On our vacation I was stoked (do people still say that word?) to visit Falling Water!! It was way out in the middle of nowhere, and when I first called they told me the tours for that day were full. OH NO!! Then my sweet and very tactful hubby told me to call back and explain my situation of only needing 1 ticket and that I was passing through the area from Harrisburg back to Cleveland and could they please fit me in, and they did!!! I was so happy and relieved. They don't allow children under 6 on the tour, so I got dropped off to take the tour of the house, then walked on the trail to this spot for the view everyone knows it by. You were not allowed to take photos inside the house, since they need $$ apparently to run the place. I hadn't realized the open walk down steps and view of the water before it goes down to the water fall was visible from the living room. FLW was way ahead of the time disguising the heaters in the furniture and keeping the illusion of the outside in, or is it inside out:-) One of my favorite parts though was the concrete canopy over the walkway from the main house up to the guest house. There was also an outdoor pool off the guest house, which is filled by the stream that goes down to the water fall. If I have the chance to go back, I will take the extended tour, since there were a few rooms you don't see on the basic tour (like the kitchen the staff uses for a break room). The part I thought was funny is that while the cantilever balconies were bare, one had a boxed up herb garden in it, which was there to cover the skylight to the guest bathroom, which you would have been able to see down in from the 3rd balcony! ha ha! One thing about the concrete is that it was a constant pour, and so they are constantly filling cracks, and they do have problems with the roofs, as they are flat and not sloped. I wish I could remember everything on the tour, I completely loved it!! The other funny thing about the house was that there was a "Mrs. Kaufmann's room, and a Mr. Kaufmann's room, the tour guide reminded us of the "I Love Lucy"show, where people still wanted to keep up appearances:-) Here are the few photos I was able to take of the outside:
This is the view where the tour starts. to the right of the house is the front door. Back when it was built in 1935, they had the option of putting in AC, but since it was their vacation home, they opted not to. It made for a hot tour!
I think this is the view as I was leaving to go to the lookout point. The tour guide pointed out that these were rhododendrons, and that when the family actually vacationed here Mrs. Kaufmann had planted lots of bulbs as well. They still keep fresh flowers in the house every week.
This is the garden that is planted on the path that takes you to the house from the visitors center. It was quite a little walk up and down to the house, I'm glad I switched my sandals out for tennis shoes before I hopped out of the car.
Here's the kids at the visitors center. I thought the foundation that runs the place did a good job of creating it to go with the FLW style, it was hard to tell if you were indoors or outdoors.
M walked me up the visitors center, then left with the kids. You had to pay for a grounds pass even if you wanted to view the outside of the house, so they opted to find something to do in the nearby town, which turned out to be wading in the river.
