Pictures of the drive down:
Cesar driving (he spent so much time driving this trip I would be remiss not to include a picture of it!):
In Williamstown Cesar and I took turns watching Our Town at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. I recognized three of the actors: Campbell Scott from Dying Young and Singles, Ross's wife Susan from Friends, and a guy from Spider Man. As exciting as it was to see some famous folks, the real treat was watching a perfectly written play performed perfectly. I had not one complaint. Campbell Scott was so amazing as the Stage Manager that I wanted to run up and hug him after the show. I preferred his portrayal to that of Paul Newman in the movie because he was not aloof at all, but rather seemed truly interested in the audience getting the message of the play, which is a message I like to get. I cried. I laughed. And I was in awe of the beauty of the production. I am so happy I got to see it and that we decided last minute to do it, even though it meant staying in a pretty awful and expensive motel in Williamstown. By the way, if you are looking for a job, Williamstown needs some new and modern motels that are decently priced.
On Sunday, since we couldn't get into our house until 3, we went on a hike up Mount Greylock, which had amazing views of mountains all the way in Vermont. Had we had more time, we could have done even more hiking with waterfalls and everything. While we were at the information center Cesar asked the ranger if we had to worry about bears or snakes or anything and the ranger said snakes were rare, but that they spot black bears monthly. That made the hike a tad more exciting!
Mount Greylock hike:
But we had to drive down to Lenox where we went to Tanglewood. The kids were really well-behaved this time and we all looked for Tinker Bell and Peter Pan in the trees while we listened to Mozart.
They had fun kid activities and Sabine made a friend with a little boy and danced a bunch with him.
It was pretty spectacular.
After Tanglewood we headed to Great Barrington and met up with the Beauchamps at the house we all rented. Che had already told us that once he saw Eva and Devin that he would not have time to talk to us because he would be so busy-- well that was definitely true. The house is huge. It has three floors with two playrooms on the third floor. The kids pretty much spent the entire week playing imaginary games upstairs. It was hard for us to convince them to do anything because they were having so much fun. However, we did do a couple of ice cream runs, took them to see some fun sword fighting and word play at Shakespeare and Co., they watched dance performances, and went to two farms with two playgrounds and petting zoos. They had a great time.
The adults did too! Cesar went to see Macbeth the second night we were there, and unfortunately thought the acting was pretty weak compared to what he had seen at Shakespeare and Co. (S & Co) last year. He saw it at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, which has been around forever and has a good reputation. My guess is that they are better at musicals and for Shakespeare we should stick to S & Co. So, the next day Melissa and I went to see Richard III at S & Co. It was brilliant. The lead was fantastic, most of the other cast members were phenomenal and it was great to see so many familiar faces from last year's productions. It was a great experience; Cesar went to see it a couple of days later and thought it was even better than Othello last year. On my birthday Cesar and I went to see Winter's Tale and we both loved it. Once again we saw many of the same actors playing completely different roles and doing it beautifully. I decided to treat myself to one more show, The Comedy of Errors, which was performed by the interns. Most were very good, some not so much.
We also went to Jacob's Pillow twice. The Inside/Out stage is set amongst huge trees with views of the mountains behind the stage. The music, the dancing, and the environment make it one of the most exquisite experiences I have ever enjoyed. The whole Pillow grounds, with little cabins, beautiful flowers and trees, dancers walking with perfect posture everywhere, is truly inspiring. I might just have to dust off my dancing shoes. These pictures were taken while the dancers were warming up and before the house manager said no photography allowed...
While the Beauchamps went to breakfast we took the opportunity to go on a hike up Monument Mountain where Hawthorne and Melville got stuck during a thunderstorm and enjoyed a bottle a wine in a cave whilst discussing the meaning of life, etc., etc. The hike was really very nice, but in order to get to the summit we had to take a side trail that got pretty precarious in sections. The view was worth it. Che, as usual, enjoyed climbing up the huge boulders and we even saw a tree rainbow (check out the pic!).
The Berkshires are very special and unique. Classical music, drama, opera, musicals, dance-- all set amongst mountains, pine trees, beautiful farms, rivers, and lakes-- could not be more idyllic for me. It is the perfect blend of nature and culture. If it only had our family, an ocean, and no winter, I would move here in a flash.
Some children news:
Che's new, and frequently used word, is joyful. As in, "I was very joyful when I played with Eva at the playground." That makes me very happy.
When we took Sabine to the petting farm she rested her head on the palm of her hand, and said "Oh look, adorable, so cute. Donkeys are adorable." She of course said this all with a cutesie wootsie voice. Very funny.
I am going to sign off with one of my favorite lines from Our Town. It certainly makes me think about what is important in life and happy that I got to spend all of this wonderful time with family and friends this summer. "We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being."
We head to NYC today...our adventure continues...
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