An Accidental Vacation: Part 2, The Aftermath.

So.  Part 1 is here.  But to recap we were somewhere in PA headed to our friends' house in DC the day after the Derecho.

Right.  So... a few frantic texts from dying phones later and we determine that our friends have no power, it's 104 out, and their power isn't coming back until Monday at the earliest. But.  We're finally in a car!  We're over halfway there!  We need some funtimes dammit!  So they make the sound decision that we should all meet somewhere with power and awesome things.

Except that they had dying cell phones and no power and we were in the Godforsaken (meaning no cell service) part of the state.

So we solved the problem that we actually had control over at the moment.  We got the kids some food.

The Summit Diner was an adorable place that I highly recommend if you're ever in... Somerset Pennsylvania. 

You will probably never be in Somerset, PA.  But seriously this place was super cute.  The sign above the counter said "Drink Coffee.  Do stupid things faster with more energy!"  That I can get behind.

One of my Life Rules is to never go anywhere without an Atlas in the car.  So while we ate we called random places to stay near anything that looked remotely interesting on the map.

Seriously just get me some food.

And quickly learn that nowhere had power.  The entire Ohiopyle area was completely wiped out.  As was basically anything in Southeastern PA.

And still we refused to go home.  We were going to make a vacation happen dammit even without power and nowhere to stay.  So what do two architects do when stuck in the middle of nowhere PA without a plan?  They take their kids here, of course:

Recognize it yet?  How about this shot:

Aaaaaah yes. Fallingwater.  As we were pulling up Matt wondered if our kids would be allowed in.  I was all Of course they will be - I'm sure some hipster douchebags have brought their inappropriately aged children here before.  We can't be the first ones....   Yeah kids aren't allowed in.  You have to be at least 6 years old to tour the house.  Which, good.  I'm sure that rule exists because some idiot brought their kid and it was obnoxious.   Anyways you can bring your children and tour the grounds which was plenty:

Our girl is just as opinionated about architecture as she is about fashion.  She took one look at the house and said this:

"Why there isn't a train?  It has a moat.  It should have a train."

I feel like FLW really missed a design opportunity with that one....

Not pictured:  The train.

I love the details of this place.

The extensive preservation efforts that had been going on here seem to be pretty much completed.  I love that, btw.  Because no matter how modern and innovative and breaking with tradition your architecture is if it's any good?  Someday it will be in the hands of preservationists like me.

Mwahahahahaha.

Anyways after a quick stop in the powerless and therefore pretty creepy visitor's center we texted our friends  "We're at Fallingwater.  Like you do." and hit the road headed south.  We figured we'd drive until we found power and/or met our friends in the middle.

What we found was this:



Deep Creek Lake.  A beautiful recreation area in the very western corner of Maryland.  We stopped at the visitor's center on the way in to try to get our bearings.  Matt asked for a recommendation on a place to stay.  The guy said "you realize it's the fourth of July weekend, right?"  And Matt's head exploded.  He wanted to say "You realize I've never heard of this place before an hour ago, my entire family was in a huge accident, we're a million miles from home, we have nowhere to go, we have two melting down kids in the car, and WE JUST NEED SOME FUNTIMES DAMMIT"  But.  Instead he said "Yeah."

We went immediately to the nearest beach:

FINALLY you people bring me somewhere fun.  The beach is my jam.

Met up with our friends and even found a motel with a vacancy.  Funtimes could finally begin. 

Stay tuned for Part III - when the trip really gets rolling...