It’s always nice to be on vacation for your birthday, but that doesn’t always guarantee a great time. Since we had exhausted most of what we wanted to do in the lower Berkshires–I might have just made that up, I guess we would probably say the southern Berkshires here in the US, but ‘the lower Berkshires’ makes it sound like I’m in rural England–anyhoo, since we had kind of run out of things to do and so many shops are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we decided we needed to go further afield for our day’s adventures.
One of the beauties of a road trip is you can be spontaneous. The night before my birthday, I looked at a map and decided we could drive north with Bennington, VT as our main destination with the idea of being in Troy, NY for my birthday meal. In doing so I broke the the cardinal rule of any good trip–Always do your research. But more on that later in this post.
On the drive up to Bennington, which I quickly realized we had started on too early in the morning, we came to Williamstown, MA the home of both Williams College and the Clark Art Institute. We hadn’t intended on going to the Clark because we had been there on our previous trip to the Berkshires and I knew that they had implemented timed entry tickets due to Covid, and we didn’t have a timed ticket. But since we had plenty of time we decided to take a chance on being able to get in. I’m so glad we did. Having expanded since 2008, the Clark is even more amazing than before and it provided a really nice way to spend a couple of hours.
Choupatte (Cabbagefeet) (2017)
Claude Lalanne
Martin Drölling
Fumée d’amgre gris (Smoke of Ambergris) (1880)
John Singer Sargent
Émile Henri Bernard
Nikolai Astrup
Visions of Norway, the extensive retrospective the Clark was having on the work of artist Nikolai Astrup has me wanting to visit the tiny villages around Lake Jølster, northeast of Bergen, Norway.
After the Clark we continued our path north by zigging over to North Adams the home of MassMOCA, another art museum we had been to in 2008. I opted out of going there this time because the art tends to be room-size conceptual kind of stuff, or other things that are somewhat lost on me. I mean how long can you stare at a Dan Flavin. (Look it up, not long.) And because we had Bennington to look forward to, we didn’t bother to poke around the former mill town.
Now, when I picked Bennington as our destination, I had visions in my head of another serendipitous stop we had made in Vermont on our previous road trip in 2008 in which we stayed the night in the very charming town of Woodstock where there was one of my favorite used bookstores of all time (and the place where I first discovered the work of May Sarton).
But Bennington is no Woodstock. While the town has some very nice architectural bones, there was a lot of empty retail space that appears to have been vacant prior to Covid. Half of the shops that were closed that day and not very interesting to start with. This town could use about 100 LGBTQ families to fill up the great old buildings with shops you actually want to visit.
There are a couple of museums that we might have enjoyed in town, but as I mentioned, I hadn’t done my research, and I didn’t know they existed.
And I hate to say it, but the indie bookstore that was there had recently moved locations and was not even remotely conducive to browsing. I’m sure my mood had something to do with it, but the store felt very suburban and not at all cozy. I literally spent less than a minute inside and turned around and left without even touching a book. Back out on the street I saw one of those “open” flags that seem to be all over the place in vacationland to draw attention to shops that visitors might be interested in. We crossed the street and walked a bit to go see what we could see only to find a vape shop. Time to leave Bennington.
Although my birthday felt like a bust at times because of Bennington, if we had only planned to go to the Clark, Famous Lunch, and the DQ, I would have considered it a fantastic day. I guess it is all about setting expectations.
hogglestock 
That archival book art installation is a bit insane but cool. And I do love a good meadow.
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Since it is surrounded by a research library with open stacks, it didn’t seem cruel. Plus they were so beautifully faced, one didn’t want to see them disturbed.
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Despite having grown up in Boston, I’ve never explored Western MA. I might have to make a trip; your travelogue is inspiring. We just took our DC-based daughter on a trip to DQ for her birthday. Her cousins in Fairfax were horrified that she’d never been to a DQ and we had to explain that although we have lots of ice cream places in DC, the closest DQ is in fact theirs. (But no chocolate dip? that’s what I associate with DQ and summer vacation more than anything else.)
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You would love Western MA. I do love a chocolate dip cone, but for some reason on this trip the 3 or 4 times that we stopped at the DQ I just wanted to pure deliciousness of a plain cone.
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It feels like a very long time since I have taken a vicarious trip with you on your blog! Many thanks for sharing and happy belated birthday too. Sorry that Bennington was a bust. Isn’t it a college town?
I laughed when I read that you never quite forgave your husband for denying you a third hot dog 12 years ago. Poor John!
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That’s because it has been a damn long time. Every time I see the pictures of the chili dogs I wonder when I get back to Troy.
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The library there just for display- is baffling to me. Seems worse than people who buy books to show off in their homes, just to show off. Not to read them. Sad.
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Happy Birthday from Tassie. I see what you mean about Flavin. I looked him up. The inaccessible book shelf would have frustrated me. I like closer looks at libraries. We don’t have DQ anywhere in Australia. My old home town in Michigan always had one. Will have ro wait until I visit again to enjoy. Who knows when that will be! 🤠🌻
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Oddly, there are quite a few DQs in Thailand and Cambodia. So you don’t have to drive too far!
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Happy Birthday! Sounds like you had a great birthday, even though sometimes things were a bit of a bust. Those little chili dogs looked delicious! And, you can’t go wrong with DQ – I would have dipped it in chocolate :)
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The thing about the chili dogs is that every part of them is perfect. The dogs are good, the chili is good, the buns taste homemade while being squishy *and* chewy, little bit of mustard and onion. I also add ketchup to mine.
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I always enjoy your road trips and eats reviews. DQ is a good thing. Thanks.
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~Immediately starts googling houses for sale in Bennington, VT~
But seriously, happy birthday! Your lovely pictures remind me how long it has been since I’ve been able to look at art. I hope the rest of your road trip is a success.
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What kind of shop would you open? We’d need you to buy a house there *and* open up something interesting.
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My son is a baker, so maybe I can persuade him to open a bakery there! Our current city seems to have a saturated market.
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Belated birthday greetings from Washington State. We were glad when our local DQ closed down..we were too often making late night pyjama runs through the drive thru…hot fudge sundaes!
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