Month: November 2024

November is going out for us with an initial exploration of our new borrowed community. We didn’t start with Pittsfield, but headed south to I-90 to the town of Lee that caught our eye as we were driving in the other day. We then stopped to check out Laurel Lake and continued north towards Pittsfield, stopping in Lenox, another cute town in the Berkshires.

A brochure that we picked up in Lee mentions that National Geographic has named the Berkshires one of the world’s Top 10 Most Authentic Places to Visit for retaining their quintessential New Englandness. It also claimed Lee as the Shopping Capital of the Berkshires. All good marketing, but we did have a lovely walkabout today along the main street of this town of about 5,800.

We passed Laurel Lake on our way into Lee and stopped for a photo on our way out. It lies between the towns of Lee and Lenox, and the estate of Edith Wharton (more on that tomorrow) lies on its western shore. Wikipedia says that it’s actually a great pond rather than a lake for any sticklers.

Then we were off to the super cute community of Lenox (population 5,000), home of Tanglewood, famous for its outdoor concert series as well as the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. We walked the main shopping streets and found a few fun stores to pop into.

Yesterday, Bob and I had a two hour very rainy drive on Thanksgiving from Worcester to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to start our next housesit.

We had a great walk through with our homeowners before they headed to a hotel near the Newark airport to facilitate their efforts this morning in catching an early flight to Turks and Caicos.

While they are away, we will be caring for their four cats and home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which is in the Berkshires. The Berkshires is Berkshire County, a rural region along the entire western border of Massachusetts that includes 30 towns and 2 cities. You can drive the length of it in 1.5 hours, if you can resist stopping to check out the many cultural or natural attractions in the area.

Pittsfield is in the central portion of the Berkshires and is the largest city with a population of about 44,000. The house we are in is almost closer to the smaller but very cute town of Lenox.

Meet the feline crew.

Bob and I had a great anniversary yesterday on the last relatively warm winter day we might have for awhile. We had a lazy morning in the room and then headed out about midday to check out the library, a park, a tower atop a hill in honor of a local celebrity, and then do a tour of the American Antiquarian Society that we had read about in a paper in Canada. As an additional bonus, we saw a couple other museums and landmarks related to the first two US presidents.

The American Antiquarian Society collects and preserves all materials (graphic art, newspapers, pamphlets, books, etc) printed in the US prior to 1900. In 1876, the US government passed the Copyright Act mandating that two copies of all printed materials be maintained by the Library of Congress, so the AAS focuses primarily on preserving and storing materials prior to that. They have 25 miles of shelving and over 4 million items. They provide tours for the public every Wednesday at 3:00 pm, so we had timed our walkabout to take advantage of this opportunity.

Bob and I left Rochester. NY this morning for a 5+ hour drive to Worcester, Massachusetts. We had a mostly rainy drive but didn’t run into heavy Thanksgiving related traffic until we were pretty close to our destination. We arrived at the AC Hotel in Worcester at about 2:15 pm.

We unpacked and then headed out to explore a bit of the city and pick up dinner and restock some of our food staples.

Worcester (pronounced Wooster) with a population of 208,000) is the 2nd largest city in New England. New England consists of 6 states — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhodesia Island, and Vermont. We have also learned that Worcester is famous for these firsts —

• The 1st reading of the Declaration of Independence
• The 1st National Women’s Rights Convention, that Susan B. Anthony attended
• The 1st American Nobel Prize Winner, Albert Michelson for his measurement of light
• The classic smiley face created by Harvey Ball of State Mutual Life Assurance Company.

We offset our fairly sedentary day yesterday with a good walk (actually just under 10 miles) around Rochester, seeing everything from more of the downtown, to part of their Heritage Trail, to a great view of the city, and then a walk back to the hotel through a artsy neighborhood.

Mondays are closed days for many museums, including the Susan B. Anthony Museum and House in Rochester. That was okay by us, as we weren’t sure we wanted to pay the $20 a person price for a ticket, but we did want to see the museum, so that was our first destination. Our route took us through the northwest quadrant of downtown, where we saw a few cool buildings.

Just past the downtown area, we crossed under Interstate 490, and saw the first evidence of Rochester’s Heritage Trail, which is a 1.25 mile walking path that leads to 15 points of historical significance.

After having seen the house, we then walked for 1.5 hours back across the city to Cobbs Hill Park, which was to have a great view of the city. We got to see a number of attractive neighborhoods on our route.

