Southwestern PA 6/6/14, 6/7/14

June 6 was family day.  We went with Anne's brother and his wife to visit family plots in local cemeteries...





...and places from their childhood.

Grandmother's house, now owned by Mrs. Clean, possibly the wife of Mr. Clean, but we have no proof.





Great Grandparent's house, now owned by a chiropractor.



Great Great Grandfather's house was recently replaced by a Walgreens.



On June 7, we drove twisty, winding roads through the Laurel Highlands of southwestern Pennsylvania...



 

...to Fallingwater, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935.

 

 

 

 

 

In 1754, a few miles south of the future site of Fallingwater, the first shots of the French and Indian War were fired at Fort Necessity.  A 21-year-old George Washington, who commanded the British forces in his first military action, was defeated by the French.

 





 

Mount Washington Tavern was built about 1827 as an inn and stopping place for stagecoaches.  The Tavern is located less than a mile from the Fort Necessity Battlefield.  George Washington didn't build it, or eat or sleep here, or anything else here.  Well, not quite true:  several years after the battle, he returned here and purchased the property on which this tavern stands.

 

 

Local flora.

 

 

Uniontown boasts the motherhouse and retreat facilities for a province of the Sisters of the Order of St Basil the Great.  The Sisters initially arrived in Philadelphia in 1911 from the Ukraine, and have expanded their work to include icon making; several examples of which are enshrined throughout their sprawling acreage.