Sunday, July 22nd, 2007
I think I wrote a while ago that Laura and I like to go to Tanglewood, up in Lenox, MA. It’s a pretty sweet thing to do. This weekend was the “All-Beethoven Weekend.”
Now, I am not saying that I am a big Beethoven fan or anything, but the show was pretty good. The whole thing is that you get to lie out under the stars, while listening to the music. It’s pretty neat. Last summer, when we went up for the first time, all we brought was a blanket. We were eaten alive by the bugs and I had to buy two plastic cups of red wine and some cookies for about $20. This time was different. We made a list and everything…here is what we brought…
- Blanket
- “Off” candles
- Bug spray
- Sweater/Fleece
- Sushi
- Knife
- Wine
- Glasses
- Wine bottle opener
- Matches
- Cheese and crackers
- Red grapes
- Hummus
- Pita chips
…all in a big cloth bag. The only thing we were missing was our sleeping bag to throw over us when it got a little chilly later on. To improvise, I just moved everything off the blanket we had and rolled ourselves up in it. I started to doze off towards the end of the show, but I was quite comfortable, so you can’t really blame me.
Here are some photos that I tried to grab…
This is right after we parked the car. We were walking up towards the gate and I realized that I forgot my camera. I had to run back and grab it…alond with this photo of the parking lot.
I took this photo of the Koussevitzky Music Shed on our way in. People are getting set up on the lawn.
Here is a great view of the lake and the Berkshires in the background.
This is the house right behind where we set up our blanket.
Laura had to run to the little girl’s room, so I decided to get fancy and set up shop.
Ahh, the music is on…
I took this photo of the gift shop on our way out.
I think the show ended around 11PM. We drove all the way down past Stockbridge and through Great Barrington. Then, we followed Rt.23 to Rt.9H down into Red Hook, NY and then crossed the Mid-Hudson Bridge past Kingston. It was a good drive, but we were getting way tired. We stumbled in a fell right asleep. We woke up this morning at about 11:15AM. I haven’t done that since I was a teenager. I felt pretty guilty about that type of laziness. Man…
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Tuesday, September 26th, 2006
Another one of my favorite things (again) is to visit Stockbridge, MA. It’s a small town located in the Berkshires…in between Lenox to the North and Great Barrington to the South. Here is a great website to learn more about the Southern Berkshires.
There are some really cool attractions in Stockbridge, one being the Norman Rockwell Museum, two being the Red Lion Inn and three being the Windy Hill Nursery. We have yet to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum, but have graced our presence at the other two.
Late September is the best time to go up. The weather is still good and it’s sweater in the morning, t-shirt in the afternoon temperature. Perfect for pumpkin picking. If you are into finding cool places for apple picking and pumpkin picking, you surely know of finding the wrong places. You know the ones…little trees in open, field-like settings. When you find the right one, you need to hold on to it, no matter the distance. That’s what we did here.
Windy Hill is a nice, large tree seasonal setting. Inside, they offer hot cider, donuts and all the apples you could imagine. Outside, they offer a nice hillside full of apple trees…about 20 different varieties. You can pick to your heart’s content. Right outside the building, they have a good variety of plants, flowers and plantings. They also have tons of pumpkins.
We picked up a few nice ones for carving later. You can really hang out here for quite some time, if you have it. We wanted to go north on Rt. 7 a few miles into the town of Stockbridge to eat dinner at the Red Lion Inn.
Stockbridge offers a very small main street setting with a few shops to browse through. You can get all that cool stuff you remember from childhood vacations, such as rock candy and taffy. A walk up and down both sidewalks worked up our appetite for some good dining. Before going in, we usually check out the back of the Inn. It shows the enormity of the building. There is a rich history of this structure, which I share below. The first time ever visiting this town, we ate lunch in the back courtyard, so there is sentimental value.
One thing you have to remember about the Red Lion Inn…if you want to eat in the main dining room, you must dress appropriately – a suit or comparable for the females. I am stressing this for the guys, because we are usually the ones with the issues. If you don’t have the right clothes, you can eat in the tavern part of the inn, downstairs. We have seen people turned away from the dining room time after time. Dining at this Inn is an experience. It brings you to another place and makes you want to stay for much longer than you can. Wine…candles…food and a good time. After eating, a nice break on the front porch sitting in a rocking chair is sooooo relaxing.
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