Fallingwater

 

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Today I got to cross out another item on my Bucket List. Joe and I went to visit Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic house in southwestern Pennsylvania. And I have to say, the experience exceeded my expectations. the house was just stunning!

 But first, when I woke up, I had to put last night's plan into effect. I took a Covid test, which thank goodness came out negative. Then I went online and reserved our same campsite for tonight. And then I put my feet up for a little while and relaxed!

 We had a 12:30 pm reservation for our tour, but all too soon, I realized we needed to hustle. We took the Jeep  down the mountain, commenting at how incredibly steep the road was even for a Jeep. No wonder we'd had so much trouble getting up to the campground last night! Fallingwater was only about a 15 minute drive away once we made it down. There is a small touristy town at the base of the mountain, with the park office, a lot of places to rent rafts, kayaks, bikes, etc, and of course ice cream and souvenir shops. I made a note of some good places we could pull up to tomorrow in order to reattach the Jeep to the RV-- we'd already decided NOT to hook up until we reached the bottom of the mountain.

We arrived at Fallingwater, and went to the Visitor's Center, where our tour was confirmed. We had some time to wait, so we checked out the little cafe and I looked in the store at all the FLW-themed items. You an furnish your whole house with the FLW "look", but it's nothing without the architecture.

Our tour began with our guide handing us ear buds and a small speaker. When she spoke, our little speakers picked up her voice for us. This way, she could talk and we could hear her even if we weren't walking right beside her. They started this system during Covid, and Joe and I thought it was brilliant-- we could hear her even when we were looking around at the scenery, hear her answers to other people's questions, and all in all, it was a very good system.

 We walked through the grounds and heard about FLW's career and about Edward and Liliane Kaufmann, who commissioned the house. They had been coming to the property for years in the summer just to get away from the city (Pittsburgh), but they wanted to live there during the year. Their son, Edward Jr., had studied architecture with FLW, and he recommended that they hire Wright.They realized soon enough that although this was their private residence, Fallingwater was much more than that-- it deserved to be seen by the public. So they set up a trust and donated the house and grounds to the state, with the understanding it would remain open to the public.

As we came down the walkway and got our first glimpse of the house, I was just blown away. I had the same feeling I've had with other sites (and sights!) that I've seen numerous times in photos, and then got to see in person. It was just so much MORE than I'd expected. I could fill this blog with photographs of the exterior alone, it was just so stunning.

The tour took us through the entire house, although photos are only allowed on the first floor. The first floor was designed on the same kind of "open floor plan" that is so popular today (but was rare then)-- the dining room and living room/conversation areas are all just one huge space, surrounded by windows looking into the woods around the house. The river runs beneath the cantilevered terraces, and there is even a staircase directly from the living room down to the riverside. When the glass encloser to the stairs was open, it provided cooling air coming off the cold water. The kitchen was also on this floor, and although we couldn't go in, we could look at it through the doorway. The entire space was constructed of only four materials-- stone, glass, wood, and steel. We wandered all over while our guide pointed out small details and answered questions. 

Joe looks at stairway down from living room

From there we went upstairs-- the second floor had the "master bedroom" and Mr. Kaufman's study. The latter had this great window configuration by his desk, which allowed the window to actually swing into the room and open completely, allowing the sound of the rushing river to come into the space. Every bedroom had its own bath and its own terrace. The hallways, in contrast, were narrow and felt like little tunnels leading between the living areas. There was plenty of natural stone in the walls, adding to the tunnel effect.

View from first floor terrace of river rushing away from house

We went out onto the second floor terrace and from there walked up an outside staircase to the third floor, which had Edward Jr.'s bedroom. He had moved his bed to a little alcove on the other side of the floor (still connected to the main room) where the sun poured in from three sides--it was delicious! The walls of the staircase going down from that floor were lined with bookcases filled with Edward Jr.'s books. In fact, all the furnishings were original--the family's own stuff. They had wanted the space to really represent the fact that it was a HOME first and foremost before it became a public space.

Finally, we walked from the second floor up to the guest quarters, which were a separate building. The staircase canopy was an amazing concrete ribbon which swooped around with the curving stairs. At the top, the house had a small living room and bedroom, plus of course a terrace. There was also a "plunge pool" fed naturally from the natural stream dripping from the rocks. Apparently the family used this pool quite a bit for a quick dip.

