The Berkshires

The Berkshires - Western Mass 

Crouch Family Vacation

My parents won a week at a timeshare in a church auction, so they were looking for a place for a family get together this summer. Since we were going to be in the Northeast and Nadine, my sister-in-law, went to school at Cornell and has some really good friends up here they wanted to visit, it seemed like a great place to convene. So the Berkshire "Mountains" of Western Mass became our home base for the next week. 

Mostly we ate, read, slept, explored the local area, ate, played Yaniv, and then ate some more. It was awesome! 

Meet our adorable niece Kaya! Kaya and Hudson share similar interests, including liberating all of the tissues from their confinement in a box. Great fun! 

Shaking it up at the Hancock Shaker Village! While not an active community of Shakers (there's only one of those left, and it's in Maine), this historical village depicted what life was like for the Shakers. I didn't know a thing about Shakers, so it was really interesting to learn about them. Here are some quick facts: 

• they were founded in England in the mid 1700s by a woman named Mother Ann Lee
• they are a Christian based religious sect that dissented from the Quakers
• they get their name from the dancing and singing they did during their worship
• they embrace the use of technology, so in that way are completely different from the Amish
• they believe in living a celibate life and lived in gender segregated dormitories, which might explain why there are so few of them left (they had to rely on conversions and adoptions)
• they are famous for their woodworking craftsmanship and medicinal herb production
• they believe that all work is Godly, and one important way to commune with God (who was both male and female)
• they believe in gender and racial equality

The picturesque Shaker village. The yellow barn in the background was circular, and like no other barn I've ever seen. Because of the unique circular shape, creative architectural and design details were implemented, like a huge open central duct to encourage air flow and prevent fires, and a sunk in lower level so the hay could be loaded on the ground floor and just pushed over the edge to the animals below. 

Mom and I admiring the chicken coop and sheep and trying to avoid the turkeys. It's in the plans to build a chicken coop when we return to Austin, so I'll take any chance to do some coop research. 

Mom and Dad in front of the community garden at the Shaker village. The Shakers specialized in useful herbs, so their herb garden was mind blowing. They were also the first to invent packaging seeds in little paper envelopes to sell, which was one of their main sources of revenue, in addition to selling homemade wood furnishings. 

The Shakers were masters of simple machines, and the water pump driven shop was definitely the coolest physics demonstration I've ever seen. It ran off a water turbine that they ran water to using hollowed out logs from a reservoir up the road. The pump would power all of the belts you see in the foreground, and certain machines in the shop could be turned on or off simply by moving the belts around to different wheels on the axles. 

Another highlight at the Shaker Village was a woodworking demonstration. We learned about some of the tools they used and, most amazingly, how to create hidden dovetails joints that join together two pieces of wood with no screws, glue, or nails. It takes a whole lot of time and money, but woodworking would be a really awesome hobby. 

The Norman Rockwell museum is in the nearby town of Stockbridge, MA, so we made an afternoon excursion to check it out on our second day there. I was impressed, especially since most of my experience with Rockwell was from the decorative plates lining the walls of seemingly all Arkansas residences depicting perfectly coiffed 50s housewives pulling cookies from the oven and mischievous young white kids engaging in patriotic hi jinx. Turns out there was a lot of that, but it put his work into better context with the times. He designed the covers for the Saturday Evening Post magazine and during WWI, the Great Depression and WWII he was given clear directives to keep his covers light and fluffy since people had enough to worry about. 

It doesn't get much more light and fluffy than a boy scout with a bunch of puppies. I love Irish Setters! 

But later in his career he did some powerful pieces that took on race relations, including this one entitled New Kids in the Neighborhood, 1967. 

This painting, done in 1963 and entitled The Problems We All Live With, depicts a six year old named Ruby Bridges who had to be escorted into a New Orleans school during desegregation. With the current climate, it's no coincidence that President Obama chose to display this painting in the White House in 2011. 

Nadine, Andy, and Kaya outside of the Norman Rockwell Museum. 

The last day, we picked up Hudson from the kennel and ventured out into the surrounding hills with my mom and dad. 

Mom and I on our first short hike at Rounds Rock in Mt. Greylock State Reservation, which took us through a ton of blueberry patches. No black bear sightings, unfortunately. 

Mt. Greylock is the highest point in Massachusetts, at a whopping 3,491 ft! There's a war memorial at the top, and a nice view of the surrounding Berkshires. 

