Oct 11, 2013

Another reason we were in the area was to see the Frank Lloyd Wright designed house ‘Fallingwater’ at Bear Run and it didn’t disappoint. You might remember we visited many of his houses in Chicago. We managed to have a guided tour of an hour and could easily have spent longer. The house was gifted to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963 and earlier this year they welcomed their 5 millionth visitor! Our guide told us that there would be 900 people visiting just today as October is their busiest time of year.



The day started cool but clear and sunny with a pretty crappy forecast so we headed off but stopped soon after we left Ligonier for this farm view complete with Harvest / Halloween pumpkins laid out for sale. We have seen thousands of them in our travels.



This is the first glimpse of the house as we rounded a corner in the driveway. It looked superb amongst the dappled green and gold of the trees and the dense green of the naturally growing rhododendrons throughout the property. When they are in flower the flowers are white with pink highlights and it must look superb.



As we approached the entry we saw may other visitors on some of the terraces. The bottom one off the living area and the upper one off the main bedroom. Each bedroom has its own bathroom and terrace, all of which were private from each other as was the guest house above the main building. The stairs you can see literally come down almost to the water above the waterfall so you could paddle in the warm weather and this also allows cooled air to ascend through the house in the hot weather.



And a view of the house nestled into the side of the hill with the waterfall. This was taken from the spot Frank Lloyd Wright first viewed the site from and he decided this would be where he would site the house.



The Ohiopyle rail bridge now a timber footbridge. Very impressive as it spans the river.



And a view of the waterfall and some of the rapids adjacent to the town of Ohiopyle. It is a massive body of very fast moving water.



From here we headed off through more of the beautiful Laurel Highlands. It was spectacularly pretty and the road was an awesome one to be on a bike with very little traffic. The rain came just after lunch and was persistent and the humidity was very high which made visibility a bit tedious. We stopped for a break and a hot chocolate and coffee at a servo proudly signed as being a ‘Veteran owned business’ so we were pleased to support it. This flag was out the front and there was a silhouette (not seen well from this angle) of a soldier paying his respects to a fallen comrade, Quite moving.

Bits and Bobs:



On our way home from dinner last night Norm spotted this stone wall and at first glance thought he had found a map of Australia but not quite, so here it is.



And one for Michael who believes there is no such thing as an exhaust pipe (choofa) which is too large, we spotted these at our lunch stop.

Last night’s Accommodation:



Campbell House B & B & Efficiency Motel
305 East Main Street
Ligonier, PA 15658

We stayed in a part of the main house in a very spacious suite complete with breakfast table where our breakfast was served, sitting area with comfortable seats to watch the TV and a gas flame fireplace, complimentary wine and snacks, comfortable walking distance to a number of dinner options and to top it off electric blankets on the bed (yum). Breakfast was delicious and the bed wonderfully comfortable. A nice spot to drop.