I initially thought it would be tiring to take another trip the weekend after coming back from Brazil, but now, I’m actually really happy we decided to do this. Today, we spent our day crossing the Pennsylvania border to West Virginia to visit Morgantown, went hiking in the Coopers Rock State Forest in WV and saw hidden “Rock City” rock formations, toured Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece Fallingwater residence, took a peek at Cucumber Falls (it was a bit sad to see this after Iguazu, but still pretty and calming nonetheless), and ended the evening in the Strip District in Pittsburgh enjoying hipster cocktails and tapas.

Ever since I first studied art history in my Advanced Placement Art History course in high school when I was 15, I’ve been completely enamored with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. While we have visited Taliesin, Taliesin West, and of course his gorgeous Guggenheim Museum right here in New York, I don’t think anything compares with how stunning Fallingwater is in terms of how it is integrated into its natural environment — directly above a waterfall! The building itself is heavily made of stones and concrete in a design that really mimics the nature around it, and you can see this from the interior and exterior. It’s even more mind-boggling that this house was actually a place that real people resided in. It’s literally as though they lived in a work of art. Actually seeing it in person and hearing about the Kaufmann family and what their life was like was one of the biggest highlights of this trip. However, I will say that Frank Lloyd Wright’s anal side definitely got to me in that I had to leave my small purse in our car for the entire tour, as they do not allow purses over three inches wide or any large bags or cameras onto the property. I get that this is a master work, but being anal about an inch extra of my purse is kind of bordering insane.