The Doll Sweet Journal.: Ladies of the Berkshires

Last May I went on a lovely two-day, one-night trip to the Berkshires of western Massachusetts with my two friends Meredith and Sharalyn. We're all in the same ward at church--Meredith and I both moved in the summer before, and Sharalyn grew up in Mass. like me. Her parents are in my mom's ward.

We are the three blond amigas. 😁

We had a really fun weekend together and it was good to get to know to get to know this beautiful area of the state better.

We drove out to Amherst on Friday, May 10th. We had lunch at a fantastic pizza place called Antonio's. That pizza was soooo good!

Then we went to the Emily Dickinson Museum (at her house in Amherst), which is really well-done.

I loved this pair of owls in one of the rooms. If they'd sold knock-offs in the gift shop I definitely would have bought one!

This was Emily's room where she wrote her lovely poetry.

She looked out at this very view from this very window.

Then we drove to the nice town of Northampton to do some shopping and get a snack before we checked into our hotel.

I thought these decorative book birdhouses were so cute. They were exorbitantly expensive, though.

Snacktime! 😋

The place we stayed at was undergoing renovations and wasn't quite as nice as the website made it look. But it wasn't bad. We stayed in newly renovated rooms. I got bad insomnia that night and barely slept, and then we had a sub-par breakfast there the next morning, but at least the ambience was nice. And there was a gorgeous chandelier!

After we checked out, we went to The Mount, which was right nearby and is Edith Wharton's famous estate. I've wanted to go there for a long time and it didn't disappoint! The house and the grounds were so beautiful. Edith Wharton had great style and loved symmetry, and she helped designed the house and grounds.

Now that's what I call a wrap-around porch!

I loved the order and balance of everything. It was visually pleasing and it felt so peaceful.

The woods around the house were so pretty. I'd like to come back and walk all of the trails and explore.

I had to get in on that symmetrical action!

We all did!

The front of the house had a Von Trapp estate vibe from The Sound of Music.

Note the lady standing in the middle upper window (it's a picture, but the mansion really is haunted and I'm going to come back one fall for a haunted tour!), as well as the stairwells in the windows on the right. I love that Edith Wharton didn't care that the stairs were visible from outside--it was what worked on the inside and that's what mattered! I appreciate that kind of practicality.

I liked the book-lined walls of the library. Libraries in mansions are usually my favorite room of the ~~house~~ mansion.

Here was a particularly gorgeous room, with a particularly gorgeous ceiling and a particularly gorgeous chair.

Her pretty bedroom

And actual pages of her writing! These were from The House of Mirth, which was published in 1905. I liked that book (but the ending was a bummer).

Downstairs in the kitchen and then the gift shop.

A pretty window with a pretty view

"Room of Mirth," ha ha!

After The Mount we did some shopping in Lenox and ate lunch there. I had a really good crepe.

We stopped at a salon and Meredith and Sharalyn got pedicures while I got my first gel manicure, which turned out not to be worth it--the gel all peeled off a few days later! But it was pretty while it lasted.

On the drive home we stopped in Worcester to eat dinner at a tapas bar. It was delicious!