Beautiful waterfalls abound in the Berkshires, and our second short hike was to a nice one. 

One night we had a wonderful tapas dinner in Pittsfield with my parents where they told stories I'd never heard about their young married life. It was awesome to hear them talk about their early adventures together in poverty, college, the Navy, and disastrous attempts at drinking alcohol. The very last night we binged on Malaysian food, which was awesome and I certainly need to eat more of. I wish I had a picture of our spread; it was impressive. 

It was a wonderful week with family, full of love and laughs. It got us excited to spend time with much of Mike's family at his cousin Emma's Bat Mitzvah in Newport News, VA in a few days. But first, a pit stop in Lewisburg, PA to hang with Katelyn and Joe! 

A Quick Night and Hike in New Hampshire

White Mountains National Forest, New Hampshire

We drove south from Montreal for about four hours and arrived in the White Mountains.  Several people have told us along the way that these were the most impressive rocks in the northeast so we were excited for this last stop before meeting with Cara's family back in Massachusetts for a family vacation.  Although we didn't get many shots of the mountains it was beautiful here, and is at the top of my list to revisit for future hikes.

Bear crossing set up by some creative RV campers.  This night we experienced our worst night of weather.  Just after dinner a massive thunderstorm rolled in and dropped sheets of rain for about 6 hours.  We stayed mostly dry throughout the night, but our tent is showing signs of stress.  Might be time to upgrade.

We woke up to a beautiful morning.  This was the river that ran just next to our campsite.  This was my favorite river scene of the trip.

We decided to go on one hike out to Franconia Falls before hitting the road again to Massachusetts.  We had a nice trail run out to the falls and avoided most of the other hikers because we set out early-ish.  Here's Hud, Cara, and her baby bump which we've decided to name Squirrel.

Franconia Falls which was a great place to sit and stare.

Panorama of the falls.

Off to the Berkshires to meet the Crouches!

Quebec - the city and province

Quebec, Canada

Who new French culture was this close?

In 2003, Cara took a solo cross-Canadian train tour from Vancouver to Halifax.  Some of her fondest memories along the way were from Quebec City and Montreal.  She studied French for 4 years in college, and Quebec is the perfect place to immerse yourself in French culture without having to take a trans-Atlantic flight.  Quebec and Montreal had a lot to live up to after the glowing praise from Cara and friends Tom and Juliet, who had just visited Montreal on their honeymoon.  

Not to mention that these were also stops on the honeymoon road trip of my parents, Sharon and Steve, back in the '70s.  Here they are about 40 years later in Houston.  Love you!

These two cities delivered and exceeded all expectations.  Here are a few shots from our Canadian weekend.

Quebec City

We arrived in the afternoon and took a walk with our big dog in the big city.  We started in the city park which is up on a hill and then walked thru the old walled city and the Citadelle towards the iconic hotel (Fairmont Le Cháteau Frontenac) which is the tallest building the background.  It was a beautiful day and there were great views of the city and the St. Lawrence River or Le Fleuve Saint-Laurent.  

A quaint street in the old city of Quebec.  The perfect setting for a lazy late afternoon stroll.

Poutine, the dish that motivated this detour north.  French fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy.  For the Austin readers, save yourself the 2,000 mile drive and just go to Haymaker.  In my (very biased) opinion, it confirmed that Homie and his Haymaker chefs have created a spot-on reproduction.

One of the squares we came across while walking.  There was a statue of Louis XIV in the center.  This was a great example of how you could easily forget you were in Canada.  Every sign is in French, everyone is speaking French, and there was a huge international tourist population.  We even asked a police officer directions at one point, and she communicated in French and a little broken English.

After dinner, we drove about 25 km north of the city to camp at Parc National de la Jacques-Cartier.  We arrived after dark to a full campsite.  Luckily, the ranger station was still open and they allowed us to set up camp in a picnic area as long as we promised to pack out by 9:00 am.  Below is a shot of the river that carved out the central valley of the park.  We packed out in the morning and headed to Montreal for the next leg of our Canadian adventure.

Montreal

Montreal city skyline from a harbor on the Saint Lawrence.  Although there was a beach there was absolutely no swimming.  Not sure if it was unique on the day we visited, but the river had an extremely strong current.

We spent our first night camping at a KOA campsite just outside the city because an AirBNB request fell through.  On our second day we had a hotel room reserved but we couldn't check in until 3:00 pm.  We spent the valuable morning hours tracking down and tasting the best bagels and croissants the city had to offer.

