Comfy & Caj DressUp
Even though it is February (and almost March), we are full blown into winter in New England, and that doesn’t mean we can’t wear light colors; especially when they blend oh so well with each other. President’s weekend in MA, it was around 40 degrees where if you are from this area, you know that this is like summah for us lol. The perfect days to enjoy a Sunday visit to a museum or two and walk the eclectic grounds all while soaking up that winter sun. This makes for, IMO, the perfect winter day. Chilly but not unbearable. Cold but sun shining. I decided to wear a thin, off the shoulder sweater dress, well because it was going to be nice out and I wouldn’t be freezing my behind off. The dress I picked was the ‘Cuddled Up Tunic Sweater’ dress in heather blue (a lighter shade of baby blue) from FN, paired it with my over the knee wide calf sized dark gray boots from Torrid, accessorized it with a cream elastic chunky belt from Akira and topped it off with a long furry, oversized, mint jacket from Forever21 Plus and voilà…..you get a comfy and caj dressup for a cool Sunday afternoon. Check out my post on Trippin’ It with the Vegas’ for an in depth look at our staycation getaway!
Trip with me and my husband on our adventures together!
A travel guide to help you with tips, places to visit, good global eats and anything else that comes with taking a trip away…. let’s start the trippin’!
Our quick lil getaway….
To celebrate VDay 2020 with our annual staycation trip, my husband and I ventured our way out west to North Adams, MA. I had to write about this cute little town since it is rich in history and art definitely worth mentioning. Who knew about this place? We sure the hell didn’t. We have heard of western MA and the Berkshires but to us a 2 and 1/2 hour drive (literally an hour away from Albany) in our very own state, never seemed like a feasible option for us for a lil getaway. Until this weekend to go visit a few well-known museums in the area. And I am so glad we did. We left our house Sunday, Feb 16th at around 11am. We arrived in the Berkshire County at around 1:30pm. First off, let me tell you about the ride. We literally felt like we were driving into no man’s land. What can I say? We are city people so this was new grounds for us. We drove thru Shelburne Falls, Lancaster, Otis, Lanesborough, Orange, and Florida. I was born and raised in good ole’ Massachusetts and have never even heard of these towns. FYI, your WiFi will not work on some of these roads. I mean you are in the middle of nowhere LOL.
Very pretty scenic views especially because we were driving mountainside thru parts of the Mohawk Trail. We drove up the mountain, reached the summit (which was exhilarating in itself) and drove all the way back down. I guess this was the only route to enter into North Adams. At least by GPS. Pretty cool but a little scary I must say. Thank god we had good weather and and it wasn’t raining or snowing, otherwise I probably would have pulled all my hair out from anxiety. Just sayin’. There was this hairpin turn that, if going fast (which you obv shouldn’t be) you would have gone off the mountain. Literally, no joke. Anyway, we survived the twists and turns of the Mohawk Trail and reached our destination. We opted to do some sightseeing and get to know our surroundings before checking into our hotel so we didn’t waste any time. Enter the Mass MoCA Museum aka Mass Museum of Contemporary Art http://www.massmoca.org. Oh…. My….. God.
An old converted industrial factory building turned eccentric and modern museum situated on the Hoosic River; it is ‘one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing arts in the United States’ according to Wikipedia. One of my favorite museums in Boston is the ICA and this museum was like ten times that. We were in our glory….ok ok…. I actually was in my glory but I think my husband enjoyed it too. We knew just by looking at this place, we were going to be here for several hours. So we opted to get a two day pass for the price of $34 dollars p/p. This pass included the MoCA as well as the Norman Rockwell Museum, about 45 min. from where we were. We decided to go with this option so we could enjoy both museums without any time restraints. I can’t even tell you how in awe I was with the MoCA. The exhibits were trendy, bright, bold, colorful, and strange all in one. Some of the exhibits we enjoyed were Ad Minoliti with her Fantasía Modulares (https://massmoca.org/event/ad-minoliti-fantasias-modulares/),
Jenny Holzer with her Truisms posters (https://massmoca.org/event/jenny-holzer/), Ledelle Moe with her When (https://massmoca.org/event/ledelle-moe/), Joe Wardwell with his Hello America: 40 hits from the 50 States (https://massmoca.org/event/joe-wardwell-hello-america/), Gameliel Rodriguez with his La Travesía (https://massmoca.org/event/gamaliel-rodriguez/), Cauleen Smith with her We Already Have What We Need (https://massmoca.org/event/cauleen-smith/), Erre with his Them and Us/Ellos y Nosotros (https://massmoca.org/event/erre/), and my all time favorite exhibit, Spencer Finch with his Cosmic Latte (https://massmoca.org/event/spencer-finch-cosmic-latte/). Check out the slideshow below.
