Yesterday we (ok, Jim – I was just the passenger) drove out to Shelburne Falls for a day trip.\u00a0 Our original plan was to go to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, but then the night before I remembered our failed visit to IKEA on Monday – it stinks when you make a longish drive to get somewhere and then can’t even get parking because it’s school vacation week, so you have to turn around and come home without achieving vacation happiness.\u00a0 So Shelburne Falls seemed like a much better alternative.<\/p>\n
It’s definitely mid-winter – the dead of winter.\u00a0 The views along the highway were rather desolate…leafless trees, dirty snow, bleak sky.\u00a0 And Shelburne Falls was very different from when we’ve visited in the summer time.\u00a0 Not many people around, and those who were\u00a0in town were\u00a0obviously locals.\u00a0 The town had a bit of the feel of Nantucket in February (a trip we often make): cold, a bit sad, empty.\u00a0 But a couple of excellent used bookstores were open, and we each got a book:\u00a0 Victorian Fairy Tales <\/em>edited by Jack Zipes for me, and The Lowell Canal System <\/em>for Jim.\u00a0 Then a walk up to view the glacial potholes,\u00a0an excellent and cheap\u00a0lunch in\u00a0a small restaurant, a visit to an art gallery\/store where there was some cool art glass (loved the glass octopi – too bad they were $250), and then a bit of wandering around to take some photos and get some air.<\/p>\n All in all, a very nice day.\u00a0 And now we settle in for the last two\u00a0days of our vacation, which will include much loving attention to sick Ophy, game night with friends tonight, and then another weekend snowstorm.\u00a0 It will be hard to go back to work on Monday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday we (ok, Jim – I was just the passenger) drove out to Shelburne Falls for a day trip.\u00a0 Our original plan was to go to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, but then the night before I remembered our failed visit to IKEA on Monday – it stinks when you make a longish drive to … Continue reading Shelburne Falls<\/span>