Stairs down to the river from the living room

All in all, we thought the tour was very well done and the buildings were simply fabulous. We were so glad we had come. When we were finished with our tour, we went into the gallery (part of the visitor's center complex) and looked at photos and original documents related to the building of the house. We got something to drink, and then came home. The tour tickets allow you to wander around the grounds, but we didn't do much wandering-- climbing all those stairs, and then walking back to the visitor center was enough activity for us.

Kitchen

 

After that, it was a quick trip back "home" to the RV. But we did make one more stop-- at Cucumber Falls, which is in the park and was right on our way back up. The falls were very pretty and worth the 10 minute stop. Then when we got back, Joe immediately took a nap; I walked the dog and did some reading, and then I took a nap too. And that was our day-- dinner, and I started blogging this trip. I would consider today a success!! And I was SO glad that I had changed my plans... neither of us would have been up for driving for almost 2 hours just to spend the night in a Walmart lot. We can drive a little further tomorrow instead.

Cucumber Falls

A Peak Experience

Hat Creek tumbling from Mt. Lassen

2019-10-02 (Wednesday)

We had a wonderful day today in Lassen Volcanic National Park. We definitely timed it right vis-a-vis those winter storms that came through. There is enough snow here to remind us that winter is coming, and the night was cold--definitely below freezing. We were toasty warm, though, and woke up to clear blue skies without a single cloud all day! Joe said he knew it would be clear... we went out last night, after I finished my blog, to look at the stars. It was gorgeous-- at 5,000 feet elevation in the forests of northern California, surrounded by only tiny towns, there is no ambient light from anywhere. The only thing limiting us was the incredibly tall trees- we looked straight up, and our sky was surrounded by trees. But it was all crystal clear then, and this morning too.

Unfortunately, Joe didn’t sleep well, so I left him to try to take a nap around 10:00, while I went to the visitors center for maps and information. I dawdled there, chatting with not-quite-2-year-old Eloise and her mom about what might be a good gift “for the baby” (Eloise helped decide!) Then I stopped at the campground store to see if they had any cereal, but mostly what they had was souvenirs. I finally went home, and discovered Joe, instead of napping, had made our lunch sandwiches for our day exploring Lassen.

So we gathered up everything we needed for a day trip (we even included a thermos of hot tea), and the three of us started across the road which goes through the park. There is only one road, running from north to south, so we knew we’d have to retrace our steps on the way back, but it is only 30 miles, and the ranger in the visitor center assured me we’d have no problem doing it in a day.

Well, it was simply a stunning drive. Our first significant stop was at the “Chaos Crags and Jumbles” scenic pull out-- a rock slide which came down the north side of Mount Lassen. Lassen  erupted several times between 1914 and 1921, so there are many areas where recent  results of volcanic eruption can be seen. The so-called “Devastated Area” is a large area littered with rocks which were thrown from the volcano 5 miles away. There is an interpretive trail through the area, indicating a number of different features in the types of rocks which landed there, as well as photos taken in 1915 after the most significant eruption. Several rocks were labeled “Hot rock” in the photo, as people came up to see them right after the eruption, when the rocks were still warm from the volcano. It must have been astonishing to see and hear at the time.

“Chaos Crags and Jumbles” Rock Slid

We ate our lunch at the picnic area nearby, looking right at the mountain above us, so serene and snow covered now. Then we drove on to the next stop, Hat Creek. There we discovered the creek (same creek we’d sat by yesterday!) rushing merrily over another nearby cascade. This time we could practically see its route from the mountain--not literally, but Mount Lassen was right in line with where we were standing. I took a photo, noting that it was like a postcard!

From there, we spent time noticing the meadows with the streams meandering through them. They must be wonderful in the spring with the wildflowers, but today the contrast between the fields, the water, and the remaining snow was truly special. We’ve never been able to stick around to visit the parks this long after tourist season, and I only wish we could have spent a week here (Joe says I say that at EVERY park! Which is probably true!) Anyway, I think Joe’s favorite sights are the streams and waterfalls, and mine are the meadows, especially with the streams in them. So we were both enthralled by the Hat Creek area.

