"House on the Rock......"

After leaving Cave of the Mounds, we did drive through the country, but not as randomly as Don would have had me believe.......we were heading towards "House on the Rock".  (http://www.thehouseontherock.com/) I'm sure that my posts of this attraction will not be able to do it justice, because I don't think I can even tell you everything that I saw......believe me, it was SENSORY OVERLOAD!!!  Truly a memorable experience!

Hearing the name, "House on the Rock", I figured I would be touring a remarkable piece of architecture, which it is, but there is SO much more.  We got out of the car and I was surprised by the large "visitors center", but when I got inside and looked out the windows, I was truly astounded when I saw the many large buildings at the base of the visitors center, all connected by covered ramps!  It was like a large amusement park with no rides in sight.  I had no idea what I was in for........

The self guided tour is broken up into 3 sections.  Section one has the original house that was built by Alex Jordan.  It is very cool but sort of claustrophobic.  If I understood correctly, he was not a very tall man, and he built his house with ceilings less than standard height (I felt like I had to duck a lot), plus MANY of the small paned of windows in the residence were covered with stained glass or opaque, darkening the interior a bit more than was comfortable for me.

Before we got to the House on the Rock, we pulled into a "Scenic Overlook".  That was when "the jig" was up and I knew where we were headed.  It was quite clear what the scenic overlook had been developed to see........(hint: above Don's head in the distance)

Here is a camera zoom in for you......

That is called "The Infinity Room".  Here it is from inside......

For the record, I DID walk out to where Don is in this next photo.  At his feet is a section of the floor which is glass so one can see straight down from where they are standing.  I walked out there, looked down, felt the building sway in the wind and that was all I could take, so I quickly grabbed the camera and walked back to the doorway.  At least I can say I experienced the Infinity Room........no matter how short of an experience it was.   ;)

At least I was out there long enough for Don to take this photo before I grabbed the camera and headed back to the entrance.   ;)

Safe on solid ground again, or at least in an area that didn't sway in the wind (the house is built ON and AROUND a huge rock formation), we made our way through the rest of the original house.  These next couple of photos were taken where there actually was natural light in the house.

These stairs led us to.......

The rooftop!  Yes, I kept pretty close to the walls of the house and away from the railing.     I love the view but not the outer edges of the deck.

We came onto the deck from one door, but left it via another, going back down into another section of the house on our way to where we would begin section 2 of the self guided tour.  As I said when beginning this post, the house is pretty cool.  It is much larger than I originally thought, too.  Alex Jordan originally built a one room house, but was only satisfied with that for a short time before beginning to add rooms onto it.  Each room seamlessly became part of the house, adding it own charm with more cosy seating areas allowing different views of the valley.

Tomorrow, section 2 of the tour.