Monday, July 22, 2013

The Red Lion Inn

As you know, I often quote my Philosopher King, Yosemite Sam, who once famously said "I paid four bits to see the high-diving act and I'm a gonna see the high-diving act!".

Well I sort of felt like that about staying at the Red Lion Inn: "I was a-staying in the Berkshires and I was a-gonna stay at the Red Lion Inn."

Oh my gosh - I am glad I did.  It is lovely.

Built in 1773, it was originally a stagecoach inn.  

There are jogs and ill-thought-out-hallways everywhere and we had to walk through the pub to get to the lobby from our room, but it was AMAZING.

The Inn's website is chock-a-block with interesting information.  Of course, I was thrilled to find out that my own dear Teddy Roosevelt (along with other famous people) had stayed at the Inn.

Our room was good-sized:


A king-sized bed

A scary looking woman looking at you from over the gas fireplace, which, because it was 36C, we never turned on...

Lovely little bathroom with nice shower

only one chair and a tiny TV, but that is fine, because you want to be on the front porch with a drink anyway...
We ate at the restaurant both evenings we were there.  The menu was that good.




A little wine?  Don't mind if I do...



We had to have dessert and dessert wine - it would have been rude not to have...





A shot inside the dining room.

And Barry looking very dapper...



Do you think he is posing here???


The little bouquet on our table.

After dinner, we went for a walk with some fireflies and a couple of bats.  It was so hot.  Then we came back and settled ourselves out on the porch.



I was only drinking water by this time, Barry didn't want to make the waitress feel badly, so ordered the house Merlot...


When we left in the morning, I took a couple of shots, though it was so hot and humid, my lens kept steaming up!


Main Street before I wiped the lens..


...and after:


As I mentioned in a previous post, the Inn has been captured famously by Rockwell in this painting:


Which the town does a loving recreation of every Christmas:


I would be remiss if I did not mention one or two other little tidbits about the area around the Inn:

1) There is an amazing chocolate shoppe a couple of doors away and up a back alley.  You have to stop in there if you visit!

2) the original Alice's Restaurant is also a couple of doors down, though it is no longer called Alice's restaurant, which makes the line from Arlo Guthrie's song, Alice's Restaurant, even more poignant:

You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Excepting Alice

Oh my gosh, I love that song!

I highly recommend this Inn - quintessential New England Inn experience and the staff were gracious and lovely and very attentive.  They kept wanting to pull down the covers, but Barry never let them in, though he did take their chocolates!

Have a great Monday and Stay Safe out there!

21 comments:

  1. Oh that looks like a very convivial place to stay! I'm so joyous of the heat and humidity. It's cold and dry here and I hate dry weather.... Plays havoc with my skin!!
    The porch looks utterly divine! I would love to sit and chill in the heat with a cocktail or 10!
    Thanks for sharing your pics with us.
    I must say that Barry gies George a run for his money!

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  2. And sour dough pound cake sounds like the bomb! I must eat some!

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  3. Ruth - i need to find the recipe! the cold and dry is brutal for me as well! there must be 50+ chairs on that porch, more on the side and then there is the pool/patio area. more than enough for all of us!

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  4. Sounds perfect to me. Even the heat, rather be boiling than frozen.

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  5. Good blog pose, Barry!

    It is a charming place; never have been in the Berkshires without needing sweater, which I prefer. Glad it wasn't too hot to eat!

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    1. Lane - I WISH sometimes it was too hot to eat. There is a picture of us sitting at the table, but we agreed to never show it as we both like, ahem, large-ish in the shot, which we blame the camera on! Back to my healthy regime - need to lose these extra pounds before fall!

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    2. oh and ps - did you end up with that wicked thunderstorm, too?

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    3. No, we got nothin'! I was all revved up for a good storm ( but no hail, please). Hope you did not have any damage.

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    4. No surprisingly none. Go figure! Well, some of the bee balm are kissing the walkway, but that often happens anyway..

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  6. Hi Wendy, the Red Lion Inn looks like a lovely place to stay, thanks for the photos.

    By the way, I saw footage of your storm on the news last night - no, I did not drive through anything like that!!!

    Royal Baby Watch in earnest today - very exciting!

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    1. I know! I am going sailing in about an hour and so wish the baby would come before then!!! I will be breaking out the champers tonight!

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  7. IT TAKES A VILLAGE WMM, so glad Red Lion continues to live up to its rep. Would love to be there for the holiday recreation some year. When it came through our way on Friday storm was something else, on 401 kept telling self car has rubber tires, self if deluged place to be.

    Can't wait for the easel to go up outside Buck House and the CN Tower to light bright. Glad she was able to sneak in a back way tho', poor woman.

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    1. barry and i both said today how sorry we were that you weren't there to see the lights change!

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  8. I think Barry is looking so handsome and I agree he certainly gives George a run for his money!
    Our baby is here, Wendy have you cracked the champers yet? A boy I knew it! Hooray!

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    1. i am all in a lather!!!! I believed it was a boy too! Good for our Kate! I keep thinking of Diana and how pleased she would be!

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  9. I was off in the date by 8 days but I had guessed that it would be a boy! Three cheers for the little prince! Hope they don't run out of champers on the isle!

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    Replies
    1. i read this afternoon that they figure the baby is worth $25M to the economy in the next 24 hours!

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  10. We stayed at the Red Lion sixteen years ago and loved it. Our bedroom had a delightful canopied bed with bobble-edged sheers. When I got home I sewed white cotton bobbles onto all my sheer curtains! The visit to Norman Rockwell's gallery and studio was a great treat for me as I've long been an admirer of his work. So enjoyable to revisit it via your blog.

    An un-traumatic birth and a healthy baby is what everyone would wish for. I hope the press don't hound the young family as they did Diana.

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