We had a bigger treat when we drove on to the King’s Creek area. There, we saw King’s Creek wide and gushing downhill. And a few miles further, we saw the same creek just mellow, winding its way through a large meadow with Mount Lassen looming over it in the background. It was simply gorgeous!!!

I think that was really the high point of the drive for us. We went further--first higher up so we got a great view looking over the meadow we’d just visited, and then to the trail head for Lassen Peak hike. This was at 8,500 feet, but at this angle (from the south side of the mountain, and much higher toward the peak), the mountain was much less beautiful. I likened it to getting VERY close next to someone who is a lot taller than you are, and then looking up. Basically all you would see is their chin! All I can say is, this angle did not impress us, and of course we weren’t planning on a strenuous hike farther up, either.

Lake Helen

Overlook above Bumpass Hell

From there we drove past Helen Lake, which WAS beautiful, and then suddenly we were on some extremely winding roads with nothing between us and the spectacular view of the valley and the Cascade Mountains in the distance. Neither of us had the stomach to look over the side! We also stopped at two geothermal areas, Bumpass Hell and Sulphur Works. We had a great view of the valley at the former, but the trail to the mud pots and fumaroles was 1.5 miles each way, and we were long past the time of day when that would have been even remotely do-able for either of us. In fact, when we got to Sulphur Works, Joe just let me jump out and look at it myself--he said, “My legs ache, and I’ve been to Yellowstone.” It is true, Lassen is like a mini-Yellowstone in respect to the geothermal features. Sulpur Works was one really impressive mud pot (bubbling up vigorously) and a lot of steam coming right out of the mountains around. Definitely cool, but not on a scale of Yellowstone.

Fumarole

Then it was my turn to drive us home to give Joe a break. Those winding roads with the steep drop-off were just too much-- I stared at the double-yellow line in the road and drove about 20 miles/hour almost the whole way until we got past that point. Fortunately, it was now late in the afternoon, and the road was almost deserted. Not one person came up behind me for the ENTIRE drive back to our campsite! And I was driving pretty slowly the entire time. It went much faster when we didn’t stop at every place, but I did pull over for one last look at the meadows in the late afternoon sun.

We got back to the RV at 6:00, feeling very fulfilled and happy with our day. The road through Lassen is definitely a beautiful drive, and the mountain itself is lovely. It is maybe not as big as Mount Shasta, but it is special. And thinking that it is still active.... well, we are just glad we were not erupted on! Especially considering that in 1914, three guys were checking out the smoking mountain when it DID erupt! Remarkably, they all survived, but one was pulled out of the ashes after a rock landed on him! So it’s no joke hanging around an active volcano. However, we will be leaving tomorrow... sadly, we are finally driving east. We have to be home 2 weeks from today. I will blog the rest of the trip, but I can’t imagine we’re going to top this last park. Lassen was truly special to us.

Spartans and Salmon

Deb & Joe at Marymere Falls

2019-09-21 Saturday

Wow, today was one of those really GREAT days!! Just a fantastic day from start to finish.

The first thing of the morning was dealing with the Michigan State football game. We are in a media hole, apparently. As soon as we arrived, Joe was looking at our connections for television and realized we had a problem. There is no local television reception here (we checked with the campground owner.) There is also no cable at the campground which we could have hooked into. We've never owned a satellite dish, and finally, our usual approach, it seems that ABC TV does not live-stream to this part of Washington. That meant that all our options for receiving a television picture of the Spartans game were out.

Yesterday afternoon, I suggested an idea to Joe: What if we Skyped to someone, and they put their computer so that the camera was facing their television. Would I be able to see the television screen and watch the game that way? Crazy as it sounds, he said that WOULD work. So I asked Beth if she would skype with me. But by this morning, she had totally forgotten--I called her at 8:30 a.m. my time (11:30 EDT-- the game was scheduled for noon) and I could tell that I'd be disrupting their happy family morning together. So I called Jimmy, figuring he'd "get it" about football.

