Week long car trip

[rosarugosa]

Catherine: What a great idea to spend some restorative time with DD!

I think the Berkshires could be described as soul-satisfying. There are wonderful gardens: The Mount, Berkshire Botanical Gardens, Naumkeag. There are excellent museums: The Clark, MA MOCA, Norman Rockwell (we haven't been to Rockwell but have heard good things). There are wonderful parks: Ashintully, Natural Bridge State Park, Mt. Greylock, Bash Bish Falls. Places we like to stay are Black Swan Inn (have to get a lakeview room), The Guest House at Field Farm, Oak n Spruce (timeshare resort, so they will try to sell you, but you can get good accommodations inexpensively in a nice area).

I also loved where we stayed last year at The Old Mill Inn in Hatfield MA. It's a very quiet town, but is just outside of Northampton which has a lots of nice shopping and dining options. We really enjoyed the greenhouses at Smith College, Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory, and the Three Sisters Sanctuary.

If either of those areas seem appealing, I would be glad to answer any questions or provide more details.

[catherine]

Thank you, rosa!! I do have the Berkshires on my short list. The years I was 12 and 13, we went on family vacations there at a sober vacation place called Bear Rock Lodge. I don't believe it's there anymore. It was across the lake from Camp Hi-Rock, where my oldest brother camped. It was so great--I have so many good memories of it. Mom and I would sneak away, leave my brothers at their ping-ponging, and go shopping in Great Barrington.

That is also where I sat on the deck overlooking the lake reading Gone With the Wind non-stop until I was finished. The camp leader jokingly asked me on Thursday of our vacation week to write him an essay when I got home--"What I Did on My Summer Vacation," because I did very little hiking, swimming and boating that week!

Tybee, I told DD about LilyDale, so that is under consideration as well. Thank you for the suggestion!

ETA:
Hey, I learned that Bear Rock Lodge is still there! It's part of Camp Hi-Rock.

Here is a picture of exactly the view I had from the deck throughout my Gone With the Wind reading vacation!

https://camphirock.smugmug.com/Camp-...N2/i-fsjT6TN/A

[iris lilies]

Lucky thing this was scheduled when it was rather than during the recent tornado events. My sister lives south of Little Rock and lost $150,000 in property damage. Three injured horses and lost barn cat. The barn came down on the horses.

For the next tornado, they only had a stable for them, so they brought b them in their brick house to wait it out.

They're moving back to the PNW asap.

oh that’s right you did mention the terrible damage in an Arkansas tornado. that’s too bad.

[nswef]

We've been to the Berkshires twice and would go back. Don't forget the Eric Carle museum near Smith College. It is small, pleasant and has lovely art.

[happystuff]

My dad lived in Bentonville before he died. We've been to several of the places mentioned, plus. My recollections are of having a good time.

[rosarugosa]

Catherine: That's a beautiful view. Isn't if funny how books can become so intertwined with vacation memories for us readers? I have a less pleasant memory of a vacation at a lovely inn in Sunapee, NH. It would have been around 1990 or so. I spent a lot of time reading on the big front porch looking out at a lovely field. The book was Borrowed Time: An Aids Memoir by Paul Monette. It was a good book but so incredibly sad. I had lost a few friends to the Aids plague, one of them a very, very close friend. My memories of this vacation are tinged with sadness from my reading material. I try to choose lighter, more upbeat reading material for vacations now.