Geowoodstock IX

July 2nd was the 9th annual Geowoodstock.  This year it was in Warren, PA, so I knew we HAD to go!  Because of a last minute flight cancellation back in January, AirTran had given me 2 free roundtrip tickets which I decided to use for Sam and myself to fly up to Pittsburgh.  Sam hadn't been up there in 2 years, so he was overdue for a trip.

The first night there, George took us on a nighttime tour of downtown.  We rode an incline down to the city, which was lots of fun.  The picture below is really bad, but I think you can get the idea of how beautiful it is at night.

On our way to Warren, we stopped at a park that had a small lake in it.  We all had to go into the water up to our knees.  Doesn't sound like much, right?  But let me tell you, that water was FREEZING!  And there were BABIES in it!!!

We decided to stay in Ludlow which is less that 20 miles from Warren...this is where we stayed:

The Olmsted Manor was built in 1917.  It is a beautiful place, full of fine, old furnishings and gorgeous landscaping.  We had the place to ourselves, too!  There was a Steinway in the living room, fireplaces in every room (too hot to start 'em, though!), stained glass windows, a grand oak stairway, oriental rugs everywhere...kinda creepy, but very cool.  I think my favorite room was the kitchen.  It was bright an cheery. Modern yet had the most wonderful old stove!  I've decided I want one.  Bad.

Entrance to the driveway (sorry for stupid blogger not uploading the picture right).

Here is a little tour.  First, the Dining Room.

 (Blogger is making me MAD. These pictures were oriented right side up, but when I uploaded them here, they got laid down and I can't seem to fix them. SORRY!)

This is that stove. Isn't it great?

The entrance.

The main staircase. Let's go up!

 This was our room...

Our room had the neatest little sun porch with a bed on it.  After the kitchen, this was my favorite room!  I could imagine spending hours sitting there reading.

 This was Sam's room...

The bathroom is Sam's room was beautiful...the colors and layout of the tiles, the half circle shower...very nice.

 This was a creepy little "servant's room" down the hall from us.  For whatever reason, there was an old teddy bear propped up in a chair.  It was creepy. Trust me.

Now this is where the trule creepiness begins.  When we first got there, I went through all the rooms in the house taking pictures.  The one below was of the bedroom next to ours.  Not a good picture as I've blown it up.  See, that bed is made perfectly, right?

The morning we left, I again went through all the rooms.  I noticed in the room above, that in the bathroom, there were 2 towels on the floor.  Had they been there before?  I couldn't remember.  I picked them up and they were dry, as was the shower.  Strange, but whatever.  Then George calls me to come look at something...

 He asked if I'd messed up the bed.  No.  Maybe Sam did, to mess with us.  No.  I though that maybe it was possible to have not noticed it before.  I didn't realize at the time that I had taken a picture of it a couple days before.  You can imagine how we all reacted when I looked through my camera later and saw that I DID have a picture of that bed and that it WASN'T MESSED UP!

NOTE:  WE WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE STAYING IN THAT HOUSE THAT WEEKEND.  NO ONE ELSE WAS THERE - NO STAFF OR ANYTHING!

Hmmmm.....George had stayed there before, and although nothing had ever happened to him, he had heard other people talk about strange things...being pushed, blankets being pulled off them, etc.  I wonder if all the incidents happened in THAT bedroom?

 Just some random shots of the grounds around the house, "Olmsted Manor".

 A labyrinth across the street.  It's nice, but George can make them much better than that.

 GEOWOODSTOCK!!!  Trust me, this doesn't even come close to showing how many people were there.  Last I heard, it was over 5,000!

Ana made this her 5000th find.  I would've burned if I hadn't told her to look at her sign.

 Off in search of caches!

 Saw this street and had to get a picture of it for my friend, Heather, who's caching name is "Blueye"!

Fresh bear print...YIKES!  Can you see it?

Back in the Manor...there is a bowling alley up in the attic.  Very cool and very old!

Off to Niagara Falls!  we made a pitstop at Kinzua Dam...amazing with awesome views.

Niagara Falls!  The view from the Canadian side is better, but without passports, Sam and I couldn't go across the bridge.  Still a pretty amazing view.

 Hello, Canada!

That's the top edge of one of the Falls...I'd hate to go over that in a barrel!

 My guys!

(again, not a great picture, but I like it)

I have a few other picture that are still on my phone.  I'll try to post a couple of them later.  Now it's time to get off the computer and start cleaning the house!  After that, we're planning on going to the Deering Estate.  They are offering free admission today. Hopefully it won't be too crowded and I'll be able to get some pictures for here and my "Remembering Old Miami" blog.