Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob

Fallingwater in Pennsylvania had been on my list of places to visit someday for a long time. I kept on putting it off for various reasons though. 

In October, a few weeks after my Europe trip, something reminded me of Fallingwater and I decided to try to make the visit there happen this year. I invited my brother, Tim, to join me and we found a Saturday in early November that worked for both of us. 

We started researching things to do around there. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere but we actually found there were two other Frank Lloyd Wright homes in that area. We ended up going to one of the other homes, but not both. It was a great trip!

Since our tour was at 8:30 on a Saturday morning and it was a 3-1/2 hour drive from here to there, we decided to drive most of the way there on Friday evening and then stay at a hotel nearby. We stayed in Cumberland, Maryland, which is still about an hour from Fallingwater, but we got to wake up at a much more reasonable time to get there for the tour.

The picture above is the view we got as we walked up to the house from the visitor's center. 

There were varying levels of tours to choose from. We chose the one that cost a bit more, but we were allowed to take pictures inside and got an extended tour of the house and had full access to the grounds. Although it cost a bit to take this tour, I think it was worth it. It was really interesting to learn about Frank Lloyd Wright and get the in depth tour. 

See that water behind the statue on the right hand of the picture. Well the Kaufmann's (the owners of the house) used that little pool as a polar plunge pool. (It's hard to tell from this picture though.)

Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann were the people who hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design the house. The Kaufmann's mainly only used the house on the weekends and holidays. 

The kitchen! Look at those windows! 

The main entrance into the house! ( I think).

The main common area was large and was divided into sections but still open to all of the different areas. This part was the office/library. 

I loved the big common area! It was an open concept living area before open concept living areas were popular. The house was designed and built in the late 1930's. 

This was one of the sitting areas!

Another sitting area. I love all of the windows!

This was the music area! They had a record player with speakers there on the left. 

The dining area!

This was the main bedroom. It was large room and had a lovely balcony. 

The whole house had a lot of outdoor space. Every room in the house had a door to an outdoor balcony. 

This was part of the main bedroom.

The balcony of the main bedroom. 

The Kaufmann's loved the outdoors so Wright designed the house around nature and with lots of outdoor living space so that the Kauffman's could enjoy the beauty of the area. 

The balcony of the main bedroom was right above the waterfall!

This window was cool because the way it opened up. Because this wall of windows was not load bearing, the windows were able to open up fully as seen in the picture above (although it may be hard to tell from the picture).  

I loved this staircase lined with bookshelves!

The Kaufmann's had one son, Edgar Jr. When he stayed at the house, this was his room. 

Edgar Jr's room from the inside. There was another part of his room also, but this is where he chose to put his bed. There were no blinds or curtains in his room, so it seems like it he would've had to wake up with the sun. ;)

Although we were allowed to take pictures inside the house, I didn't take a ton of pictures. (A lot of the pictures from inside the house are Tim's pictures.)  

Fallingwater has a main house and a guest house. We also got to visit the guest house. I don't have many pictures from inside there, but this is the view from the front of the guest house. (Looking down on the main house.)

Inside the living area of the guest house.

A Frank Lloyd Wright chair in the guest house! Actually one of the only Wright chairs the Kaufmann's had at Fallingwater. 

Looking at the door of the bedroom of the guest house to the outside. 

This was a pool right next to the guest house (just outside the door of the bedroom in the picture above) that the people staying there could use. Although the water doesn't look so nice now, when the Kaufmann's actually lived there, they made sure the pool was kept clean.

At the end of the tour, we were allowed to wander around outside and on the balconies that were easily accessible. I really liked our tour! I learned a lot about Frank Lloyd Wright and loved seeing his unique architectural design. 

Look at that view of the house! Isn't it so cool?!

I am so glad that I finally made it to Fallingwater! It was worth it to go!

I bought postcards at Fallingwater and wanted to get them sent before the post office in town closed for the day. I wrote the postcards in the car and then I needed to find the post office to buy stamps and send them. 

Since we had a little bit of time before our tour at Kentuck Knob, we parked at the waterfall while I went in search of the post office and Tim went to the waterfall. I went to the waterfall after I dropped off my postcards at the post office. 

I liked the waterfall! I thought it was pretty cool!

Ohiopyle Falls on the Youghiogheny River. (Youghiogheny being pronounced Yock-i-gheny. Who knew      -ough could be pronounced as -ock?! 😂)

We made it to our tour of Kentuck Knob. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house. 

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house in the mid-1950s for I.N. and Bernadine Hagan. The Hagan's were friends with the Kaufmann's who owned Fallingwater. They loved the design of Fallingwater and wanted Wright to design a home for them too. 

Once Kentuck Knob was completed the Hagan's lived in the house full time for almost thirty years. 

The shapes in the windows have meaning but I can't remember what they were. 😂🤷 I thought they were cool looking though!

This is one of the views from the back porch of Kentuck Knob. Isn't it gorgeous?!

Another view from the back porch!

And another view from the back porch!

This was the roof of the back porch. The holes in the roof have coverings, it's not just open to the air. 

The back porch!

Another view of the outside of the house!

This was the view from a certain part of the Hagan's property. Isn't it beautiful?!

So pretty!

At the end of the tour, we went back to the front of the house and took pictures there. 

Although we were allowed to walk back to the visitor's center after the tour, my leg was hurting (from my injury I got on my Europe trip) so I took the bus back down the hill. Tim walked back to the visitor's center. 

I got back to the visitor's center before Tim did so I was just hanging out for a little while. 

I got ice cream at the visitor's center while I waited for Tim. I don't remember what flavor I got, but it was tasty!

