Weir Farm

If you ever get the chance to go to the Weir Farm National Park, go, it is so amazing. Julian Alden Weir was an important influence on American impressionism. He bought the farm in 1882, and spent his summers here, and his winters in New York City. His daughter inherited the farm, and she married a sculpter (Mahonri Young). After that another artist owned it, and after that a not-for-profit with an artist in residence program so it has been visited and painted by artists for a long time.
After a lovely drive up into the hills around New Haven, you arrive at a little farm, basically. The farm house is still there, and the garden has been kept/restored. You are free to pick the apples and wander around, look in the two studios, take the tour of the house, take a walk to the pond and back, and do some water painting with materials provided by the National Parks!
We went planning to spend about 1.5 hours, and ended up spending three, and it was so peaceful and restoring.
It meant we didn't set out for home until 12.30pm, but thankfully the traffic flowed and we got in around 5.30pm.

New Haven - Yale, and a "Beach"

We went down town today to have a look around Yale University. We were curious to see what the campus looked like. The architecture does not disappoint. Yale was started in 1701, so the buildings seem to cover the full range from the 1767 visitor centre to the mid 1990's. We expected a bit more delineation between the town and the University - there are public roads through the middle of campus, and although this is obvious, I was surprised at finding students who were the normal universal 19-20 year olds, instead of finding some secret colony of studious, conservatively dressed scholarly looking scholars.
The kids tired of walking around buildings with no apparent purpose, which is a good lesson to learn.
So, after lunch and quiet time in our room (and sleep for me), we went and found a beach. We took about half an hour and a couple of false starts to find one that had the appropriate ratio of sand and water, but then we spent the afternoon watching the boys busily digging and building. We also watched the seagulls pick the hermit crabs out of their shells at low tide and eat them.
The beach happened to be across the road from the local fish and chips shop, which had a pirate theme, helped along by a large amount Pirates of the Caribbean memorabilia, so we even managed fish and chips for dinner..

Springfield, MA to New Haven, CT

We went to the National Armory in Springfield, and then had lunch in the Dr Seuss sculpture garden a bit down the road. Both were enjoyable, the Armory to better understand the cultural history of the USA, and the Dr Seuss sculpture garden, because it was an excellent place to have lunch, and the sculptures were special, and interesting for all of us.
In Hartford, Connecticut, we went to the Trash Museum, a centre attached to a recycling depot, more suited to school excursions, but definitely a favourite with the boys, because we got to watch the recycling trucks dropping off loads, and play in the toy room with the little mini recycling conveyor belt. Another reminder that the boys really only need the simpler things in life, and time to enjoy them.

The Mohawlk Trail to Springfield, MA

Bridge of Flowers

This started out a bit average, and then after Whitcomb Summit, which wasn't announced really at all, the road swooped down some of the most impressive and imposing and completely beautiful sort of mountain pass that I had the pleasure of looking out the window at. It wasn't huge, it was just full of trees on the cusp of changing in the Fall, with various ridge lines curving down, and a blue sky and with that deep peace of a quiet road.
We stopped at the "Hail to the Sunrise" statue, in Charlemont, MA, which we didn't really get, and then at Shelbourne, MA, we spent some time walking across the Bridge of Flowers, and through the town. The Bridge of Flowers is an old trolley bridge built that duplicated the neighbouring iron car bridge, to haul freight. By 1928 the trolley service had finished, and the bridge was too expensive to demolish. Antoinette Burnham, with the support of the local Women's Club, had the vision to turn it into a Bridge of Flowers - so each year since then, an army of volunteers plants and tends flowers along its length. We also enjoyed the local diner, for a cheap, unpretentious lunch, and I took 10 mins on my own to check out a local arty sort of store (shopmormor.com), which was very relaxing.

