The Laurel Highlands is a region in southwestern Pennsylvania that is just southeast of Pittsburgh. The mountains there (part of the Allegheny Mountains) are the highest in the state. The area is very beautiful and Wifey and I both already had a love of it from previous experiences, which is why we decided to spend a weekend out there.
We left fairly early Friday morning and drove straight to the Laurel Highlands to a Frank Lloyd Wright house named Fallingwater. Fallingwater is the most famous Frank Lloyd Wright house and is probably the instant mental picture you get when you hear "Frank Lloyd Wright", even if you didn't know that's what it was called. We went on a tour of the house, which was very interesting. I'm no architecture buff (Wifey is) but it was just amazing the way that Wright designed the house around the natural environment. Wright liked the style known as "Organic Architecture", where buildings do not subdue the environment around them but rather incorporate it and exist harmoniously with it.
A building should grace its environment rather than disgrace it. -Frank Lloyd WrightIt started raining while we were on our tour of the house, which was actually quite beautiful (and gave me the opportunity to make a few "falling water" jokes of course). One thing about Fallingwater was that it was designed as a weekend home, not a permanent home. It definitely gave the feel of a place where you could just get away from it all.
After leaving Fallingwater we drove to Kentuck Knob, another Frank Lloyd Wright house not too far away. We ate some PB & J in the parking lot and then rode the shuttle up to the house. Kentuck Knob was also quite interesting and very distinct from Fallingwater. Kentuck Knob was built as a permanent residence, and the couple who had it built lived there for 28 years. It is also built into the top of a hillside and not over a waterfall, so it has a very different feel to it. The house really exuded warmth and charm. I told Wifey afterwards that Fallingwater was cool, but I would actually want to live at Kentuck Knob (she of course had already expressed the same opinion to me having been to both houses previously).
After Kentuck Knob we drove to the small town of Confluence and wasted a little time in an antiques store while waiting for our check-in time for glamping. Wifey and I go to a lot of antiques places and flea markets but we very rarely buy anything. Our lack of a house is probably the main reason. After wasting some time we went to the glamping site and spent the rest of the day there.
On Saturday we started by driving to the Laurel Caverns. Let me tell you, if you're ever in the area, skip the Laurel Caverns. Totally lame. They don't have any stalactites or stalagmites! All of the rock formations are pretty much the same... just rocks. Our tour guide didn't help either, he was this old guy who wasn't very excited. He did say "gee" a lot (as in "gee folks, this section of the cavern was discovered in..."). By the time our tour was up we hightailed it out of there. The one cool thing was that they had a section of the cavern where you could close a couple of doors in passages and then they turned the lights out. Total darkness, kind of weird.
Afterwards we drove up to Ligonier where they were having Fort Ligonier Days, an annual festival. There were a LOT of people there, so we didn't enjoy it as much as we were hoping. There were some interesting vendors, so that was fun. We wandered around the festival and saw all the various vendors, then went to a toy store to see what they had. I love looking through toy stores, toys are awesome (games too of course).
After leaving Ligonier we drove home by a different way and stopped at a flea market, where we actually bought a couple of things! Wifey found a stove-top popcorn-maker and a lion costume for Domino (our dog). After the flea market we stopped at The Old General Store, which was decent. We bought some popcorn and some gourmet hot chocolate for the glampsite and headed back there. Upon getting back I built a campfire (or was it a glampfire?) and she prepared dinner of cornbread, sausage, potatoes, and onions with some popcorn afterwards. Delicious, and it's always awesome to cook right over a campfire.
Sunday morning we slept in a bit (not compared to what we usually sleep in to though) and then packed up the glampsite. On the way back we stopped at a local winery for a complimentary tasting and picked up a delicious bottle of cider. We love cider. If you haven't had real cider (it tastes kind of like apple wine), just the kind you can buy in bottles at the grocery, give it a try sometime.
We decided to maybe stop in Pittsburgh for a late lunch so we drove there by a way we don't normally go. After driving a while we decided not to go into the actual city but just to stop at Settler's Ridge, so we wound up going to Red Robin (yum!). It was our only restaurant meal of the trip! Cooking for yourself is a nice way to save some money on a weekend trip. After eating we drove back to Steubenville and went to an evening mass.
It was a fantastic weekend. We saw lots of beautiful scenery and saw some interesting things, but the best part was having a weekend with just the two of us.