After we finished at Kentuck Knob, we started driving back to Virginia. We made it back to Viriginia safely! 

I am so glad that I was able to visit Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob. It was worth the time and money it took to get there! And it was a really nice day the day we were there!

Sick

I've been sick the past few days (since Saturday). I had a fever and body aches the first day. Then I've been coughing and sneezing with congestion after that initial day. (I've had to blow my nose a lot). And at times I feel a little nauseous. It's no fun being sick. 

Today is the first day that I'm starting to feel a little better. Yay! 

I hope you all are staying healthy this autumn!

 

Friends and Birthdays

When I was in my 20s and early 30s, I liked doing fun things for my birthday. As I've gotten older, though, I don't really care about that anymore. I do usually end up doing something, but I won’t be sad if I don't end up doing anything.

I have a group of friends all around the same age plus or minus a few years. Some like to do things for their birthday and some don't. 

In this blog post, I will write about three birthday gatherings I went to this year. Just because I want to remember. 

For Rachel's birthday, we got together at Diana's house and ate Olive Garden for dinner. After we ate dinner, we played Nertz and then had cake and ice cream for dessert. It was a good time with delicious food, a fun game, and lively conversation!

For Cat's birthday, we went to a pottery studio where we each picked out and painted a dish. I hadn't been to a pottery painting studio in a long time but it was fun to paint and chat! 

Here are each of the dishes that we painted at the pottery studio. Mine is the bowl with the star in the middle. The studio glazed the dishes and we picked them up a week or two later. I love my bowl and use it all of the time. :)

For my birthday, we got together at Diana's house where we chatted while eating cupcakes and ice cream. My friends also let me talk about and show pictures from my trip that I had returned from a couple of weeks earlier. (I consider my Europe trip as an early birthday gift to myself.) (I invited a couple of more people to my birthday gathering but they couldn't join us that night).

I am grateful for my friends and their kindness and friendship throughout the years! I think they're pretty great. :)

Random Thoughts About My Trip

It’s now been almost exactly a month since I got home from my trip. (It’s crazy to me because it seems so long ago but yet like yesterday at the same time.) When I first booked the trip, I thought I might be going alone. I booked it with no one in mind to come with me, but I was happy to have someone join if they could. 

At the beginning I had some family members show some interest in going but in the end not being able to join me. So I ended up planning this trip as if I was going alone. (I did book the Ten Boom Museum tour several months in advance and booked it for two just in case someone came with me, but it would be okay if only I showed up for the reservation too. I didn’t book any hotels or train tickets until I knew for sure if someone was coming with me or not).   

A couple of months before my trip I decided I did not want to go alone. I was able to convince my brother, Tim, to join me. He checked to make sure he had enough PTO and then started looking for flights. Thankfully, flights were still decently priced at that point and he bought tickets. Although I would have been okay going alone on this trip, I am glad Tim was able to join me. 

This was my first international trip that I planned completely myself. I wanted to record some of the random thoughts I had while on this trip.

1. I do not like that some European airports (Copenhagen and Lisbon were the two I flew out of on this trip) don’t tell you the gate number for your flight until about an hour before your flight departure time. These two airports are quite large and it can be hard to get from one side of the airport to the other once they tell you your gate number.  

2. I really liked staying in Haarlem, Netherlands. Haarlem is a quiet, charming town with cool things to see. It is only a 15-minute train ride to center Amsterdam and the hotels are generally cheaper than center Amsterdam.

3. A lot of the hotels we stayed at did not have very good pillows. 

4. The countryside of Belgium, Luxembourg and France are gorgeous! I already want to go back to Belgium and France. 

 

5. It was annoying that the airports I flew out of had very few seats at the gates. 

6. I loved the almond croissant I got from Andersen and Maillard in Copenhagen, Denmark! I will compare all almond croissants I eat in the future to that one from now on. 

7. It was nice that Luxembourg had free public transportation anywhere within the country.

8. It’s good to have quick drying clothes, merino wool socks, and water resistant shoes on a trip where rain is possible. They dry quickly and also are generally lighter weight for packing purposes.

9. The organ concert at St. Bavo Church in Haarlem, Netherlands was a cool cultural experience.   

10. It was nice to have luggage storage at the hotels we stayed at because we often arrived before check in or needed to check out before we were finished sightseeing for the day but were going to catch a train to the next city later that day.  

11. NannyBag in Paris was awesome! It would have taken too long to drop off our bags at our respective hotels (near the airports we were flying out of) and still do the stuff we wanted to do in Paris that day. It was nice to be able to drop off our bags near the train station in center Paris and then pick them up at the end of the sightseeing.  

12. At the Lisbon airport, it was not fun having to take a 10-minute bus ride to the plane and then sit next to the plane on the bus but not be able to get out for at least 15 minutes. All while standing on the hot, crowded bus with an injured leg that induced a panic attack.  

13. It was worth it to buy first class train tickets. When we bought our tickets first class was only ~$4 more per ticket than 2nd class. (You need to buy them enough ahead of time to get that pricing though.)

14. The only luggage I brought was a personal item (sling bag) and a carry on (backpack) and I liked that! (I think I would have been okay with a carry on rolling bag also instead of a backpack, but I went with a backpack for this trip). It was easy to get on and off the trains with only that as my luggage. Also after I went through passport control and customs back in Virginia, I was able to just head straight to my ride instead of having to wait at baggage claim for who knows how long. 

15. I, of course, looked up the weather before my trip for the places I was going to go. It was definitely good to dress in layers. One of the layers being a decent rain jacket.

16. I am glad we got hotels near the train stations in each city. It made it easy to drop off or pick up our luggage and be on our way to our next stop.

I know these points might be kind of random but they are things that I want to remember.