Pine Crest

 I promised you additional posts on our visit to the stone mansion, which goes by the elegant name of Pine Crest. The house was built by the first conductor of the Chicago Symphony!
Here are some pictures of the beautiful house and some of its contents. I still have another post or two of portraits of my sis, but you'll have to wait a bit until I can grab some more time to get those ready.

What did I tell you? Doesn't it look like you have stepped back in time, into a Jane Austen novel perhaps?

But nope, we're still in 2011 in the good ol' USA! Let me tell you, though... if I can't have England, this is a prettyyyy good substitute.

Round the house to the terrace...

And a sweeping view of the bay

(those stone steps lead down to the edge of a 300-foot drop down to the water).

The gorgeous back view of the house!

One of the first neat things you'll notice as you come in the back door to the kitchen is this TO-DIE-FOR phone hanging on the wall.

I was dying anyway. :-)

Winding steps with little criss-cross-paned windows! *squeals*

Up those stairs you'll find bedrooms and lots of neat stuff. Like this antique cash register!

One of the bedrooms had all these old suitcases in a pile. I was sorely tempted to take them out and use them for a vintage photo shoot with sis, but restrained myself.

Thought this was a pretty lampshade! I looove old handwriting!

This one's for my Opa... a deck-level photo of a model sailboat.

GLASS DOORKNOBS!!!

Could this house possibly get any better?!?!?!

Another item of note in the kitchen. I'm glad we live in an age where this sort of thing is decorative. :-)

I'm a key nut too. You should see my collection!

I love the colors in this... the contrast between the bright flowers and dark background.

One last photo to close out the post... we had a wonderful few days in this lovely place.