Cute towns, good eats, and tennis

So when I said I would be writing an indiscriminate number of posts about the August times, that number just became two. Mostly because I realized I don't have that many photos (and really, without photos it's just me blathering on about my life), but also because if I spend all of September reminiscing back on August then it'll surely throw off the rest of my year off. After all, when then will I find time to write of all the awesome things I hope to accomplish in September (my calendar is actually currently very open, but in New York in the fall you don't really have to go too far to find something awesome to fill your time with)? If all else fails, I can always plan this wedding or something.

But anyway, onto the last post of August (which is actually the second post in September)! Where last I left you, we had just attended an occasion of matrimonial bliss and were heading west across Massachusetts to the Berkshires. We ended up at the adorable town of Stockbridge, Massaschusetts. Apparently Norman Rockwell lived there for much of his life, and being there really made his view of America make a lot more sense. One of his paintings is actually of Stockbridge's Main Street which looks absolutely the same over fifty years later. Stockbridge is also home to a very fine chocolate shop. 

Just a little bit of the Stockbridge cuteness. Replace those cars with carriages (and maybe the smart car just with a horse) and it might as well be 1815. 

 Here is the Norman Rockwell museum which was actually incredibly interesting. I hadn't realized how many politically charged works he had in addition to the everything-is-hunky-dory ones for which he is most known. They also had his studio (not pictured) on the site which they had brought over on flat bed trucks shortly after his death.

 We stayed near Stockbridge in an inn outside of the town of Lenox. I got this picture (or, oh fine, my dad did) of fog rising over the mountains from the balcony of the hotel.

 My mom wanted to go back and check out this historic covered bridge that was on our route. I can appreciate the novelty of covered bridges and it's certainly a very New England thing, but I guess I can kind of see why they stopped making them. I mean...what's the point of covering a bridge? Clearly, there are many who don't feel as I do though as when I googled this bridge trying to get information on it, I encountered not one but three separate covered bridge preservation societies in Massachusetts alone. Keep fighting the good fight, covered bridge enthusiasts.

 Another jewel of my mom's pre-trip research was the Kent Falls State Park. Outside of (also cute) Kent, Connecticut, there are a number of picturesque waterfalls. Or actually just one which they, for some reason, describe as 17. That said, it is a lovely park and has a nice quarter mile trail up to the falls vistas. You can see my mom and I in the right side of this photo, mentally preparing for the ascent. It was the perfect respite after a few hours in the car and (minus a few bug bites) a beautiful place to spend an hour.

After checking out the town of Kent and trying out their chocolate shop (for comparison purposes) we returned to beautiful (if not always cute) Astoria. I had to work the next couple of days (a fortunately rare occurrence this August) but my parents continued the fun by galavanting around the city going to museums and attending the Dr. Oz show. I would meet them in the evenings for delicious meals and and, at one point, a show (Speaking of: go see Peter and the Starcatcher, it's great. You don't have to have had a weird childhood obsession with Dave Barry to appreciate the humor--although I'm sure that didn't hurt. Also, they do have a lottery.)

 A small glimpse of the food odyssey that was my last week or so. I'd heard about Prune, but never eaten there. Very much recommended.

On Friday, I was back to being a non-working lay about, so I was able to join my parents at the US Open. I am not an avid tennis watcher, but it was fun to see some people I'd actually heard of play. That Djokovic is such a card. After he won, he did a little dance to Carly Rae Jepsen's illustrious only song "Call Me Maybe."

There's me doing my best to avoid sun damage in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Also, weirdly it looks like I'm trying to touch the hand of that random teenager. For the record, I don't know that kid.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of gluttony and good times with family (nice to have that two weekends in a row) ending with a cocktail party which led to a rather lazy Labor Day. Now I'm back to the ole grindstone beginning a four day week which will sadly only lead to more five day weeks. I actually really do like my job, but I will miss the August times.