Aimee's Sunroom with computer set up for football

Jim, being the great guy that he is, didn't even COMMENT on the situation. He just went downstairs, got Aimee's laptop (she wasn't home), and clicked on Skype on her machine. I, meanwhile, was struggling to get skype on MY machine-- it just was not working. Then I noticed that the Skype icon was on the desktop, and when I clicked it, I was instantly logged in as Joe. So I called Jim on Skype (we were on the phone at the same time as we did this), he answered, he aimed the computer's camera at his ginormous TV, pushed it closer, and voila! We were just in time for the kickoff!!!  I was absolutely beside myself with feeling smug! Even more fun for me, I turned off the sound from the computer, and listened to the game broadcast over Spartan Sports radio network--my fallback position if I could not get the game on tv (but football loses an awful lot when it's just over the radio.)

Tree roots

So I watched the entire game on Skype (Jim went back to whatever he was doing--he didn't need to stick around), feeling, as I said, pleased as punch. And, MSU won, so it was even more gratifying, especially considering last week's debacle. (AND, not to engage in too much shadenfreude, but Michigan was PUMMELED by Wisconsin, so that completed the football portion of my day very nicely.)

All of this activity took place beginning at 9:00a.m. Pacific Time, meaning that when the game ended, it was only 12:30 here. Joey and I had a hasty lunch, through our "traveling gear" into the Jeep, and with Cassie, we headed off for adventure in Olympic National Park. Nice to get football out of the way early so there's still time to do other stuff .

Our activity of choice turned out to be a hike to the Marymere waterfall. A ranger told me it was mostly easy, and the plus was it goes through old-growth forest to get there. The sign said it was 1.5 miles roundtrip, mostly gently going uphill, but with about 1/8th of a mile with a "steep" ascent. We were not sure what "steep" meant, but figured we would go as far as we could and see. We haven't done much hiking because Joe's legs are still pretty weak since his surgery, but he was determined to do it.

Long way down

The forest we walked through was just awesome! We went VERY slowly, taking our time not just to spare our energy, but because so much of the foliage and trees were so beautiful and interesting. I took a bunch of photos, many of which are here. The intense greens of the forest included the thick drooping moss which covered many of the tree branches like a carpet. There were redwoods, and the ones which were down and decomposing were amazing shades of reddish brown, just gorgeous. There were fascinating tangled roots, and moss and lichen growing on the tree bark. Other than a chipmunk, a squirrel (it was much smaller and cuter than our gray squirrels, being two shades of brown), and a banana slug, we saw no "animals" other than, of course, the lichen (i think they are classified as animal?) But we just loved going slowly and looking at everything so carefully.

We finally got to the rushing stream which came from the waterfall, and then the "steep" part. Yes, it was VERY steep-- going up there were lots of stairs, and they were high, uneven, often slippery, and not easy at all. Joe was a trooper, and climbed the ENTIRE thing. At the top, the waterfall was very pretty, but better than that was just the accomplishment of GETTING there. We felt quite proud of ourselves. The way down was much easier, I thought, and so was the rest of the hike faster (probably because both of our cameras had lost all their batteries so we couldn't take photos anymore.) All in all, I think the hike took us two hours, longer than for younger, faster people, but we were satisfied with our afternoon's adventure.

We were also both exhausted and not quite ready to go home. So we continued on along US 101 toward Sol Duc Hot Springs, which were supposedly 16 miles but an hour's drive. As we passed another turnout for a campground, I impetuously turned in to see what it was like. It was one of the ONP campgrounds (first come, first served) and it was really pretty! It was also pretty uneven almost everywhere, but there were a number of level-ish sites that we thought we could manage. As we continued on the road, we were brainstorming about the next couple of days, something I started yesterday and had still not 100% decided about. The encouraging thing is that there were a number of empty campsites, even tonight, a Saturday. And many of the ones which were occupied, we could see the people were leaving tomorrow. So we feel a lot more encouraged about finding a spot there.

About 15 minutes later, we reached the Sol Duc turnoff. As we went through the gate, I asked the ranger, "Is there anything we can do here besides hiking? We are exhausted." He smiled and said, "Sure! Go to the Salmon Cascades, you can see the salmon!" We were surprised to hear it was a definite thing (the ranger yesterday had said that "maybe we'd be lucky" to see some salmon, although it was "a little early." So we turned off to see the salmon.

