A Day in the Berkshires

Let me start off by saying a day in the Berkshires is NOT enough. You could spend a week long vacation in the Berkshires and still not see everything. That's not an option for us, so we took a Saturday and saw the Southern most Berkshire area. If you know anything about our travels, it usually begins with a meal. This day was no exception.

This was a spur of the moment trip, so I spent a few minutes in the morning googling places. I found a mexican resaturant that was featured on Emeril Live for their mole: Xicohtencatl Mexican Restaurant. (Don't ask me how you pronounce it.) To watch the video, click here.

We left the house about 10:00 or so and headed for Great Barrington, MA. We stopped in and got some information at the local visitor center to read over lunch:

Then we headed to the restaurant. (By the way, the lady at the center didn't know how to pronounce it either. But when we said "We are going to the Mexican restaurant" she knew exactly what we were talking about. Funny. If you said that in Texas people would give you a blank look like, which one of the thousands of restaurants are you talking about??? Not in Massachusetts!!) The restaurant is open every night for dinner and seasonally for lunch. There was no mole on the lunch menu, so, I was a little disappointed. But I had a good, adventurous orange chicken dish instead. David had a safe burrito meal, but the salsa was really extraordinary. Very good! I wish I could have tried the mole.

Here's a couple of photos:

After lunch, naturally, we headed for dessert. I saw a bakery on The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Messy. It was chocolate bread from Berkshire Mountain Bakery. To watch that video, click here. (The video is on their facebook page.) The bread looked gooey and delicious!! We were a little taken back when we drove up to this:

It was a hole in the wall. It looked as dingy on the inside as out. There was a little glass case in front filled with all sorts of baked goods. In the middle of the case was a hole. A blank spot. The only there was a sign: Chocolate Bread $5.75. RATS!!! The lady behind the counter told us that we needed to be there when the doors opened. It was after lunch now. They had been out of it for hours. We left, empty-handed, wanting chocolate.

Our next stop was the Norman Rockwell museum. They had a display outside (not very Norman, but really cute.) I had to share a few. First up, "ROBOT SAM - A REAL AMERI-CAN":

Next up, "HUCKLEBERRY TIN":

This was "Robo 88", a water tank sporting 1949 Olsmobile 88 tail lights.

The grounds and the buildings were really nice. Here's the museum:

Behind the museum is Norman's studio. We went in and here is what we saw:

We didn't go through the museum, but will go back again when we have a lot of time to really look around. Evidently they have all 332 covers he ever did and rooms and rooms of his work.

It wasn't a spectacular day like we often have on our day trips. It was cloudy, even raining at times. We ended up back in West Hartford at the movies before the night was over. Still wishing we'd had chocolate bread, we stopped at Pinkberry on the way out. They recently opened the first one in Connecticut right around the corner from the theatre. The line was starting to wrap around the building. (You know me - if everyone's doing it, I want to do it too.) So, for almost an hour we waited in line for a $5 paper cup of sugary, fruity goodness.

Remember Vanessa's friend? The fast talker? Click here to a video to refresh your memory. We stood in front of her even faster-talking sister the entire time in line .... We are not sure she took a breathe the entire 45 minutes. Her high-pitched voice didn't help matters either. It was constant ... it was funny at first and then quickly became painful .... talking and talking and talking AND TALKING! We both had a slight headache by the time we made it through the line and were both thankful that she didn't live with us and we would NEVER have to see her again. We felt sad for those forced to listen to her go on an on. Her friend hardly said a word. There was no way she was going to pause and let someone else talk. But we forged ahead, always the troopers when dessert is the end result, trying to occupy our minds with thoughts of captain crunch or jimmie sprinkles, kiwi or mango. So many decisions ... SO MUCH DRAGGING TIME to decide.

It was a fun day. Much like the quick trip to Maine, it made me want to go back and stay longer, see more. Hopefully we will get back next summer when it's warm and sunny. You see it's well into fall here now and winter is just around the corner ...