So, part of the reason I have been absent these past few weeks is because Tre's brother's health took a sharp turn for the worse at the end of July, and he passed away on July 26th. The weekend before we found out that he was going to soon loose his battle with cancer, we took a little mini trip out to Western Massachusetts.
Originally, we had planned to go to Brimfield early Saturday morning, and then we were invited to the baptism of the daughter of Tre's good friend, Mike. For whatever reason, the baptism was cancelled, but since we still wanted to go to Brimfield we decided to find a place to stay. After calling probably over 100 places, just to be turned away we found Fox Crossing in Williamsburg, right outside of Northampton.
We were off bright and early that Saturday morning, I believe we got to Brimfield around 7 am - seemingly before anyone else, including the vendors. We wandered around while they opened their tents. It was the last day of the fair, and July is the less popular of the 3 events so it was relatively quiet. We wandered a bit, Tre bought a bunch of old trading cards and we got some falafel for lunch. By about 1 we were pretty beat, after not sleeping much the night before so we decided to call it a day and head out to Amherst where we hoped to find vegan breakfast (for second lunch, obviously)
Amherst was a bust, I already forget the name of where we were headed but they closed early to do a catering job. We got some food at a cute place next door, but it was just kind of meh. With full bellies and some bubble tea to go we headed for the Bed and Breakfast.
Fox crossing was down a windy road in a real small town surrounded by mountains. There were lots of really nice farms that made tre and I envious. The owner, Bobby, was so welcoming and everything went smoothly. The house itself was beautiful, with craftsman woodwork and a large back deck looking over a vegetable garden that made me really envious. She had grapes and olives and a series of raised garden beds to die for. There was also a hammock and flower garden. There are only two rooms at this inn, so we practically had the place to ourselves. We stayed in the Sleeping Bear room, which had a private bathroom and a view of the gardens. It was all so nice and relaxing, and shockingly reasonable, I hope we can return someday.
After we settled into our room, we took a good long nap. The only downfall of the BnB was that there was no AC so after a while we got pretty sticky, so I took a shower and we headed back into Northampton for dinner. We went to Bela, which is a vegetarian restaurant right downtown. They had a large menu of specials. We each got a soup and an entre - I got some carrot soup thing, and some rice noodles with tofu and veggies and some kind of tahini sauce that was so incredibly good. Tre got borscht and some pesto pasta. On our way back to Williamsburg we stopped at Cafe Evolution for dessert.
The next day we got up and Bobby made us breakfast, which we ate out on the back deck. We are of course, giant gluttons, and after breakfast we went back to Cafe Evolution where we got second breakfast. Our plan was to head to Mt. Greylock, and to a farm in Williams to buy some raw milk. When we got back on the road we found some fresh veggies, and couldn't resist because these huge squash were 3/$1
We stopped a few times along the way. Firstly to buy some "indian sugar" which is granulated maple sugar. Secondly we stopped and got some water from a natural spring that we found along the side of the road.
When we got up to the top, Tre asked a ranger to show him where all the geodetic survey markers are. Whenever we go to a place, like a summit or a national park we take pictures of the survey makers, and at Mt. Greylock I think we found 5 or 6. The actual marker at the summit is buried under concrete, but we got a picture of the patch of grass that covers it.
Lastly, we stopped at Cricket Creek Farm for some milk and other goodies. It was so charming, and we go to talk to the farmer a bit. He invited us to walk around, to see the animals - essentially no area of the farm was off limit to us. This is a big deal to me, because in recent years it has become a felony to just photograph a working farm, nevermind having permission to walk around it.
Williams is the town in the furthest Northwest corner of Massachusetts, it borders both New York and Vermont, so from there we had a bit of a ride home. It was a great weekend, and I really loved Western Mass - we kept talking about moving there, but I'm not sure we are ready to give up the ocean just yet.
It stinks about Tre's brother, but at least you had a great trip out west.
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