prosthetic h: 06/01/2011

For Memorial Day weekend, I decided to run away to Pittsburgh with my best friend Jenielle. Now, you might be asking: Why Pittsburgh? It happens to be a delightful little city with some great museums and architecture. Also, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallerwater is only about an hour outside of the city. It's a great destination for a roadtrip.

We left on Saturday morning after I got off of work. Our first stop was the Guild of American Papercutters in Somerset, PA. They share gallery space with Laurel Arts in a converted home. The Laurel Arts gallery is the first one you see when you walk in. They had a show of artwork done by former students of the high school. It ran the gamut from interesting to appalling:

This guy was right inside the door

Just above him was this masterpiece of pop art:

Here are some close-ups so that you can get the full effect:

I don't get the John Denver/flames correlation myself

The Cheesy RoboCop is my favorite part

I have no words for this...

I'm guessing that's supposed to be the high school?

Yeah...ok

Here are some other highlights of the show:

This was my favorite one. If you look at it close-up that's one long continuous string

After we ran the gauntlet on the first floor, we went upstairs to the paper-cutting exhibit:

I liked the effect of the layered paper on this one

I love the different layers of color

Other than the one exhibit, they also had some works on display that looked like they had been done by students, maybe? Jen and I found this one fascinating:

The caption:

The other thing I liked, other than all the interesting artwork, was the stained glass throughout the house. There was definitely a theme:

The next stop of our adventure was Fallingwater:

We had been on the road for a while and we had some time to kill before our tour. We decided to have a little snack and nothing beats pita chips, baby carrots and hummus. Luckily, we were sitting outside when this little mishap happened:

Not one to waste food, I tried to salvage what I could from the top of the pile:

This guy was hanging out in the gift shop. Look familiar? It's supposed to be Andy Worhal.

Now, I am not really a fan of "modern" architecture but, this has to be one of the most perfect homes ever. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house so, these are all external views:

Also, being the kind of photographer that I am, I couldn't help taking some pictures of the flora and fauna as well:

Jenielle as fauna :)

One of my favorite things about roadtrips is the random stuff you happen upon while driving. Here's some of what we saw between Fallingwater and Pittsburgh:

Day Two

We only had one full day in Pittsburgh itself and it happened to be Sunday. So, we decided on higher pursuits, namely art and nature. We went first to the Botanical Gardens:

We walked into the Gardens and I was pleasantly surprised by a whole bunch of Chihuly sculptures. I loved it!

After the Botanical Gardens, we went to the Carnegie Museums. Jenielle was much more interested in the Art Museum but, I dragged her into the Rocks and Minerals Hall in the Science Museum first:

And then the Art side:

And, just for fun, I climbed up to take a picture with Shakespeare:

Day Three

On Monday, we got back on the road and headed back to Lancaster. We decided that Memorial Day would be the perfect time to visit the Flight 93 Memorial: