A weekend at the Berkshires, MA

I love weekends away from the city. Living in an over-crowded city every opportunity I get I try to get away. I like staying at a Bed and Breakfast for a few nights, sitting by the fireplace reading a book, taking a walk in the woods, visiting a small museum or a gallery, playing a board game or chit chatting with the hosts.

There is something tranquil and serene about B&B's with their feel of hospitality, seated in overly decorated flowery rooms, fireplaces and Jacuzzis (The only item out of the mentioned we actually enjoyed were the flowers :), the home-made breakfasts and relaxing cups of tea or coffee not in a rush in a paper cup, but served as a part of a whole ceremony.
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Driving up the small town of Lenox, MA I noticed a sign "OUTLET" stores. Despite of the fact, that I have never bought anything at an outlet store, I would never pass the opportunity of bargains of wonderful everything that I could potentially own. The listing of shops was promising: Gap, American Eagle, Mikasa aaaaand BOMBAY (furniture store with a traveler's feel)!

Geoff could "not wait" for the "experience" of what he'd most likely to call by a single word: torture. Rolling his eyes back and forth he followed me to Bombay ... the situation at this store has been so many times rehearsed ... What I like he hates ...
"It's girlie" ...
"It's feminine”....
"That would not match" ...

What he likes I hate ...
"That's like from the apartment of the 40 year old virgin!”...
"Nooo, way too manly" ...
"What the heck do you know about design, anyway?"
As customary, a shopping spree of such would end up with me storming out of the store huffing and puffing "You never like anything" ...

With a little more patience than usual we walked away with a treasure trunk and a cute puff, that "Looks like it belonged to Aladdin" (my most fierce analyst expressed his opinion) ...

A random store was having a huge sale, so we also stocked up on $5 jackets for the next skiing season and other jackets (presents to family members to liberate ourselves from the guilt of spending too much on us). Why is it, that when you buy for others – “yours” just becomes justifiable?

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On our first night out in the Berkshires we decided to visit a nightspot called “Helsinki" in Great Barrington. The day before our trip I found this tiny little town (Great Barrington) on a list of "America's nicest little towns to visit". The article was certainly correct about the size "little".



Club Helsinki is a restaurant, as well as a jazz bar with live music on most nights. Its funky decor seems a bit "out of character" for this town, but gives out a good vibe. Nothing seemed organized at the bar, the mismatched chairs and tables, a huge iron door and a stage with heavy, red theater curtain seemed to create a friendly atmosphere. A group called Honky-Tonk Girls played country songs all night. Geoff and I agreed that the music was great live, but neither of us could probably tolerate listening to the girlies on a radio or a CD. Once the cowgirls got their groove on, a few excited members of the public stood up and started to dance to the fine country tunes. A young couple of two girls looked somewhat strange as one of them tried to practice her dancing skills by shoving and pushing her partner into hard-to-replicate formulations.

For Saturday we made a reservation at Blantyre, a local mansion. The restaurant serves a three course dinner menu consisting of a variety of meats and even a few vegetarian dishes. Geoff called ahead to make sure that we did not need a formal attire, however was informed that he did need a tie and a jacket indeed. The B&B lady offered her husband's tie and the restaurant promised to set us up with a jacket.

Driving down the pitch dark driveway I could not help myself, but think of all the scary movies combined I've seen on television my entire life. A man dressed in a suit greeted us by our last name, lead us inside the beautiful mansion and offered to park the car. Geoff received the promised miss-matched navy blue jacket with three gold buttons on each sleeve. (Thank God we’re not celebrities or else we would have been featured in a fashion magazin's faux-pas section front page next week!)

There were at least three fireplaces in a huge room with heavy wooden furniture, red pillows carefully fluffed to the design of the room, flowers in large vases and art books lying around the tables. We nestled in, right next to the flaming fire in two chairs made for a King and a Queen.

A blond girl in a maid outfit rushed over giving us her undivided attention. The wine menu listed the names of familiar wines with rather unfamiliar prices of $35 - $45 per GLASS!

We ordered in the main room while listening to the mellow tunes of the piano. Later on we showed to the dining room. We must have been served by six people by the time our meals arrived - French onion soup and scallops as an appetizer, followed by crab and lamb chops and desert, of course! The service was flawless without being obnoxious (as usual at many trendy places in Manhattan). During our dinner conversation I mentioned to Geoff that I was hot, a statement which was overheard by a waiter, who politely came over and asked if I wanted to lower the temperature. "No, thank you. But if you could do something with my hot flashes from the medication, that would be great :)"

(I didn’t say that ...)

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When you're having fun the weekend is quickly over ...