Mt Greylock, MA

We thought we would survive two nights in a single Lodge 'family' room - double bed up one end, and bunk bed down the other. The truth is, it was a lovely room, in a facility completely unsuited to our family. Think 'continental breakfast' of muffins and tea, served at 8am, and a fixed price, fixed menu dinner served at 7pm. Also think wooden structure, with no soundproofing and creaking floors. However, we went for two bush walks, both to view points of the lovely (90% green) forest. We also saw a two beautiful sunrises, and a sunset that will remain forever in everyone's memory, because the baby chose that moment to need to use a potty.
The tower is a war memorial, with a light, sort of like a lighthouse, unfortunately shut until 2017 for repairs. Otherwise, the sunrises and sunsets could have been very dramatic, 30 ft up the top of the tower.
It was lovely to have such huge horizons, and the kids have been remarkably cheerful about all the walking. Thanks to the internet we had two interesting meals out and off the mountain, and I think if we trusted our kids more in art galleries, North Adams, which looks like a failed industrial town on first glance would have been a good place to stop more in, as it also seemed to have a huge art scene.

Great Barrington MA, to Mt Greylock, MA

Another short drive (30 miles), that took us all day.
We tried for a river walk in Great Barrington, that turned out to be a 10 min gravel pathway. We walked around Benedict Pond in Beartown State Forest, which was beautiful and serene, and probably a longer walk than expected, as it took us until lunch. We ate bagels overlooking the lake.
We tried to visit a butterfly house, but they had shut early September.
So we went to Hilltop Orchards to pick our own apples and try their cider. This was really quite fun, although a bit different to berry picking, as you can't really give a bag to a kid and let them at it, or you would end up with 20lbs of apples very easily. Beautiful huge orchard on side of gently sloping hill, with old apple trees, burdened with huge amounts of apples. They sell cross country skiing tickets here in the winter.
They sell apple cider, which is cloudy apple juice, cold pressed from the whole apple (I think). It is less sweet than apple juice. They also mature their cider into a 'hard cider' and a french style 'cidre', the french style is less sweet, more fermented, aged in barrels. It is all very tasty. I'll post pictures on all that later.
Possible highlight was sitting in Adirondack chairs overlooking a bit of the orchard, with a glass of wine (because they get wine from California to relabel as their wine - you can't actually grow grapes here) with what were labelled "Old fashioned doughnuts" - that is, doughnuts with just sugar and cinnamon on them (no cream, no jam, no sprinkles, no icing). Who would have thought!!
We finished the day by driving up Mt Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts, to stay in the lodge at the top of the mountain. Beautiful sunset, slightly marred by Williamstown College Cross Country finishing a run up the mountain, and our kids gently disintegrating after a big day.

Kent CT through to Great Barrington, Massachusetts (MA)

My favourite sculpture at Denis Curtiss's place

Kent Falls

Golden Rasberries

We took 4 hours to drive 47 miles today, because we stopped to admire a sculpture garden - Denis Curtiss - who generously invited us in to wander his garden, but had to leave somewhere. We walked up beside Kent Falls in Kent Falls State Park, which is very unimpressive at the bottom, but gets prettier by degrees as you walk up towards the top. We also stopped to look at the Housotonic River - which reminded us very much of the Susquahenna River - wide, and shallow and running. After five minutes sitting on the riverbank, I can appreciate why people use running water as a sleep aid. 

We looked at a couple of covered bridges, one in West Cornwall, Ct, and one in Sheffield MA. We drove through plenty of pretty little towns with various interesting shops (mostly closed on Monday. It felt like the whole county was shut on Monday) Sheffield looked like it was completely inhabited by antique stores (I found a guide that put the number at 40). Finally, we followed signs to Howden Farm, hoping that we could pick something, and found Raspberries!! So the whole family got to pick raspberries, including Golden Raspberries which are, surprisingly, a sort of yellow colour.
Our final destination Great Barrington has a huge main street, full of independent and slightly artistic shops - clothing, toys, homewares, basketry, linen, expensive groceries, etc. Out of all the places I've seen so far, including Annapolis, I think this one is the one I'd be most happy spending $100 in.
Our hotel is a bit of a dive, contact us before staying at the Travelodge in Great Barrington MA, but for one night we think we'll survive.