Day Four: Falling Water aka THE WORST ROAD TRIP EVER

Ever since Dustin told me about Falling Water I have wanted to go. And every trip we've taken to Pittsburgh it's been cut from the itinerary for one reason or another. But this time I bought tickets in advance so we HAD to go. Dustin had been with his parents as a kid but never got to see the inside because he was what one might call "a little rambunctious" and I don't think he met the age limit. So this would pretty much be new to him as well.

Miranda and Melissa came over to Dustin's grandparent's house early Saturday morning so we could head out by 8:30 AM. According to our iPhone map it would take approximately two hours to get there and since they suggested we arrive early, we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time. Dustin's grandma was nice enough to let us take her van since there would be five of us. Melissa drove. Dustin sat next to her to give her directions. I sat in the middle trying not to have a panic attack. And Miranda and Ben sat in the back.

I had a bad feeling about this trip. And boy was I right.

The first problem was that Melissa drove like she was trying to qualify for the Daytona 500. Speed demon! Also, there was lots of ass-riding and jerking of the wheel - up, down, and around mountains. I thought I was going to throw up several times...or die. Not good either way. It reminded me of the time my grandfather drove me, my Aunt Sarah, and cousin Hayley through the Hollywood hills. A NIGHTMARE! Feeling car sick is the worst! Dustin complained. And then so did Miranda and Ben. It still continued.

We stopped about halfway there, at you guessed it, Eat'N Park! I wasn't even sure I would be able to eat anything because I felt so sick. UGH! I ordered a light breakfast and hoped for the best.

We hopped back in the death-mobile and got attacked by stink bugs. Ok, maybe not attacked. It's not like they swarmed us. But every 5 minutes one of us would scream or jump because we found a stink bug crawling on us. This literally happened the entire trip there AND back!

Not long after getting on the highway we had to go through a toll. When going through said toll, one must grab a ticket, and then give it to the toll booth operator at whichever exit we get off of. Melissa just drove through. We did not grab the ticket. Not only that but she was supposed to keep going straight but instead turned onto a left ramp that went in the opposite direction we should be going. And it would be a good 15 min+ until we would reach an area we could turn around. We finally got to another toll booth (still going the wrong direction) when the toll booth operator asked us for the ticket. Well, we didn't have the ticket. She said it would cost $40 without the ticket. FORTY DOLLARS. Melissa and Dustin tried their hardest to talk their way out of this. The toll booth operator was clearly not in a good and things escalated. She told us to pull over in the toll parking lot and she would send her manager over. We waited a long time. Dustin and I were ready to throw in the towel. We were only an hour into the trip and it had been a nightmare. Falling Water no longer seemed worth all of this. It took forever for the manager to come over and speak with us. At this rate we would definitely be missing our 11 AM tour. Dustin and I both just said "FUCK IT" but everyone else pleaded to call and see if we could push it back. I called...and lucky (or unlucky - depends how one looks at this situation) they were fine with us coming at a later time. Yay? We got the ticket thing temporarily figured out and were on the road again - in the right direction.

Everyone was complaining about at least one thing if not multiple things. It went something like this:
"I'm thirsty."
"I'm going to be sick."
"Slow down."
"I've got to pee."
"Are we there yet?!"
"SLOW DOWN!"
"Why didn't we take the other highway?"

And so on.

We finally made it there in one piece - barely. We all couldn't get out of that van fast enough. We needed some serious space and fresh air and also solid ground. We were finally here but the excitement had worn off hours ago. At this point, the whole trip seemed like a really annoying chore torture.

We had to walk down a long path to get to the house. We pretty much all walked in silence. Nothing like family bonding, huh?! We stopped right in from of the house to wait for our tour guide and to finally take in the beautiful scenery. At least we all had something pretty to look at in our current state of misery.

The tour guide was an older woman who gave a lot of interesting information about the house but she was kind of crotchety. First of all, we weren't allowed to take ANY photos while inside the house. I of course snuck one in the living room because COME ON. I tried to take some while on one of the 100 balconies and got reprimanded by Ms. Crotch herself. It made my horrible mood that much worse. I could kind of understand the no picture thing like 30 years ago but it's 2014 where there is a camera in every single person's pocket. I leaned over to Miranda and Dustin and whispered "I guarantee I will be able to find photos of the entire inside of this house online" and sure enough I have! POINT FOR ME. We also weren't allowed to touch, sit or lean on anything which is a rule I fully support. All of the furniture is original to the house so they want to keep it in good condition. Understandable. Ben walked on a rug and Ms. Crotch scolded him too.

