A Winter Wonderland: West Stockbridge, The Berkshires, MA

West Stockbridge

The Berkshires, MA

I have to admit, when I was growing up if someone mentioned the Berkshires I thought; how lame.  Little pimples of mountains, terrible snow conditions and just a few bodies of water to paddle. Heading up the highway in College to face off against the Purple Cows of Williams certainly wasn't much of an enticement.  Who has a purple cow for a mascot?  But, a pre-baby weekend to Lenox with the wifey changed my tune.  The Norman Rockwell Museum was pretty cool.  (We love his covers for Cobblestone, still a great magazine for kids). The Book Loft in Great Barrington was just our speed, used and old.  Maybe a couple of hours down the pike was worth it?

Our closest family friends have just bought a place in West Stockbridge.  What a super cute little town!  Twenty minutes down route 41 from the restaurants and shops of G.B., and just a hop, skip and a jump to the highest concentration of cultural institutions anywhere outside NYC; see Tanglewood, Jacob's Pillow and MassMOCA.  But we came for the snow.  We hit Butternut on Saturday.  Sure the bunny hill was a little bunny.  The greens a little steep.  We still had a blast.  I managed to ski Sydney and his pal on my polls down a blue, solo.

It was the house and the hood that were the hit though.   It just kept snowing, hour after hour.  From the blizzard like drive out on Friday night to the flurries on home.  Saturday was snowman day.  Miami Kami (see wifey, aka Live from the Fence) even got into the snowtacular with some really cute snow bunnies.  But the icing on the cake, (pun intendended) was the snow battle of the century on Sunday.   It was bloodline vs. bloodline as the fort walls piled high.  The snowballs flew, as we worked ourselves into a sweat in 30 degree freeze, soaking in the snow.  We had such a blast, we might even forgo the Cape this summer for a little culture of our own.