Trip to Stockbridge

What a great trip! I always say that, because all our trips are great! I worked on Friday morning. When I got home Hubby was all packed and had lunch all ready for me. Such a great Hubby! We were on the road at 1:30 (after returning for my forgotten cell phone and stopping at the bank for a bit of cash for tolls). It was an easy drive west on the MA turnpike. We got to Stockbridge around 4. Our first little mishap was "my bad". I went on the website of the B and B to get directions to the site, and .....uhm....I guess I went on the wrong website because we ended out at the wrong inn! Ours was called "The Inn at Stockbridge" and the one I got directions for was the "The Stockbridge Country Inn". Oops! I was too embarrassed so I made Hubby go into the Country Inn and ask for directions to OUR inn! He said they were very nice about it.

We got to our inn at apparently the same time as everyone else did. We checked in and were shown our room. Very pretty - king size bed (which we decided was too big.....I had to go find Hubby to get a little cuddle!) and loveseat, nice bathroom with lots of amenities including bathrobes.

After getting situated we decided to go "downtown" and look around. Unbelievably everything was closed! You'd think on the Friday night of a big tourist weekend the little shops would be open. We weren't the only ones there either, so the places probably would have had some business.

We went over to Lee, MA to get some dinner. When I'd researched on the internet I found that the restaurants in Stockbridge were very high-priced and the ones in Lee were a bit better. We parked at the end of Lee's Main Street and decided to walk to the restaurant. After being unable to find it, we went back to the car, checked the map and drove there. The place was called Sullivan Station and was an old train station. The atmosphere was very cozy. It was all decorated for Christmas and looked lovely. The food was great and so was the service. After eating we walked a little bit but it was getting cold, so we went back to the B and B and sat in the living room and played Trivial Pursuit in front of the fire.

Saturday morning we had a great breakfast. All the guests sat around one big table. That's the thing we love about a B and B. We talked with people from all over...PA, NY, ME and NH. It's fun to hear stories of where they've been and places they've enjoyed visiting. After breakfast we got all dressed up warmly to go hiking.

I'd found a place online called Ice Glen that sounded interesting. It was very nice. We had to cross a rickety bridge and railroad track to get to the trail.

Halfway up the hill you could opt to go to the Glen or to Laura's Tower. We really wanted to see the Glen so we went that way. The descriptions said there would be a gorge, which I thought we'd be able to see from the trail. Instead, you got to hike THROUGH the gorge! It was very cool with tons of rocks to climb over and up and around.

A man in 1881 had gone in and made it passable with some stone steps here and there and a little wooden bridge. It was arduous but fun.

On the way back we decided we weren't up for Laura's Tower, since we'd read it was a very difficult and vertical climb, so we decided to go back down to the bottom where we'd seen another trail that ran for about a mile and a half along the river.

After all that exercise we were cold and tired, so we went back downtown and found The Main Street Cafe. This little place is on the site of the original "Alice's Restaurant" made famous in the song by Arlo Guthrie. I was surprised there was no memorabilia relating to Arlo or the song in the restaurant. We had some hot clam chowder and some cocoa. mmmmm...that warmed us up!

We walked around the downtown a bit and went into the places that were open. Hubby loved the "junk shop".....now THERE was some memorabilia!!

From there we decided to go straight to the Norman Rockwell Museum.

The paintings inside were absolutely unbelievable. Pictures weren't allowed (Hubby was reprimanded by the security guard!!) so I don't have any to show. But they were huge....I'm not good at judging sizes but I'd say the regular ones were 2 feet by 3 feet. Then he had his "Freedoms" collection of four famous paintings and they were probably 4 feet by 6 feet. And his very famous "Main Street" painting of Stockbridge was ..... 4 feet by 12 feet maybe? And they were gorgeous! Some of them were so fine they looked like photographs. I can't believe he painted so beautifully and so quickly! Downstairs were every single one of his Saturday Evening Post covers. 344 of them. And each of those covers were painted as a regular painting in two weeks!!

After viewing all the artwork, we had about 45 minutes before there was going to be a Holiday sing-along. So Hubby and I went downstairs to the little room set aside for the children to do artwork, where they'd set up so the kids could make card. Hubby and I got out some materials and made some cards for each other. Then we went up and joined the sing-along which was a lot of fun.

After returning to the B and B to clean up, we went back to Lee to another restaurant...the Salmon Run. This place was not nearly as enjoyable as the place the night before. The seafood was just "okay" ( this coming from someone who lives on the coast and knows good seafood!) and the ambiance and service left a lot to be desired. We returned for another game of Trivial Pursuit and then bed.

Sunday morning we awoke to an inch of snow on the ground! It was beautiful! We had another great breakfast, checked out of the B and B and made our way down to Main St. We had intended to go to the "Norman Rockwell Main Street Re-creation" but it didn't start until 12 and we didn't really want to wait around. We did take pictures of the beautiful Main Street in the snow and got pictures of some of the antique cars that are brought in to re-create Rockwell's famous painting.

Then we drove to Housatonic to see the Arlo Guthrie Center, which is the church where Arlo lives when the song "Alice's Restaurant" was written. It's only open in the summer so I guess we'll have to go back!

And finally, on the way home, we stopped at Stepdaughter Wendy's house to visit her and our grandson Noah. We got home right at four o'clock in time to see the Patriots.....who won at the last minute! A perfect ending to a perfect weekend.