My mother-in-law was in town this past week. The way I was raised, when you have company from out of town staying with you the right thing to do is run them all over the state (or even other states) until they either go home or fall over. Last weekend we decided to head up to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.

If you like natural beauty, it’s a great town and National Park to visit. If you like old buildings and funky shops it rocks too. What really had me giddy like a schoolgirl was all the old stonework. When you build your town where the mountains and the river come together, you build with what you have… and what you have is stone.

Even the steps to the church at the top of the hill are carved from the very rock it sits on, which is really cool. It’s also something I plan to point out to my masons the next time they grumble that my designs are too complex.

There are some huge stone retaining walls holding up vast chunks of this town. Any time I go to an old town I’m humbled by the reminder that even with all of our fancy technological tools and calculations, there’s no substitute for expert craftsmanship.