Fallingwater

This weekend I went for a visit to see Dave in D.C., and we took a little road trip out to Fallingwater in Pennsylvania.  And, wow!

The home is about three hours from D.C., so we packed breakfast and lunch and drove over and back that day.  When you get there, it's set back into the woods over the creek and waterfall.

We got to tour the grounds, the main floor (which has a set of stairs that go down over the creek that you can dangle your feet in), the kitchen, all of the bedrooms, and all of the terraces.  Almost every room seems to have a terrace, hence why they jut out at angles on every floor of the home!

When you go around the back of the home (between the home and the guest home), you can really see how the structure is set into the rock.

Look at that dramatic rock, and how the terrace is set into it.  Really amazing. 

Up on a hill, you can get a really cool view of the whole structure:

The lower terrace is the living room, the next one up is the mother's room, the next one up is the husband's, and the one up from that is the son's.  You can also barely see the guest cottage behind it.

After being totally blown away by Fallingwater, we visited the Ohiopyle State Park for a short trail hike.  The water was really high for an active set of rapids, which also made for a somewhat muddy trail.  But we emerged with relatively clean pant legs!

Dave planned the whole day, and it was awesome being active and outside for most of it (especially with being stuck in the car for three hours each way).  It is a beautiful area of Pennsylvania.  

And here is Dave looking very dramatic on some rock edges:

After that hike, we treated ourselves to a stop at the Dogfish Head Ale House in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  This seems to be a really popular place for people our age to bring children.  I get that people want to go out and have a beer, but it sounded like a freaking Chuck E. Cheese in there.  At least the food and beers are amazing.

On Sunday, we went to the National Gallery of Art on the Mall, and also tried out this Burmese restaurant in Dave's neighborhood.  It was like a delicious combination of Indian and Chinese food, with a little Thai thrown in.

Monday was relaxing, mostly spent at Dave's place baking some brownies for his coworker.  I lent Dave the Cooks Illustrated Science of Good Cooking book, which I am now seeing was very good for him and very bad for me, because it is a really good book!  Anyway they have a recipe for very chewy, chocolatey brownies, and that's what we made.  They were delicious.

On my way back home, weather screwed up my flight to Chicago, and we were stranded in Cincinnati for a few hours.  We got back to Chicago at 1 a.m. and I was in bed by 2:30, but I swore I wouldn't complain because of the crazy amount of people stuck at O'Hare with nowhere to go.  And I met a very nice man in line who has written about food for the Chicago Tribune, and he gave me the recipe for Walker Bros. apple pancakes, so that is something good that came out of that hellish night, anyway!

I've finished a few new crochet and knitting projects, too, so I'll be sure to post about those soon.  Until next time!