We learned that Falling Water was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (ok, we already knew that much) for Mr. And Mrs. Kaufman who owned Kaufmann's in Pittsburgh (didn't know that part though!). The original budget for the house was around $30K but when all was said and done it ended up costing over $150K! According to Wikipedia that would be 2.6 million in today's market. Yikes! Our guide told us that the Kaufmann's wanted the house to overlook the waterfall but Frank Lloyd Wright designed it over the waterfall. I would have been mad that he not only went WAY over budget but didn't design it with the waterfall as the focal point of the house.

The living room/dining area, kitchen and huge balcony were all located on the first floor. There was also a glass opening in the living room to a set of stairs that lead down to the river. Apparently, Mr. Kaufmann used to sit down there and drink his morning coffee.

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The seating in the living room was located along the walls and there was lots of it! The fireplace was HUGE! It kind of reminded me of the fireplaces at Ministry of Magic because it was almost big enough to walk into.

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We weren't allowed to step foot in the kitchen. They had it roped off. They only let us walk by and peek our head inside. Apparently Mrs. Kaufmann never went inside the kitchen either. It was only used by their maids and other staff. 

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I noticed that the floors were made from some kind of stone. They were hard, cold, and uneven. Basically, you would always have to wear shoes in the house. One thing that our guide pointed out in the home was how part of the rock from the mountain was built into the house. You can see rocks protruding out of the floor in various parts of the house. It sounds weird but it is really a cool feature. 

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Once you pass by the dining room table you go up a small set of stone steps where there is a guest bedroom and guest bath. The room was pretty small with wood shelves built into the stone wall. There weren't any beds in it when we visited. 

We went outside and around the building up more stairs to go into Mr. Kaufmann's study and master bedroom. You can get to it using the main staircase (with the incredible built in bookshelf) located in the middle of the home but our guide wanted to show us around the entire place. 

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I loved all the furniture throughout the house. I loved the corner windows. Each one opens too! We were told that Frank Lloyd Wright hated clutter and that is why there was so much storage space in this home. There weren't really closets but wardrobes and cabinets lined the walls so everything could be put away out of sight. I also liked that every single room had it's own balcony. It was clear FLW was blurring the lines of indoor and outdoor space. I didn't like that the hallways were really narrow and dark. The house is undeniably a work of art but it doesn't seem livable. It seems perfect for a party but that's about it. I guess that's how a lot of fancy vacation homes are - over the top and not realistic. The floors would probably drive me the craziest! I could see myself constantly stubbing my frigid toes. And although the windows let in a lot of light and the views are incredible, there weren't blinds on any of them. I'm guessing this was done purposely. 

There was also a guest house with one bedroom right above the main house. The guest house was decorated and designed in the same style. The coolest part though was that's where the pool is located. There was also a maid quarters and carport behind the main house next to the guest house. Both have been converted; the maid area into offices and the carport into a place where we all sat down to watch a short movie about the history of the home at the end of the tour.

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Other Falling Water sites I found: one, two, three

Right as we started back on the trail to the parking lot, it started to rain. I'm glad we were able to get some nice photos right before. The house was so fascinating. The tour itself was good although I wish it were a little more relaxed, but overall I really enjoyed the experience. Even though we were all in bad moods, we sucked it up during our time there and made the best of it.

It was back in the van for another LONG two hours at each other's throats. Ben and Miranda passed out pretty quickly. I just sat in the middle seat tense from the bugs that kept crawling around me and also the crazy driving. I wanted more than anything to be back in Weirton on our inflatable float/bed. Once we got back to Dustin's grandparent's house I went straight upstairs to take a nap. My heart had had it. My anxiety level was through the roof. I needed to relax! And I did for two glorious hours of flotation slumber.

Just remember for every seemingly perfect Instagram photo someone posts - real life is happening behind it. Sometimes it's just as amazing as the photo suggests and other times it's no where close.  But that's life. Sometimes it's wonderful and sometimes it just plain sucks. This particular day mostly sucked but there were still bits of beauty (and humor) to be found.

We were all supposed to go out for Chinese together as one big happy family but since no one was happy we ditched those plans. Melissa, Miranda and Ben went home. Grandma and Pap ate leftover pizza. And Dustin and I went out to eat with The Fidak's across the river. We went to a local restaurant that they frequent often that had really great sandwiches and then went back to their house to hang out one last time before we had to go back home.

Brady had us dress up in different face masks, play with his cool little hockey game, & throw his football around! He is so much fun! He even danced for us showing off his different moves. He said that Dustin was his dance teacher. I'm STILL laughing over that one!

We went back to Dustin's grandparent's house and spent some time with them watching TV,  eating ice cream (even though I had a piece of wedding cake at Nicole and Blair's house - HA) and just talking. I enjoy those simple moments of conversation while we are all seated around their kitchen table. We don't get to see them too often so it's nice that we had that time together.

Dustin and I were happy this would be the last night on the inflatable mattress. It was starting to lose air and we would both roll to the middle. If Dustin turned over real fast my body would fly up off of it. It was hilarious yet kind of dangerous.