We saw A LOT. And there was so much more than what I listed. I called this place the never-ending museum because every which way you turn you entered a new room with a new exhibit. There is so much to see. One of my favorite things about this museum is that it showcases its old structure from its predecessor factory days with modern touches from present day. To enter different buildings, one could walk down low ceiling industrial pipe exposed narrow hallways or climb iron wrought sturdy concrete staircases. You knew you were in a museum but you felt like you were in an old factory. I absolutely loved that. Walking around observing all this amazing art, we got hungry and had lunch at the spacious Lickety Split Café, right off the museum’s lobby. I had the Cobb Salad and my husband had the Mediterranean Salad, with chicken on both. The price came to under$25; very reasonably priced, delicious, a generous portion and extremely satisfying. Upon driving to the museum’s parking lot, we did notice on their campus several retail stores as well as a BBQ place that seemed busy so I’m pretty sure the food is good there too. Also, free parking which is a total bonus. We got lucky because we found a spot quickly but there is additional parking across the street. Not sure if that is free as well though. Before leaving, we decided to shop at the museum store. I bought myself a Jenny Holzer shirt and my hubby got an Erre shirt. Each were $28…. to me, that is a fair price for a store within the museum. We left the MoCA right at closing time–5pm. We then made our way to our hotel, Holiday Inn Berkshires https://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/us/en/north-adams/nadma/hoteldetail, which we noticed was only a block away.
The nightly rate we paid on Expedia was $149 not including taxes….a little pricey, but it was February school vacation in a ski town and you couldn’t beat the convenience. Also, I added breakfast to our stay for our check out day which was worth it IMO.
We made a reservation the day before at Grazie, for dinner, https://www.graziena.com/ a local restaurant featuring Italian classical dishes. It is best to make a reservation especially on the weekends because their hours are from 4pm-9pm. The best part was that Grazie was literally across the street from MoCA, a block away from our hotel, so we decided to walk there. Arriving about 25 minutes earlier than our reservation, we were able to sit down right away despite it being packed. This seemed like the best local gem for good eats and atmosphere in the area. We did good lol. We sat at a window seat in a little nook across from the bar. Very intimate, and perfect for our romantic VDay celebratory dinner. We were so excited that they had keto friendly food especially the cauliflower crust pizza (an app for us) which was DELICIOUS!! My husband and I both ordered steaks for our main meal with veggie sides accompanied with a Tito’s martini. The food was very satisfying with generous portions and the martini was made perfectly. They had an amazing dessert menu too and we decided to splurge a little since we were celebrating. We shared the créme brulée which was out of this world. I’ve had my share of créme brulée and this was not too sweet which was perfect for the both of us. Again, for what we enjoyed at dinner, the prices were very reasonable.
After dinner, we wanted to take a walk down their ‘Main Street’ to see if there was any cute little shops worth checking out the next day. Sadly, there isn’t much shopping. At least not on the main strip. The only thing there is, is several real estate offices, banks, several pizza shops an art gallery and an ‘all in one’ shop that sold anything from clothing to trinkets to books etc. We never made it there the next day although it looked interesting enough to check out. Right next to Grazie, is a bar called The Mohawk Tavern, that had pool tables that seemed like a fun hangout for the locals. Also, we heard that Jack’s Hot Dog Stand is a staple place to try at least once if you are visiting North Adams. We never made it there though because it was closed when we passed by. That was off the main strip. After walking around the neighborhood for about thirty minutes, we decided to walk back to our hotel and call it a night. It was a long day for us.
The next day, we woke up early, went downstairs to the restaurant in our hotel to get a quick bite to eat, check out and make our way over to Stockbridge, MA to the Norman Rockwell Museum https://www.nrm.org/.
We not only got to see Rockwell’s drawings, paintings and magazine covers but also got to see the outside of his last ‘but best’ studio which was originally located in the backyard of his home on South Street in Stockbridge and eventually transported to the museum grounds in 1986. Norman Rockwell was a great American artist especially for paintings like
‘The Golden Rule’……'”Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You”. ‘A simple but universal phrase that reflected Rockwell’s personal philosophy.’ The lower level of the museum showcased works from local junior and high school students as well as another room that displayed the famous Rockwell magazine covers. The ground level has a museum shop where you are able to purchase Rockwell’s prints in all forms from mugs to posters etc.
If you visit the museum, walk around back to see his last studio he worked in. The inside is open seasonally (warmer months) so we weren’t able to go in but the views are breathtaking. After walking around a bit on the museum grounds, we decided it was time to get on the road back home.
