summer vacation

At the end of June we jetted off to Hancock, Massachusetts, with Matt's family for a week-long summer vacation in the mountains.

For those who are unsure as to where Hancock is located, it's on the western border of Massachusettes and New York in an area called the Berkshires.

Here's the quick background story as to how we ended up in the country of the Northeast.  My mother-in-law bid on an amazing condo deal at our annual church auction last year and won.  We could book a condo anywhere in the world that this company had locations.  After months of trying to make all our schedules work together just to find one week away, we had basically run out of time.  Once we pin-pointed a week to go, there was limited options left to choose from.  I believe our choices were Iowa or Massachusettes. Huh, tough choice eh?  So we decided it would be fun to take a trip to the Northeast and relax in the mountains, which neither Matt or I have done so we figured it would be a fun, new experience.

The resort we stayed at was quaint and charming.  It's a ski resort and was tucked up into the mountains.  We were about 20 minutes away from any town in either direction.  But once we got out to explore we found a bunch of cute, small towns scattered everywhere.  We even found a cute college town with a great coffee shop.

We took a day trip into New York halfway through the week.  We had a wonderful time but it was such a looooong day.  We really only went to Times Square and Soho, but walked and shopped our butts off! The guys were actually the shopping stars of the day.  They were like little boys running around pointing their fingers at everything shouting, "OH!  Look at that!"  So while they ran around, us girls sat down for a much-needed glass of wine.  Sort of ironic that the girls were the shopped-out ones.

One day we decided we needed some excitement and action.  We found a little amusement/entertaiment place that offered zip-lining.  Now let me just say, when most people think of zip-lining, you imagine yourself high up in the trees flying down long wires.  Well, at least that was what my past experience was like.  However, this place was a tad different.  As in, there were literally 3 poles with 2 wires attached - you start at the top, zip over to the second pole, and then zip down to the final pole on the other wire. Here's my poor attempt at a diagram:

I was slightly dissappointed - not for myself, but for the rest of them because I've been zip-lining before and I felt like they were basically getting cheated and ripped off.  However, come show time, I ended up being the only one getting ripped off.

They warned us that you could get stuck on the line and may have to pull yourself in.  I thought to myself, no way, I'm totally fine.  Boy was I ever wrong.

I ended up getting stuck the first zip down at least 30 feet from the stopping point.  So as instructed, I turned around and started pulling myself in.  Problem - my harness was too long and my arms were too short so I could just barely reach the line, plus the bulky gloves kept getting stuck under the hook.  So, I gave up trying.  Seriously?  This sucked, and that's putting it nicely.  I had many choice words running through my head as I was dangling there with my burning, tired-out arms watching these 2 moron highschool boys try to pull me back in.

After about 5 minutes, they were finally able to rope me in, no joke.  At this point, all I wanted to do was jump off the platform and be done.  Thankfully, my second attempt went much smoother.  Quite an experience I have no desire to ever repeat.  Too bad we don't have any pictures, I'm sure it would have been picture-worthy.

Those are just some of the more interesting things we did, but we also did a slew of other fun stuff.  For that, I'm simply listing it all out and showing you a bunch of pictures...

• Took a train ride that showed some historic sites.

• Visited Albany, New York, which is where we flew in and out of.  Neat city, but we really only visited their assortment of shopping malls.

• Devoured a delicious and HUGE dessert at a great little pub/restaurant.

• Played a round of mini golf and rewarded ourselves with ice cream.
• Tested our need-for-speed with some go-kart racing.
• Visited a cheese farm.

• Went to a couple farmer's markets and picked up some delicious bread, corn, veggies and a cool black/white framed picture.
• Tasted some local wines at a winery located on an apple orchard.

We had a great time and enjoyed spending the week with family.  Definitely wasn't a place I think any of us would have normally picked, but it ended up being a lovely vacation spot!