Saturday night after the show we spent the night in a hotel in down town Pittsfield. My goal for today was to visit the Mass MOCA in North Adams a museum I'd been trying to get to for years. After a wonderful breakfast Bob's Country Kitchen in Lanesborough we drove north on Route 7 to Williamstown. Karen wanted to stop at the Clark Art Institute so we started our visit there. This was the first time either of us had been to the Clark and it's easy to see why their collection is world renowned. The art in their possession is [View Full Entry]

---

---

We left Williamstown and the Clark and meandered east along Route 2 the Mohawk Trail. It was the first time in years that I had driven this route through the Berkshires. It was sad to see whats happened to so many of the old tourist stops along the road. These shops were the life line for this area and are either in poor condition or had completely gone out of business. Those old "View Six States From Here" and trinket buying spots just aren't surviving. This graceful driving road has certainly lost it's intrigue to the interstate. I guess I must [View Full Entry]

---

---

On Saturday afternoon Karen and I headed out the Mass Pike to Lenox and the Tanglewood Performance Center. We were going to see how radio is still made with Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion for the 6pm live show the old fashion way. At about 5:45 Garrison took to the stage and began singing the "Star Spangle Banner". He proceeded with a medley of songs walk through the shed right past us he sang a Beatles song. parading around the shed. It was a great evening of entertainment with Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, The Royal Academy of Radio Actors, [View Full Entry]

---

---

Friendly Garden Club Tour 2009 Despite the unseasonably cold and wet month, ten residential gardens in Beverly managed to thoroughly captivate an audience of a couple hundred gardening enthusiasts on June 27th as part of the Friendly Garden Tour. The Friendly Garden Club of Beverly and some very generous Beverly homeowners welcomed the public for a review of a variety of Beverly’s best gardens on what turned out to be one of the first few sunny summer days of 2009. While some plants were somewhat seasonally delayed, all the gardens were in outstanding condition. The tour inclu [View Full Entry]

---

---

Heritage Museum and Garden Sandwich, MA June 19,2009 This week Karen, Maureen and myself visited the Heritage Museum in Sandwich MA on a rainy day in mid June. We had planned on coming last week but it rained every day we could come. This week we gave up waiting for the rain to stop and came anyway. The museums have a variety of interesting exhibits and the all the gardens were in top shape. It was refreshing to see such a large garden with such a diverse collection of plantings and maintaining this level of care. The museum has over 100 [View Full Entry]

---

---

Norwood Pond June 13, 2009 Today I went with members of the Beverly, Open Space Committee to walk the woods of Norwood Pond. Nancy, Kate, Pam, Bob, Dave, Robert and myself were there to review the possibility of developing an accessible trail in this area. We walked around the site looking at it’s variety of forest types, flora and fauna. There was one loop trail beginning near the kiosk that seems to have the trail grade to allow for development of an accessible trail. Beginning at the Elnew Road trail entrance you proceed down to the Old Farm trail. The Kiosk [View Full Entry]

---

---

This week Karen, Maureen, Diane and I visited Aspet the Saint-Gaudens studio in Cornish, New Hampshire. This is the only National Park in New Hampshire and the first National Park that was dedicated to an American Artist. This was such an inspiring place to visit. Augustus Saint-Gaudens was one of the premier artists of the 18th century. He first came to Cornish for the summer in 1885 renting an abandoned inn from his friend Charles Beaman and used a converted hay barn as his studio. He grew to love the place and purchased it in 1892 using it as his summer [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today Karen, Maureen and I did our weekly trip to somewhere I haven’t been before. We visited the home of two more former presidents, the homes of John Adam and John Quincy Adams. Other than the cold and rainy weather today it was a day well spent. Both former presidents and their wives were such accomplished individuals, each playing such important roles in early American History. The Park Service does an ok job of explaining the lives of these historical figures but it's really one dimensional. You really need to do some outside reading to get a complete picture. Last year [View Full Entry]

---

---

We left Charlottesville and headed north as we drive to Gettysburg. Mid morning we entered Shenandoah National Park and drove the beautiful Skyline Drive on a clear day in May . Traffic is sparse with no tourists so early in the season. Karen drove and I enjoyed the scenery, spotting a bear walking through the woods. Gettysburg National historic site is a memorable place. Over one hundred years later the impact of three days of deadly battle in a hot July and a two minute speech is difficult to describe. We spent all day visiting the museum, cyclorama center, and battlefields. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Karen and I attended the 2009 ALS Advocacy Day and Public Policy Conference in Washington DC. A great part of the event was meeting and exchanging ideas, experiences and hopes with PALS (persons with ALS)from all over the country. We started with a roll call of Chapters in the opening session. Forty-eight states were represented including Hawaii and Alaska, among the 500 participants. Over eight hundred advocates were expected to participate. This was followed by a “Preparation for the Hill” session before being treated to a barbeque and open bar on the outside patio. At eight [View Full Entry]

---

---