But first, Lee Premium Outlets here we come! After all this history and art we soaked in for two days, we wanted to do a little shopping so we headed over to the outlets in Lee, MA https://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet/lee. This was on our way home so it wasn’t like we were backtracking. They have stores like Nike, Coach, Guess, Skechers, Kate Spade, Levi’s, Nautica and Michael Kors etc. We shopped at Skechers and Eddie Bauer and then walked around a bit. It isn’t crazy big so you could walk around the whole complex without getting lost. They did have a food court but we opted to drive a little to get on the road since at this point it was 4pm and we still had like an hour and a half drive home. By this time, we were famished since we didn’t stop for lunch after the Rockwell Museum.
We drove to Main Street (every little town has a main street called Main Street, have you noticed lol) and went to get a bite to eat at the Salmon Run Fish House https://salmonrunfishhouse.com/. The food was enjoyable and the staff was friendly. We ordered steamed clams in a white wine sauce as an appetizer which were plentiful and both of us had salads with salmon on it for our main meal. Generous portions and reasonably priced; our salmon was at least 6-8 ounces–huge piece. We left there full and satisfied and then made our trek back home. If you only visited Stockbridge, MA, a historical hotel to stay in is the Red Lion Inn https://www.redlioninn.com/which we actually passed on our way to the outlets. Side note though, beware for the faint of heart because it is known that guests have had encounters with the paranormal here. I was totally fine with just seeing the inn from my car window lol.
All in all, we had an awesome little getaway in the Berkshires. We decided that we will head back in the warmer months where we could do a lot more things outside like the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls and actually se the inside of Rockwell’s studio. Ask me or comment on anything I mentioned on this trip. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have if planning a trip out to the Berkshires! Until the next trip with us!! Stay tuned!!
Trip with me and my husband on our adventures together!
A travel guide to help you with tips, places to visit, good global eats and anything else that comes with taking a trip away…. let’s start the trippin’!
Oh C A N A D A…..Bonjour!
Summer ’19 in August, my husband and I had the pleasure of going to Montrèal, Canada. The last time I went to Montrèal I was 18 years old, so we are talking a loooonnnnnggggg time ago. And for him, the last time he stepped foot on Canadian soil was in 2007, so you can only imagine how excited we were to go back after so many years. Plus, we opted to do the whole touristy thang since our previous trips there were nothing but a young and dumb drunken blur. And I am so glad we did. We were able to take in and appreciate the beauty of the city and all that it had to offer. Side note though, when we went, there is A LOT, I mean A LOT, of construction going on. I guess all that means is that real estate is booming there so that’s a good thing, but just keep that in mind. I am used to the noise because of city living but beware of that when booking this trip. Albeit, it was still a great time in a great city with great views and beauty all around to enjoy.
The first full day we were there we went on a city tour…in my opinion, probably the best way to view the city. It isn’t crazy big so it could all be done in one day but this was probably the best thing we ever did. The tour line we used was http://www.grayline.com and the tour we took was the Montrèal City Tour. Make sure your tour guides are Richard and Rícard, yes they are both named Richard, but these were by far the most informative, funny, helpful tour guides I have ever come across. With them, to mention a few, we were able to see and learn about MontRoyal, Notre Dame Basilica
, Habitat 67, Old Port, McGill University, Olympic Stadium, and the Botanical Gardens. Some of these spots we were able to get off and take pictures, for instance at MontRoyal. The view is UNBELIEVABLE. Apparently, you can also walk up it but I don’t recommend that in the middle of 80 degree days in August lol. The best part of doing a tour on our first full day, was that if there was something we wanted to see in more depth and time, we could always go back. Which a few of these we did. Like the Notre Dame Basilica (https://www.basiliquenotredame.ca/en) and the Botanical Gardens (https://espacepourlavie.ca/en/botanical-garden). Both of these I think are worth spending several hours at. The inside of the basilica is breathtaking. I actually cried when walking through the doors. Definitely something you need to see for yourself. The Gardens were just as pretty. From plants to flowers, you see a lot in the gardens. You could literally get lost in there but I think it is all worth it.
For shopping, I would always suggest the Underground City/Mall (https://montrealundergroundcity.com/) or St. Catherine’s Street. These places have similar big retail stores like we have in the states like H&M and Forever 21. I personally like finding one of a kind pieces in boutiquey/vintagey stores and my all time favorite shopping place for that would be St.Laurent Street aka St Lawrence Blvd. If you venture down that Ruè, you need to check out the oldest sandwich shop…Schwartz’s Deli https://www.schwartzsdeli.com/ 
for the best smoked meat sandwich you have ever had….HANDS DOWN. Another favorite of mine on that street was a clothing store called LA Jet Society (@lajetsociety). 
