Upstate New York Travels

For lunch, we headed to the Wunderbar Bistro, and a short review can be found here. Then we headed east out of New York, back into Massachusetts and into Lenox, where we were to do a self-guided tour of the Edith Wharton’s House, called The Mount.

The Mount is a National Historic Landmark and cultural center dedicated to the intellectual, artistic, and humanitarian legacy of author Edith Wharton (1862-1937), whose forty books include the classic novel The Age of Innocence, as well as authoritative works on architecture, design and travel. The Mount maintains the estate she designed and built in 1902, which includes the main house, stable, greenhouse, and formal gardens. She became the founder for the interior design profession in the United States. We toured all three levels of the house and then walked out back to see the gardens. A review with more history and pictures is here.

Our last place to stay was in West Stockbridge, called the Shaker Mill Inn.

Our B&B suite was on the second level, called the Rockwell, as Norman Rockwell was a well-loved painter of the area. The rooms were very comfortable with skylights, a private balcony with seating, and a well-supplied kitchen. A full review can be found here. We relaxed in this lovely place and since we still had food left over from lunch, we ate and relaxed for the evening.

The next morning we sorted through all of our belongings and decided what we would ship home and what we would carry in our suitcases. One of our travel tricks for making room for all of the things we have purchased and whatever dirty clothes do not fit, is to pack up and ship them home. So our first errand was to go to the local post office and ship our box.

Originally, we had thought we might backtrack and visit Howe Caverns for the day, but with the long drive there, plus the fact that we had already been to Secret Cavern, we opted to stay and explore Stockbridge and make it a more relaxing day. Then because the town is so small, we walked the town visiting several places.

First, we went to the nearby Sculpture Park behind our B&B and walked around it to see the various art installations. The site was once a quarry, and the large rocks were still there with a stream that ran down one side.

We walked to a shop that specialized in wind chimes and glassware. Both were displayed with a wide array of designs and colors. Then we walked to the town Book Shop, and the building that our inn was named after, the Shaker Mill.

Inside was one of the best organized and yet most whimsical bookshops we have ever been in. Oh, there were books with bookshelves, but not like you’ve ever seen. The owner had obtained a lot of books that were in bad shape, so he took what was still good from them and made art. Wooden posts were covered with book covers, horizontal books became walls, flower folded pages from an Oxford English Dictionary became a wedding dress. There was even a dog house made out of books with one title showing above the entry, “No Cats Allowed”.