Wow, it was FANTASTIC. I could have stayed there for hours--Joey had to drag me away. The Sol Duc river at that point was rushing over the rocks, forming a small but very fast and rough (at least to my eyes) cascade, and there were salmon leaping up trying to get back to their spawning area!  It was fascinating, and exciting, and just a "wow moment" to watch  the wild salmon leaping out of the water and hurling themselves toward the rushing waterfalls. We'd seen them do this on a fish ladder by a dam, but never in the wild this way.

Very old tree (also very big)

There were some "stepped" rocks which offered sort of a natural fish ladder, and several times we saw a fish end up on the bottom "step" and swim UP the steps to the top. There, there was a small pool (we thought of it as a "holding area", where they would try to enter yet another rushing area over the adjacent rocks to continue moving up. We could see several fish in that small area all the time, sometimes they'd get into a big flapping mess--and then one would leave the area, moving into the tumbling rushing water going right by it.

 Lots of times, we'd see a fish hurl itself up, only to hit against one of the slick rocks and slide back down. I wasn't the only one yelling encouragement (at least, I don't THINK I was!) One time, there was a fish just lying in the lowest "step" for at least 10 or so minutes. I was afraid he'd given himself a concussion or something jumping that far, but after a bit, suddenly he started swimming up the natural ladder area to the next level. I guess he was just resting! Other times, we'd see a fish just jump into the air, almost straight up, and splash down again, nowhere near reaching the next level of the cascade.

As I said, I could have stayed there for hours. (Unfortunately, it was near dusk, and my camera's zoom wasn't good enough to get any good photos.) After about 5-10 minutes, Joey went back to get Cassie, and took her for a walk. I hardly noticed he was gone, I just couldn't stop watching the water (I was kind of mesmerized) and the fish. It was just fascinating. By the time he dragged me away, we'd easily been there 30 minutes or so, and he pointed out that a) we were concerned about driving back home in the dark (the road through the park to this point, from even before the hiking area, was another serpentine road with no shoulders) and b) he would need to eat some real food soon, not just the snacks we'd brought. So we turned around and headed back to Port Angeles. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner, and it really hit the spot! And then we drove home  to the RV.

On the way, we decided that rather than stay at this KOA any more nights, we would leave tomorrow morning as scheduled. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be raining all morning and into the afternoon, which puts a kibosh on many park activities. So the current plan is to leave and go get some things we need at the store, then drive to the local theater (in two vehicles--we won't hook up the Jeep.) We want to catch the 1:15 show of Downton Abbey, which is playing there now. Then after the movie, we will go to the Fairholme Campground we'd seen earlier, which will put us about 40 miles (at least an hour) closer to the western parts of the park, which we want to see on Monday and Tuesday. Plus the campground will be a LOT prettier! Only problem is, it will have absolutely NO phone reception. We will have to work around that, like we did in the Cascades. It's only for two days, and we won't be in the campground most of the time. So it should work out, and be a lot more enjoyable than two more nights here at the KOA, although the KOA is actually the prettiest one we've ever seen. Nevertheless, we don't love it, and it's expensive, so we are ready to move on.

Looking up to the sky

Variety of plants in hollow tree

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On Old Olympus Towering Tops

View of the Olympic Mountains

2019-09-20 Friday

On Old Olympus Towering Tops is the beginning of the mnemonic to help medical students remember the 12 cranial nerves. But today, it stood for an amazing view of the Olympic Mountain Range at Olympic National Park.The park is a World Heritage Site and a biosphere reserve.

Our first stop this morning was at the ONP Visitors Center, where I immediately picked up a pin to commemorate my visit. We watched a 25 minute movie about the mosaic of life within the national park--it was very beautiful. Because the peninsula is relatively isolated, there are many different species of plants and animals found nowhere else. Also it has very varied climates, including everything from desert to two temperatue rain forests. The east side of the peninsula gets almost no rain or snow, because the mountains act as a block. The moist air comes from the ocean and builds up against the mountains, but as it climbs higher, the cooler air causes the moisture to all drop on the west side. So that side gets something like 160 inches of rain/year, compared to nothing much on the east side. There was also a small nature exhibit in the center, with info about the animals in the park. Before I left, I spoke to two different rangers about what Joe and I should be sure to see. And then we started driving up the road to Hurricane Ridge.

