Friday and Saturday in Oakland, Maryland

"American Pride" off Boy Scout Road

On Friday morning we saw the California crew off and then drove over to Oakland in my new car. First stop: the Garrett County Museum of Transportation. Downstairs they have "things with wheels," while upstairs is everything from boats to ski mobiles, as well as a history of the dam and the lake.

"Gangster" car from the 1930s

This 1952 Roadster feels 20-30 years older in its design.

Right front: Cub Scout Derby car; left side: multiple WWII-era toys made of rubber, which we found surprising given the rationing and requisitioning of rubber for the war effort.

Above: Craig Abrahamson was a wood carver, then he had a hand injury, but rather than do formal physical therapy, he carved this life-sized motorcycle instead.

Below: a miniature wooden motorcycle.

Upstairs we learned that Deep Creek was dammed in 1925 to generate hydroelectricity. This created a 12-mile-long mountain lake with 65 miles of shoreline that is, arguably, more successful than the power plant. Outdoor recreation here includes the water (boating, fishing, swimming, kayaking, rafting, etc.) and the land (skiing, hiking, camping, birding, etc.). There have been a number of camps (United Methodist, Boy Scouts) and businesses, such as Deep Creek Lodge (below) and the Cabin Lodge (where we bought our French fries and ice cream yesterday!).

Above: Deer Park Water was originally bottled here for the B&O Railroad to serve on its trains.

Below: The museum was hosting a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Museum on revitalizing rural communities; as part of that, there was an "Old and New Game," which involved matching pictures of older and newer versions of the same technologies that I thought would make a great Brownie Scout activity, and I'm also contemplating how I could turn it into a teaching activity as well.

We ate lunch at 206 Alder, a bistro & bar, and attempted to visit the Garrett County Historical Society Museum, but it was inexplicably closed, so we moved on to the third museum in downtown Oakland, the B&O Railroad Museum.

Like the Transportation Museum across the street, the B&O Railroad Museum is a semi-professional affair with a mish-mash of exhibits and labels, some of which are still printed on simple computer paper. I wanted badly to turn lose a historian friend of mine, who would surely whip things into shape. The building is the third to stand on that spot; railroad president John Work Garrett ensured that the westernmost county in Maryland (named for him!) had a beautiful train station in Oakland; construction began in 1884, the same year he died. That's a 1920 locomotive next to the fountain out front--it blows "steam"! Left is the "Cincinnatian," and below are photos about eating on the train.

"Nothing Could be Finer Than Dinner in the Diner.."

The oddest thing we found at the railroad museum was a couple of scrapbooks that belonged to one of the elderly docents, whose son had purchased them for him secondhand. They contain newspaper clippings from the 1920s and are badly in need of conservation. My mother and I were fascinated by these pages about the time a leaky steam pipe caused an explosion in the basement of a Cleveland Clinic building where old x-ray film was being stored, sending poisonous gas through the ductwork that killed 124 people throughout the hospital (May 15, 1929)--neither she nor I had heard of it before!

In the late afternoon we drove 15 minutes over to the Deep Creek State Park, where we threw a Nerf football around in the water before lying out in the sun on the small sandy beach to dry off. Back at the cabin it was leftovers for dinner while watching Wicked, and then one last sit in the hot tub before bed. Saturday morning we packed and packed and then returned to Oakland for their year-round Saturday farmers market. We loaded up on fresh produce--including peaches that required a 10-15 minute wait in line--and enjoyed cheeseburgers while sitting in the shade of a tree on the banks of the Upper Youghiogheny River.

In the background you can see the cupola of the B&O Railroad Museum.

And that's it! We drove home, unpacked, did laundry, lazed about, and reconciled with Rosamunda. It was a wonderful vacation, but it's time to answer emails and get back to work/

A Weekend in SW Pennsylvania

When my youngest brother and his wife flew into Pittsburgh for a family vacation at Deep Creek Lake, I created a "tasting" itinerary of the area to whet their appetite for a longer visit:

Saturday:
Personal pick-up at the airport
Dinner on the back patio
A show at the Arcade Comedy Theater

Sunday:
Take the Monongahela Incline up to Mount Washington to enjoy Grandview Avenue
Have brunch at Eggs & Moore, a mom n' pop diner
Drive to Fallingwater for an in-depth tour of the famous house
Arrive at Deep Creek Lake in time for a late dinner

As usual, things didn't go entirely to plan, but they ended up okay in the end. From the airport, we drove over to The Village of Sewickley to pick up an audiobook I had requested from the library and then made a loop to show them the church where Dear Husband plays. Then we drove to Wexford to pick up my old car. Oh yeah, did I mention I bought a new(ish) car?

My Turquoise Torpedo is 20 years old, dented like a tin can, and has no working air conditioning. The new car--I'm taking nominations for a name--is a 2024 Hyundai Elantra Hybrid with a driver's seat that reminds you of a cockpit. Of course we ran into a couple of snafus, namely having to unfreeze my credit to get the bank loan, and then the car salesman completely missing the fact that we had a check-ready loan, leaving us waiting for a completely unnecessary hour while they tried to generate their own loan offer. Thankfully the restaurant where we celebrated our 20th anniversary that night was able to hold our reservation (Monterey Bay Fish Grotto)!

That was Thursday; this was Saturday:

(Playing arcade games before the show!)

Sunday morning we got terribly lost trying to get to the lower station of the Mon Incline, but we made it. Breakfast was delicious. We then got ~8,000 steps and a lot of sun as we ambitiously walked to the Duquesne Incline and back to the upper station--only to discover that due to a power outage, the incline wasn't running. Two Lyfts later (don't ask), we were home, packing our bags and the cars to drive south.

A short ride through very green southwestern Pennsylvania, we reached Fallingwater. Our tour guide told us all about the land that is now Bear Run Preserve, the summer cabins that the Kaufmanns visited before hiring Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s, and the house with its famous cantilevered terraces. Wright's design incorporates nature so much that it is currently being waterproofed to ensure that its sandstone doesn't erode from the inside out.

Above: approaching Fallingwater from the near side of Bear Run;

the waterfalls begin to the left, just outside the frame

Main terrace looking toward the bridge

View over the terrace wall down to the wading pool (left) and the flowing stream (right) with the Jacques Lipschitz "Mother and Child" (1941) sculpture 

The hearth was supposed to be the heart of the home. Also: alcohol.

Looking down the steps to the stream

I love this planter in the middle of a stairway, as well as the bookcase on the stairs

Tiffany lamp in the primary bedroom

To the left: geraniums as privacy screen in the primary bathroom; to the right: the only room in the house with window treatments (horizontal blinds) was the guest bathroom

Full bathroom with rainforest shower head and cork instead of tile off Edward Kaufmann, Sr.'s study

Edward Kaufmann, jr.'s bookshelves in his study; I've long wondered about the wisdom of keeping books in a home with Fallingwater's humidity. When it rains, the rock below has a channel to drain the water that seeps through the wall via pipe in the floor to the driveway.

Final stop: guest house and staff quarters (now offices). My pictures aren't very good, but I was left with an impression of color and angles that would be interesting to look at.

Of course we ended our visit with a stop at the lookout that gives the famous view of the house and waterfalls, an aspect that cannot be appreciated when you're actually in it.

Monday: running the river rapids