Old friends, Family and Frank Lloyd Wright

After the rousing success of Sunday night at L'Antibes, we rose and had a small breakfast knowing that we would eat later in the morning with John's old friend from Boys Choir and Boy Scouts in Barrington, RI. John had not seen Tom since they headed to different schools in the early 1960s, but he did have an old picture that brought some smiles from Tom and his wife Lynn, both professors of Classics at Ohio University in Athens. Our lunch at Two Fish on High Street in Columbus was not notable for the food, but the conversation was full and filling as we reminisced about what we have both done in the past 50 or so years. Both Lynn and Tom spend lots of time in Greece, Turkey and Italy, as well as a recent visit to Egypt on their archeological travels. Fascinating and good to reconnect.

We headed out in the rain mid-afternoon to Springfield, Ohio, to visit the Westcott House, Frank Lloyd Wright's only prairie style house in Ohio. It's not overwhelming, but it has been well-restored and it is a fine example of the low roof line, low ceiling, Japanese style home he built across the mid-west in the early years of this century. We were pleased to take the tour.

That evening we enjoyed our last dinner at Level, a gay restaurant around the corner from our Bnb in Columbus, and packed up ready to leave the following morning. On Monday we spent the morning looking for coffee in all the small towns we had missed across Ohio to the West Virginia border. Most of the small towns are depressed, with little to recommend them after the coal mines closed and whatever industry they had departed. The small town centers are often boarded up except for a few offices around the local court house or county office. We can report that there are no other coffee shops on the roads we traveled that could provide us with cappucino. Even Steubenville on the Ohio river couldn't help.

But we enjoyed our sushi and sashimi lunch at the Osaka in Greentree near Pittsburgh with Ben's cousin Joyce, and the afternoon with her daughter, son-in-law and grandson at their home in Bethel Park. We did manage a good coffee on the way to their place.


Our final destination, Monday, was our friend Jack and Dave's house in Bethel Park, and a good evening of conversation, discussion of Dave's developing business and dinner at Bistro 19 on Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon. This was John's second visit to Bistro 19, which he enjoyed both times. The food is very eclectic and well prepared. The wine list is fun and not very expensive. Food ranged from sauerkraut and chorizo soup to grilled salmon, so the range is quite extensive. All of it rated highly from four trenchermen.

Tuesday, once again in the pouring rain, we drove to Kentuck Knob, another Frank Lloyd Wright home owned by Lord and Lady Palumbo of the UK. They bought it a few years ago from friends of Edgar Kauffman who had built nearby Fallingwater. The home is a 50s period piece from Wright's architecture, once again low-slung, but now incorporating the hexagons for which he was very famous. It is on a superb natural site, once able to command views in many directions through the Appalachians, but now surrounded by second growth forest and very private. The Palumbos keep their art collection in the house. The proceeds from the tours go to maintain the property. Worth a visit. This is a view from the low roof deck, and the main entrance.


Home sweet home: We now await the opening night of Stephen Sondheim's Follies at Kennedy Center on Saturday.