Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Weekend in the Berkshires

Hello - a very quick summary of our weekend in the Berkshires:

drove from Boston to Adams on a Friday afternoon; traffic was sparse and we arrived with little fanfare and less time to spare; checked into the Mount Greylock Inn which was a comfortable and quiet Bed and Breakfast for our two nights. Eric the cat greeted us and seemed to melt into the atmosphere. Our room was the Appalachian Trail Room with a queen sized bed, huge room and huge private bathroom. The shower was a bit tricky and we were warned that if the water got too hot, the fire alarm would sound. We checked in, grabbed MacDonalds on a drive through and headed for Tanglewood and a concert that night featuring James Taylor with Sheryl Crow and Yo Yo Ma. We left Boston a couple of hours later than planned so our idea to have a nice picnic and watch the show went down the tubes (hence the Micky D drive thru dinner).

Tanglewood was great; easy parking and since it had rained heavily all day, the site was quite muddy. We didn't have chairs and ended up sitting in a covered area where we shared a bottle of $5 wine sold for $20 and listened to the show. We walked around a bit but were chastised for standing with our umbrella open.in several spots. About midway through the second set, we left when the rain started really coming down hard. Given that there were probably 10,000 cars for the 20,000 in attendence and the lots had one way in and one way out, we decided to skip the hours of waiting and were able to leave easily.

Saturday was again overcast with occasional rain. We had breakfast at a local diner, the Daily Grind. Our B/B owner was out of town so she arranged for our breakfast to be covered by this coffeehouse. We drove to Williamstown and walked around a little bit, tried to get into their pool as the stated hours for workouts were from 10am to 2pm but nobody was around. We walked to the Williams College museum of art for a quick tour that extended nearly 2 hours. The photographs were wonderful, the Prendergast in Italy exhibit was wonderful and I'd never seen a copy of the Declaration of Indpendence, first draft of the Bill of Rights, British response to the Declaration of Independence, etc. From there we drove up to Mount Greylock which was completely fogged in. No sense even getting out of the car at that point so we drove to the Norman Rockwell Museum, stopping at Yankee Candle on the way. We really liked Norman Rockwell's studio and the exhibit of all of the Saturday Evening Post covers along with so many of his iconic works. We stopped in Stockbridge and had a glass of wine on the porch of the Red Lion Inn to people watch. From there, back to the B and B, a very quick nap and then to a forgettable dinner in North Adams. We had a list of recommended restaurants from friends and this board but all were south and the thought of getting back into the car again was too much. In retrospect, Macdonalds would have been just as good!

Sunday was our last day so we were up early, had breakfast in town, took some quick pictures and meandered our way back to I-90. I'm sure that if the weather had been warmer and sunnier, we'd have stayed longer but we were able to get back to Boston, have a late lunch with our son, drop the car and get on an earlier flight home standby!

The Williams Art Museum was free; Norman Rockwell was $15/person. Other recommended sites were more expensive and of less interest - we're not into Modern Art at all. We'll be back in Williamstown in late February and may venture to other sites then.