  

We walked around the old city and near the harbor after our double breakfast.  Here's a shot of the old city.  Other highlights of Montreal included our relaxing hotel room and hot shower, an amazing faux-meat vegetarian dinner at Yuan Vegetarian, and Mont Royal park.

Feeling refreshed and with full bellies we were ready to make our way back to the states for a quick adventure in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  "Time to move on, time to get going..."

Maine Part II: Moose Territory

On to the Mountains!

We left Acadia NP with the plan to hike around Mt. Katahdin, Maine's highest peak and the end/start of the Appalachian trail, but the state park does not allow dogs.  We had heard a few Mainiacs mention the beauty of the Moosehead Lake region, so Lily Bay State Park became our new destination.  

The drive was only about 140 miles, but the highways running east-west are not major roads so we rarely drove above 55 mph and frequently passed through small towns at 25 mph.  It was a beautiful day to drive so we didn't mind the slower pace.  We arrived to our campsite around dusk and built a fire to cook our dinner and enjoy before heading to bed.  Hud enjoys his tent time and hates the bugs that come out to pester him after dark so we've been turning in pretty early.  We don't mind the excuse to go to bed early.

We woke up to cold (high 40s/low 50s) rainy weather, so we drove into town and found a bakery.  The prize was not the baked goods that were so-so, but the tip from a local of a plane crash in the nearby mountains.  We drove the maze of snowmobile tracks that are carved throughout the surrounding mountains to reach the trailhead.  Most of the tracks seem to have been made by logging companies, and are now used for snowmobiles and cross country skiing in the winter and ATV, mountain bikes, and hiking in the summer.  

In the winter of 1963, a B-52 crashed shortly after having a mechanical issue.  The pilot and navigator were the only two crew members to survive.  Main parts of the wreckage remain in the forest at the site of the crash as a memorial.  You can see a part of the fuselage above. 

The weather cleared around noon to reveal beautiful blue skies so we headed back to mountains for another hike.  Our goal this time was Big and Little Moose Ponds.  Big Moose Pond is pictured here.  It was about a 4 mile loop trail with a beautiful overlook spur trail.

A panoramic view from our overlook.

It was windy on the top!  We can't get enough of these pictures where Hud's ears are like kites fluttering in the wind. Here's another from the Outer Banks!

Another shot from our overlook.  Little Moose Pond is in the foreground.

A weekend Thoreau Festival had just begun in town, and that night happened to feature a local biologist that was studying the moose population in the area.  Unfortunately, Huds were not allowed in the standing room only venue, so we hung out by the lake while Cara educated herself.  We learned lots of cool things like: there is a 3:1 moose to human ratio around the Moosehead Lake region, and that bull moose grow and shed their horns yearly.  This scientist speaker was studying the health and habits of the young moose population.  He tagged 30 young moose and followed their wanderings via GPS for a year.  After a year, 23 of the original 30 had died.  The main cause of these deaths was not cars, or hunting, or black bear, but...wait for it...TICKS!  Because ticks feed on red blood cells, they are essentially causing all of these moose to die of anemia or lack of iron.  Seems hard to believe until we learned that an average adult moose in this region hosts approximately 50,000 ticks at any given moment!  This news of course gave me the willies and motivated a thorough tick-check for the family once we got back to camp.  

The sunset scene above was captured by the side of the road on the way back to camp.  A nice reward for sticking around in town for the moose talk.

On our Big/Little Moose Ponds hike.  The ground was soggy, so whenever we walked over these wooden planks on the trail Hud would leave his mark.

The next morning Cara went fly fishing near Kokadjo, just north of Lily Bay SP.  

Hud and I hung out on the bank while Cara worked her magic.  Here's a quick video of her in action.  Although she didn't have any luck, we did witness a fellow fisherman upstream catch a landlocked salmon.  

All this time in the woods got us hungry for some culture (i.e. poutine), so we adjusted our plans and decided to hop the border to Canada to visit Quebec City.  Au revoir!

Maine, we have arrived!

Coastal Maine

Amherst, MA to Kittery/Boothbay/Bar Harbor, ME  

First stop post Amherst was in the cute little border town of Kittery, Maine (right across from Portsmouth, NH). Our Austin ultimate friend and former teammate Patrick Treviño, his wife Tina, and kids Lucia and Diego have managed to pull up the stakes of their deep Texas roots and relocate to Maine. 

