although I have yet to find the time. The drive on Route 68 was very peaceful too and reminded me of the last stretch of road when I drive to Penn State - just me and the occasional other car over miles of asphalt in gorgeous scenery.
On the way back I stopped by Antietam National Battlefield, which I also toured - it was almost literally by the highway on my itinerary anyway. I was surprised by how few people were there, although school had not yet started. If you have little time, at least watch the 26min movie at the welcome center. Then a bit later once I was back in PA I stopped by the Panera in Chambersburg, which I'd located when I'd been preparing for my trip. (It's in an outlet mall right by the highway. Can't get easier than that.) I had a very late lunch/early dinner and read while letting rush traffic wane before I drove past Harrisburg and onto Route 78. And then I came home.
The next travel-related item that I want to cross off my bucket list is the drive down to Asheville, NC and across the Blue Ridge Mountains. But that one will take a little longer than five hours each way.
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