A Story About Life and Living It

We awoke on Thursday morning at Raccoon Creek State Park, just east of the West Virginia state line and just west of Pittsburgh. This area is most famously known as the site of the shire from the Lord of the Rings:

Yes, I just made that up. The whole thing was filmed in New Zealand. But somebody's root cellar sure does look like a home for Bilbo Baggins. Minus the circular green door. Maybe this was his neighbor's house instead.

We drove into Pittsburgh first thing. Pittsburgh was unlike anything Lani had ever seen, with the confluence of three rivers (the Monongahela and the Allegheny flow in and the Ohio flows out) and a city built on the hills and small floodplains surrounding the city. It was actually rather picturesque. To take it all in, we traveled to the top of the Monongahela Incline, a funicular railway that opened in 1870 to transport workers from the mills and factories on the plain up to their homes on top of the hill. Here's the ride up:




It travels over 600 feet at 35 degrees, which is crazy steep. From a viewing platform near the top there is a fantastic view of the city. First with us in the way:


Then without us: (Click to enlarge)


Afterwards we went to a famous sandwich shop in town called Primanti Brothers. It must be famous because it was listed in the book "1,000 Things to Do Before You Die (in the US and Canada)". It was pretty good, but we weren't blown away. Though Lani was blown away by how much Steelers gear was all around for sale.


On the way out we found a castle in downtown:


This is some sort of courthouse, but it looks like it could be the residence of Prince of Liechtenstein. Or someone like that.

After a fine morning in Pittsburgh we headed southeast to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, Falling Water.


Here's a hint for your next visit there: The house tour costs an arm and a leg, but the grounds tour only costs $8. We thought that meant that we wouldn't get anywhere near the house, but it turns out that with the grounds tour you can still walk all over the house and roof, as long as you don't go in the doors. You can still peak in the windows. It's a total win-win since on this particular house the outdoor stairs and patios are huge and well-connected so we had a great view of everything.


There are also some great outdoor viewpoints as well:


Following a nice visit there we headed off to the highpoint of Pennsylvania. Nestled down in the southwest corner of the state, Mt Davis is mostly notable to the locals as the site of various legends, a weird murder story, and Native American connections. The highest point itself is on top of a boulder:



That was actually a lie. The tallest point in the state is on top of the tower built near the boulder. On top is a neat relief map of the surrounding area and sometimes a Lani:


I don't know if Pennsylvanians find it sad that the highest point in their state is man-made, but I sure would. I actually doubt many of them care much. The following picture is a tribute to Brandon Dean:


It's not too far up, but this picture makes it look like it is:


There was a whole array of signs and monuments detailing the history and geology of the area which were quite interesting. That's how we found out about the weird murder, but I actually don't remember the story.


On our way out of Pennsylvania to Maryland we passed through Amish Country:


We were even lucky enough to get caught behind a carriage on the road. Lani considered it lucky at least.