North Adams MA….Who Knew?
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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!!
Dawn M | 29th Feb 20
Sounds like a fun place, especially the Moca museum and my favorite artist Norman Rockwell!! You are very descriptive in your writing, it’s very interesting..
Karla Vega | 29th Feb 20
Thank you so much Dawn! I appreciate your kind words and the MoCA was really fun!!