Norman Rockwell and Lake George

1) Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA

My parents and I went to Western Massachusetts for the day, which is easy to do from here. Shopping at the outlets in the morning followed by a trip to the Norman Rockwell museum in the afternoon. We had been to an exhibition before (I can't remember where) so it was quite nice to see a lot of the original paintings that even I recognized. As an extra bonus, they had a Disney Snow White exhibition which was great (you couldn't take pictures though) as there were a lot of the original sketches with notes and corrections - they were very particular about getting things right!

Autumn in the Berkshires

A Rockwell painting of Historic Stockbridge - where we stopped for hot chocolate!

2) Lake George Boat Ride

We spent a beautiful Autumn day on a boat ride in Lake George. The boat headed North from Lake George Village but didn't quite make it as far as Hague (where I did my swim) before turning around. It was nice to just sit on the boat (although the piano playing singer was slightly irritating), enjoy the sun and see all the lovely houses on the shore of Lake George. The road is slightly off the shore for the most part so you don't get the great view that you do on the Lake. I did get a little sun burnt though, I should know better.

Lake George

Islands in the Sun

Testing out the Macro!

Mohonk Mountain House in the Summer

In September, after I got back from Nebraska my parents came to visit. We decided it would be fun to go down to the Catskills and have brunch at the Mohonk Mountain House again (see the post from February here). Lots of pictures coming up.

We spent the morning walking around the gardens. They had a crayon theme so each zone was made up of all kinds of flowers with the same colors. We also spent quite a long time watching (and trying to photograph) all the hummingbirds flying around! Quite different to the winter.

Crayons in the garden

Hummingbird in action

After the gardens we head up along the Eagle cliff trail above the house and along the lake. It was nice and quiet up there as most people were walking along the trail on the other side of the lake up to the tower. It was such nice weather and views it was a perfect day to be outside.

The lake

We then headed in for brunch, which was great. I tried not to eat too much but the breakfast food and deserts were so delicious! Post food, we headed up to the tower. My parents walked up the trail and Matt and I went through the "labyrinth". It was closed when we were there in February (now we know why) so we wanted to try it. It was described as a rock scramble with bridges and ladders to get up to the tower. They weren't wrong. There was lots of climbing over and under rocks, jumping and squeezing through and between boulders. It was fun!

Starting the trail

Sometimes it was easier to just jump!

Follow the arrows

One of the many ladders

After the first section you could climb some stairs up to the trail or continue on to "the crevice". We of course decided to carry on not knowing that the hardest part was to come. It was hard to photograph as it really was a tight squeeze but it consisted on squeezing through a crevice, shimmy-ing vertically upward and then climbing up a vertical (but slightly leaning left) very narrow ladder. I enjoyed it and we both made it through without any bumps and scrapes!

This was the hardest climb!

If you look closely you can see the ladder about 2/3rds up

We met my parents at the top (they had already been up the tower) as the scramble path was pretty slow going. It was worth the beautiful view from the top and of the mountain house on the way back down.

Once down, we headed to the Barn museum which was filled with old artifacts from the house. Lots of old carriages and furniture that had all been used at the house through the years. It was actually quite interesting.

Old signs in the museum

That was followed by tea and cookies. A cold drink would have been better as it was warm out but we went with tradition and had some nice herbal tea before driving back up to Albany. I am so glad we got to visit the house in the summer as well as the winter, both were beautiful in their own way.