Our third destination for the day was a Wegmans grocery store, one of our favorites. They have an amazing selection of to-go items — Asian, seafood, comfort foods, salads, pizza, wings, etc. We perused for awhile, as it is just a lot to look at and very attractively presented. Once we were finished shopping, we walked back on University Avenue through the very artsy neighborhood and ended up walking by the other museum we were interested in (though also closed on Monday and pricey to visit), the George Eastman (Kodak fame) Museum.

We had a relatively quiet day with just a matinee show of “Mamma Mia” and then an early dinner at a local restaurant.

We saw the show at West Herr Performing Arts Center, just a few blocks from our hotel.

The theater building was built for $2.225 million in 1928 as the Masonic Temple of Rochester. The building originally included a large auditorium along with offices and meeting rooms. The building was sold to a private entity in 1989 and was renamed Auditorium Center. The portion of the building containing the auditorium was bought by the Rochester Broadway Theater League (RBTL) in 2004 and became a top entertainment destination for the area. In 2023, RBTL purchased the entire building and partnered with West Herr Automotive Group to rename the complex. A renovation and restoration of the building is planned by 2030.

We’ll definitely be doing more walking around tomorrow, We were planning to anyway but have learned that the cleaning of the carpets in the guest rooms is planned for tomorrow starting at 10ish. With all of our traveling, that is a first.

Last night and this morning we had a great reunion with our homeowners after their return from Spain and Portugal. It was sad to leave Jack behind this morning, but so glad that we have had the opportunity again to spend time with two incredible people, care for a sweet dog, and get to explore more of a lovely area of the world. All three have a special place in our hearts. My biggest regret today is that we didn’t get a photo of all of us before we left.

Our travel plans have us visiting Rochester, New York, and then Worcester, Massachusetts, before heading to our next housesit on Thanksgiving day. The drive to Rochester from St. Catharines was about 2.5 hours. We crossed the border at Fort Erie, having been directed there by Google Maps as the quickest route. The electronic highway signs were all showing 45 minute delays at all three crossings we could have used. Bob and I were guessing that some of the traffic could have been from Taylor Swift fans crossing back into the US after seeing her show in Toronto last night (number 5 of the 6 that she’ll do there before ending her Eras Tour in Vancouver).

After our early check-in (a little after 1:00 pm) and at the Downtown Marriott Courtyard (if you want to make Bob happy, ask him about his Marriott Titanium status), we headed out to explore a bit of Rochester. In particular, we wanted to check out a park with a waterfall and then find the theater where we’ll be seeing “Mama Mia” tomorrow. As an added bonus we saw some cool old buildings, some fun public art, including some big heads (another thing that makes Bob happy), and a connection to St. Catharines.

We did see the theater where we’ll be tomorrow, but I’ll include that in tomorrow’s blog. Our fun find after seeing the theater was the nearby University of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery (in particular their outside sculptures).

Actually, it was a visit to Queenston Heights Park, but before we get into the park visit, I need to show you how the day started.

When a day starts like that, you know it’s gonna be good.

While I was doing a bit of online work this morning, Bob planned us an excursion to Queenston Heights Park, right near a cross border entry point into Canada, between Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake. It has 56 kilometers of preserved parkland and serves as the southern terminus for the same Bruce Trail, which we’ve been hiking bits and pieces of during our stay. It’s a large, beautiful park, with beautiful monuments, and facilities for events, along with the trail.

It was a great outing. The region continues to impress us, and we are wanting to research more about hiking the Bruce Trail as a possible activity for us in the next couple of years.

After a few cooler gray days, it is a beautiful 56 F day here. We had to get out. We had not yet visited Niagara-on-the-Lake this visit, so we headed there today. We discovered a new, though perhaps not perfected waterfront path along the lake, walked the very cute downtown, and visited a winery.

We were at the winery a little after noon, so we weren’t ready to taste or drink, but we did buy a bottle of their Sauvignon Blanc to have tonight with dinner.

Bob and I took Jack back to Grimsby today to walk a bit of the Bruce Trail there that is accessed on a path that runs along a home at the end of a street. We parked in Coronation Park, the same park we had visited on our first trip to Grimsby, a week or so ago.

After we came back off our short hike on the Bruce Trail, we continued on the street to the Gibson Street Bridge shown below. The sign beside the bridge provides a great history of the overall area as well as the bridge. This site was the location for the original upper bridge (built in the late 1800s), which served as a link between the base of the escarpment over 40 Mile Creek and the mills that once were established along the creek. The latest version of the bridge was built in 2022.