House on the Rock (Uncanny Valley Trigger Warning)

 

This morning our condo association president said they were moving the furniture off the dock at nine, so show up if you could help. I meant to get there at nine but was a bit slow brewing coffee this morning, so I ran down there at just before quarter after and moved the very last piece of furniture. Then Travalon showed up, and one of our neighbors laughed and said thanks for our token appearance. So that was embarrassing. 

Then we drove out to Spring Green via Highway 60, but the colors are done so Travalon said we might as well have gone on Highway 14, which is more direct. Still, the rock formations are just as beautiful in November as in October. We met the Single B Boy and the Dairyman's Daughter at the Spring Green General Store for an early lunch, then we all went to House on the Rock. It's a sort of creepy place for someone like me, who doesn't like either dolls or heights, because there are carousels full of dolls and lots of high catwalks to walk on to see stuff. Also, some of the automatic orchestras are fabulously out of tune, adding to the creepy factor already inherent in watching cellos and accordions play themselves. The lighting is low in a lot of the place, so some of Travalon's photos didn't turn out, but here are some that did. These first photos are from the actual House on the Rock, a cozy getaway literally on top of a rock, surrounded by Asian-inspired gardens.

The path through the house kept taking us outside to breathtaking vistas. Good thing it was mild weather.

Here we are in the Infinity Room, but we're blocking the infinity view. The Dairyman's Daughter has some photos I keep reminding her to send me, so maybe those will show it better. This room is also very creepy, because it juts way out from the rock, and it jiggles a little.

More beautiful views.

There's a tree growing through the roof...?

I'm not sure why people are throwing dollar bills and even what looks like a credit card (on the left side) into this wishing well. Inflation is that bad?

The guy who built House on the Rock really loved Tiffany lamps.

Back outside for another fine view.

Spring and Summer windows. I'm not sure why Travalon didn't also take pictures of Autumn and Winter, because they were also there.

That was my favorite part of the tour, and also that of the Dairyman's Daughter. Then we went to a building full of stuff this guy had acquired, and there were still decorations from Halloween.

I'm not sure what this photo is, but it turned out well and demonstrates the randomness of the House on the Rock.

Faberge eggs.

This section is called Streets of Yesterday.

This animatronic calliope played "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee."

The maritime section was very scary because the catwalks were so high. I couldn't even go on the highest section.

Is this sufficiently creepy for you, gentle reader?

Next is a section with a lot of these automatic orchestras. Some were VERY out of tune.

This one was fun - it played "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In."

This is a car covered with tiles.

This photo isn't that clear, but I love the tiny instruments the monkey and bear are playing.

These mandolins look a lot like mine!

More Halloween decorations. We all agreed the place doesn't need them because it's already creepy AF.

There was a beautiful, sparkly carousel with very creepy, mostly mythical, animals on it, but most of the photos didn't turn out. This is probably the best one.

You went from Section 2 to Section 3 by entering this monster's mouth.

And then you saw this really creepy clown. This was in a room that was full of organs and continuously played organ music. It had a lot of scary spiral staircases going way up to... what?

It had a huge chandelier.

And a whole bunch of drums that weren't being played.

More creepy, creepy stuff.

Like, for example, this boar's head.

There were also a couple of carousels with dolls on them.

If you cringe at the Uncanny Valley, then you may want to skip these next few photos.

This is a room with a huge band of fake people playing real instruments. This whole room is nothing but Uncanny Valley cringe.

There were some cute little animatronic scenes built for jewelry stores.

Check out the creepy, creepy band.

This is a cute little scene of Noah's Ark.

There was a whole display purported to be actual crowns and stuff from British royalty. I said, "How on earth did he get this stuff?" and Travalon said it was probably fake.

Here are the carousels again. We had to walk by them on catwalks to escape the place.

Finally we were outside, and we saw this whimsical winged unicorn...

... but it was pulling a wagon full of skeletons!

These giant urns around the grounds had gargoyles on them.

This looks like an actual weapon from the Civil War or something.

At least there was a waterfall in the Japanese garden.

Of course we had to go through the gift shop on the way out, and we had bought too many tokens for playing the automatic orchestras, but we got 50 cents off for each token, so we saved like $5 on a commemorative travel mug. In the lobby it was Christmas, not Halloween. Enjoy this palate cleanser of a Christmas tree of adorable teddy bears.

In this closeup, you can see the one right under the bright green soles of another bear is exactly the same as one of the two big, white Christmas bears I have featured on this blog. It's sitting on the couch right now, looking at me, because we never put it away last Christmas. At this point we might as well keep it out for this Christmas.

The tour took way over three hours, maybe almost four, and we were so footsore at that point. Travalon and I went home, stopping at Rookies for a quick dinner because we were so surprised to see it open. It closed this past summer, but a good friend of the previous owner reopened it with all the sports memorabilia intact, and the menu is the same too. Then we went to the health club and swam in the warm pool before sitting in the hot tub for a spell, to loosen up our muscles. When we came home, I found the little blue and green plaid pillow someone gave me ages ago (I forget who, so if it's one of my regular readers, thank you!!!) that massages the feet. Amazingly, the batteries still worked so I got a foot massage while sorting through Travalon's many photos. I'm not saying that I'm walking normally yet, but things are much better than when we first got home. Oh, and on the way home we saw a hot air balloon. I haven't seen one of those in ages. I used to want to ride in one, but would that even make sense when I'm so terrified of heights? 

Famous Hat