Diego, Patrick, Lucia, and Tina posing as a family of sea creatures. They were amazing hosts, and we spent our time taking the dogs to run around at the local seaside park, talking over amazing homemade meals (Patrick smuggles suitcase loads of food back from San Antonio every time he travels there for work), and touring the quaint town of Portsmouth, NH across the water. One morning, Lucia and Diego took Mike and I on a walking bakery tour to sample all the local delicacies, which resulted in Mike finding his most perfect pastry of all time: the French cruller. It's a New England thing, an intensely sweet cross between a popover and a donut. I'm also happy to report that Hudson did NOT eat either of their two cats. 

After hanging out in Kittery, we we determined to head up the coast to Acadia National Park. We stopped in Portland, ME for lunch to see what all the fuss was about regarding lobster rolls, and ended up at a food trailer in beautiful seaside Fort Williams park. This postcard worthy image was oh so cliche Maine. 

It's hard for me to get behind lobster. I don't love the taste, or texture, not to mention it's the diamond equivalent of the seafood world. The prices are wildly inflated, not necessarily due to supply and demand, but a highly manufactured sense of social classiness. During colonial times it was considered trash food fed to indentured servants and prisoners, and it was canned and sent to soldiers on the European front during WWII. It gained stature partly due to railroad companies in the late 1800s serving it to inland customers who had no idea how low status it was, and therefore it became a fancy schmancy requested delicacy. 

My ridiculous moral positions on lobster aside, the truth is that our $17 lobster roll just tasted like tasteless and slimy crab. I'm with the colonists on this one, "Give me crab, or give me death!" I'm pretty sure that's how it went. 

Once again, the ultimate community comes through big time. I'm not sure how we get so lucky, but once again we were the beneficiaries of some wicked good fortune (as they would say up here). When we were sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Portsmouth with the Treviños and their frisbee friend Dave saw us and sat down. After hearing that we were headed up the coast, he offered for us to stay in his INCREDIBLE vacation house right on the water in Boothbay. He's an architect, everything was wood, and the house was full of little details and touches that made my heart swoon.  For example, there was an astronomy telescope nook on the 3rd floor, and at least 7 bay windows with comfy reading nooks overlooking the forest or bay. 

The view of low tide from the wrap around porch [swoon].  

This is the view of the house from the water.

There were a few kayaks tied up off the dock, so we went for a nice sunset kayak the first night we got there. Living in landlocked Austin, we're not accustomed to basing our schedule off of the earth's rhythms, but here it was important to pay attention to them. Due to the extreme tides of the area, this trip would not have been possible just a few hours before or after. 

We kayaked down to Ovens Mouth Preserve, a beautiful spot a few coves away. The next day I went back for a hike with Hudson because it was so beautiful and serene. 

The dog and the lobster regarded each other. We bought some crab from the dock in Boothbay to make a pasta with the first night, and Hudson met his first live lobster. 

The second day Mike and I went our separate ways, he on an extended kayak trip and I to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. It was awesome, and something my mom would have absolutely loved. My favorite part was a "senses" garden where they had specific sections of plants you could taste, touch, see, and smell. 

Dave recommended a few short hikes in and around Boothbay. This one, Porter Preserve, had an amazing view at sunset. We then went into the harbor for a delicious halibut dinner. 

After a few restful days in Boothbay, we headed onward to Acadia National Park. After Boothbay, while beautiful, Acadia was less impressive.  I was also itching to get to the mountains in northern Maine, and it was packed with people. The main draw of the park is biking or walking the beautiful historical carriage roads (built by John D. Rockeffeler Jr.) that criss cross through the parks. 

Mike did a trail run on one of them with Hudson on our second day there while we were driving the scenic loop around the park, which was beautiful. 

We did manage to get a few hikes in. This one is a view of Echo Lake, a short walk from our campsite. I went for an early morning jog to Echo Lake one morning and took a dip in the chilly water while Mike took Hudson on a driving tour of the southwestern portion of Mount Desert Island (the island that most of Acadia is located on). 

While on tour, Hudson almost got caught in a lobster trap. 

Hudson and I waiting for Mike to get his beach fix at Sand Beach, one of the only natural sand beaches in the northeast. The water ranged in temperature from 45-55 degrees F, no thank you! 

Hudson, ready for more adventure in the mountains of Maine!