Joe and Cassie on Hurricane Ridge

I was hopeful about the likelihood of having "a view", because the sky was (stop me if you've heard this before) overcast. But I did see signs of sun and blue in some areas, and actually by the time we left the RV, it was actually quite warm--WHEN the sun was not hidden by a cloud! As we drove up the road, though, I thought it was getting more overcast.

The road was nothing but wiggles back and forth through incredibly tall, thick pine trees. It was like going through a green tunnel. Then suddenly we caught a glimpse off to the side of a view--and then there was a turnout, so we stopped. Sure enough, we had a slightly obstructed (by some tall trees) view of the Puget Sound. Information panels told us we were looking toward the islands, and Vancouver. It was a bit hazy, but not foggy--I could clearly see the difference between water and land. But we also could see that there were quite a few clouds between the ground and the tops of the mountains we were driving in. The peaks were above the clouds. I kept my fingers crossed and we drove on.

Background: clouds, then water, then Canada

We stopped a second time when we came around a turn and whoa, there were mountain tops! The clouds were drifting wisps, so the view kept changing, when suddenly I pointed out to Joe that the white on the tops were NOT clouds, they were glaciers! Definitely glaciers. So we knew we were really getting up there. The trees had thinned out quite a bit, as well.

Finally we got to the top--we were glad, because we planned to eat lunch up there, and we were hungry! The view was just spectacular as we sat at our picnic table. The people next to us struck up a great conversation with us over lunch, but the real star of the show was the view. We were looking out at the Olympic Mountains, and there were quite a few glaciers included in what we were seeing. After lunch, Joey jumped back into the Jeep to rest for a few minutes, while I took a short walk along a trail which led over the ridge. I got a view of Puget Sound again, with lots more details of which islands I was looking at. It was so clear and sunny at the top of the ridge, despite the clouds lower down. We were simply higher than they were!

I went into the nice visitors center at the top of Hurricane Ridge, and spoke to yet another ranger to double check about a road that looked like a shortcut to our next destination ("Don't take it," she advised, since part of it was unpaved!) And then we headed back DOWN the mountain. This time we were on the outside of all those curves, and I have lost my ability to handle those, it seems. So I looked down most of the time while Joey drove. I did take one photo, though, when we started driving through clouds. One minute it was all clear green trees, and the next, this CLOUD was in the road. Like, who INVITED it? So it seemed very gray and murky for a little bit, until we came out again under the clouds, and discovered that it was, once again, a "partly sunny" day, as a weatherman would call it.

A cloud hovering over the road

We got to the very bottom of that very windy road, and had to go back on the main highway (outside the park) to get to the next place we wanted to see. Olympic National Park has no roads THROUGH it--the mountains are all too high. There are state roads all around the park, and you have to leave the park entirely, drive along another road, and then drive into the park on an access road. So every particular place has its own access road.

We found the road along the Elwha river (although we missed it as we whizzed past, and had to turn around.) It had ominous signs insisting that the road was closed, but two different rangers had told me that we should go see the waterfall there! So despite Joe's anxiety about it, I told him to drive anyway. Sure enough, there were 2 miles of public land, and then we went into the park to find a parking lot and then a road barrier. Apparently, a flood from the Elwha River some years ago flooded out the road and bridge and campground that used to be there. So you can hike in, but you can't drive it anymore. However, there is a nice (short) path to Madison Falls there, which is even dog-friendly. (Dogs aren't allowed on most trails.) So the three of us hiked up to see Madison Falls. It was very pretty. We spent time looking closely at the mosses and lichen and ferns growing all along the path, as per the film we'd seen in the morning. Microcosms of ecosystems.

Joe and Cassie by Madison Falls

After that, we decided it was getting a bit late to move on to the next access road another half hour down the road. So we drove back home, stopping at the store for some needed groceries. Then I spent several hours trying to suss out how we will manage to see the rest of the park despite the rain on Sunday, and what our vacation schedule will be like after this. I can't believe we only have about 3 or so weeks left! We haven't seen everything yet--it's too soon to go h

Standing by the Elwha River

ome!!!!