Funky, different, unique and comfy clothing. Right up my alley! If you are in the mood for some amazing poutine and a frothy delicious cappuccino, check out Ginkgo Cafe…part of the UQAM Pavillion and for some amazing breakfast, visit Allómoncoco on St. Catherine St….the nutella crèpe is a must! For a fun night out (and for my risquè peeps out there who will not blush or shy away) check out a burlesque variety show at The Wiggle Room (https://wiggleroom.ca/). Frenchy and MC Danny D give you a real treat! For a succulent steak dinner with all the extras, Gibby’s (https://www.gibbys.com/ ),the oldest steakhouse in Montrèal, is a go to. Little pricey but well worth it. Especially if you are a steak lover. You leave F U L L, let…me….tell….you. For a delicious meal and for the chicken lovers at heart, St.Hubert in the Gay Village is your place. Known for their rotisserie chicken, it was pretty damn good, I must say! The big Ferris Wheel in Old Port is soooooo worth going on. Incredible 360 degree views of the city! Absolutely gorgeous, especially at nighttime. You won’t be disappointed. For AHHH–MAZING pizza…I’m talking over 70+ different pizzas you can choose from, you have to go to Il Focolaio (https://ilfocolaio.ca/en/). For a sweet tooth treat, La Diperíe (https://www.ladiperie.com/) 
is your spot. Ice cream that can be dipped in over 20+ dipping sauces, your mouth just waters as you wait for them to finish the dipping process on your cold treat. My husband and I went there AT LEAST three times on our five day stay. Can you tell that I L-O-V-E my sweets?
For that real European vibe with the little cafes and cobblestone streets, check out the Old Port. And if you are in the Old Port, a place you need to see (and get one of their 
delicious drinks) is El Pequeño (https://www.elpequenobar.com/). The name is so fitting for this bar that literally holds only 9, yes nueve, people in it. 9 is the perfect #, 10 is too crowded. Thank god they have outdoor seating in the warmer months to people watch and enjoy one of their popular drinks such as the Piña Colada (not frozen) or Mojito. Otherwise, you could be waiting in a long line to just enter the building. You will notice to the right of El Pequeño, there is a big metal door with a red light above it and a doorbell next to it. Enter The Cold Room. A hidden, dark, basement speakeasy gem that inhibits you to drink the night away without any worry of the outside world above. Sipping on your bourbon inspired cocktail (we enjoyed Paper Planes) while sitting with unknown strangers in a busy sequestrial setting, it is hard to not feel like you are in a scene from the Prohibition days. I have been to several speakeasys before and this one by far was a fav for me. Note though, that if it is extremely crowded like the night we went in with it’s low ceilings and tight quarters to match, all while boozing it up, one might feel a little claustrophobic, so just keep that in mind. If you are feeling spontaneous and rebellious enough, I don’t know, get a tattoo like we did, go see JPark at DFA Tattoos on St. Catherine St. (https://www.dfatattoos.com/). Super friendly staff, super clean shop, super easy process. We got something small but cute as a souvenir to our first trip to Canada together.
For late night good eats, go to Chinatown. Probably some of the best Chinese food I ever had. Before booking this trip, we did extensive, I mean, I was wicked anal about it, (because well, you know, you are in another country and the last time I was there was like 20 something years ago), research on a place to stay. I checked hotel after hotel and none of them seemed to fit in our budget. We opted for an AirBnb and I am sooooo glad we did! Our apartment was everything we wanted and more!! In the middle of EVERYTHING, I’m not even kidding you. We had Chinatown, St. Catherine St, St. Laurent St., Old Port, Downtown, Gay Village all within walking distance to our place. The best part is that we were on one of the top floors of the building with a balcony overlooking 180 degree panoramic view of the city.
I mean I couldn’t ask for a better home to stay in. Reasonably priced with a week parking across the street for a very fair rate (we paid $25 a day in an underground parking garage), super clean, super convenient, with an incredible view, and a balcony to suntan on (which I did lol), we really lucked out. Our host Magda was beyond accommodating and hospitable. If we were to ever go back to Montrèal, we will definitely be staying at her place again. All in all, our trip was one for the books. We had such an amazing time taking in everything this city had to offer. We walked everywhere. We ate some of the best food. We met some really cool people. By the way, don’t worry if you don’t speak French either. Everyone basically speaks English in Montrèal or knows more than one language since it is a touristy place to visit. My hubby and I went in the summer so we had great weather, but I am sure it is just as pretty in the winter too. Can’t wait to hopefully venture our way to Quebec City and Toronto soon! I heard those are just as beautiful!!
Ask me anything about our stay in Montrèal and I will give you my honest opinion! Until the next trip with us!!