We have to drive from the Detroit area to Rhode Island (family stuff) in July. As this is taking up our only getaway time, I'd like to find a nice, outdoorsy but romantic stop, somewhere mid way (I think that means along the NY Thruway- we can go up to an hour off the trail- bed and breakfast/quaint town- somewhere with a lake? Any ideas?

I've always wanted to see the house of falling waters. The Frank Lloyd Wright place. Is that anywhere near where you are going?

Falling Water is in western Pennsylvania, about an hour away from Pittsburgh. Here is the official website: http://www.fallingwater.org/

I've never been, but have always wanted to go. Maybe someone else can comment on it.

We went to Falling Water last August as a stop between Rhode Island and St. Louis. We can take either I70 or I80 across PA, so we took 70 this time. I'm assuming the southern route would eat up valuable time if coming from Detroit, but Falling Water was an interesting stop.

Seems to me like you could cut over thru Canada & hit the Finger Lakes region in NY. That seems to be what you are looking for. Falling Water is very cool, but not a destination, in & of itself.

I love the idea of Falling Water (I've never been) but if you want some place right in the middle, Skaneateles is a very pretty town on a lake and is almost dead center right off the NY Thruway. There are lots of previous threads here on Skaneateles if you do a search.

What about Niagra Falls?

Thanks for responding. We have been to Falling Water, and stayed in Ohiopyle, PA- which is a beautiful state park in the area. I recommend it to anyone. If you plan to go to Falling Water, you need to make reservations well in advance to visit the house (but the grounds are without reservation). You should also look into joining the Conservancy, because you may save on the tickets depending on the number in your party.
We've also done the falls a few times on prior trips, and it is a little too close to this side.
I will check out Skaneateles, and I'm also looking at Geneva on the Lake in the Finger Lakes area.
Thanks again.

Also look into Niagra On The Lake (NOTL), ON. It gets lots of good reviews as a quaint town with some great restaurants, hotels etc. Check out the Canada forum.

If you want FL Wright houses there are several in Buffalo. For a stop I might suggest Cooperstown,NY, Williamstown, MA

We just came back from a wedding in Skaneateles. It was a lovely place for a short stopover on a longer trip. Scenic lake, some cute shops/boutiques, and a few good restaurants. (I highly recommend the Skaneateles Bakery for breakfast -- they had a small menu of delicious egg sandwiches and fresh-made doughnuts, we ate there both mornings we were in Skaneateles, it was so good!)

The visitors to Skaneateles seemed to be overwhelmingly regional-- lots of NY license plates, a smattering of PA and MA tags -- take that for what it's worth. For your purposes -- a stopover on a longer trip, I think it would fit the bill nicely.

For outdoorsy, we had hoped to go to Watkins Glen, a bit southwest of Skaneateles, but I am in the middle of an episode of sciatica, so we had to scratch that side trip. But perhaps it's worth searching to see if it would interest you, and if it's too far off the route or not. Watkins Glen is a state park with waterfalls and hiking trails following down/along and behind(!) the falls. I'm sure there's threads here about it.