Excursions

Community

Welcome to Vassar: Architectural Walking Tours Open to All

Vassar College is very difficult to get into if you want to be a student there, but the elite, 149-year-old private college is making it easier for outsiders to enjoy its historic grounds and facilities. You don't have to be a nostalgic alumna or an anxious prospective parent

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Community

Hark! The Medieval Faire Returns to Ventfort Hall

Chivalry is back in the Berkshires this weekend as Ventfort Hall, the Jacobean-revival mansion that houses The Museum of the Gilded Age once again provides a semi-persuasive setting for its crowd-pleasing Medieval Faire.   Last year a mix of locals and tourists drawn to the region specifically for this event numbered

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Community

Berkshire Botanical Garden's 76th Annual Harvest Festival

The Berkshire Botanical Garden is going back to its roots. "The Harvest Festival is our biggest and most popular event of the year, and with all the music, hay rides, food and crafts people often forget that they are at a botanical garden," says Molly Boxer, who has

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Community

Cycling Season: Three Unique Bike Rides for Good Causes

Is there any better way to take in the glories of fall than on a bicycle?  The hills and roadways of the Rural Intelligence region provide cycling challenges and quintessential country vistas, and for the next three Sundays—September 19 in Lime Rock, September 26 in the southern Berkshires, and

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Community

Germantown Celebrates the Big 3-0-0!

By Kathryn Matthews America was built on the backs of diverse immigrant groups.  But when recalling those immigrants with hard-luck tales to tell, the Germans aren’t likely top-of-mind. While Germany ushers in the 20th anniversary of its East-West reunification on October 3rd, Germantown, New York, in Columbia County will

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Community

Girls Gone Wild at the Goshen Agricultural Fair

Celia McGee, a journalist who has been spending weekends in Goshen, CT, for many years, reports from the fairgrounds: The Goshen Fair, held every Labor Day Weekend at the Goshen Agricultural Society fairgrounds in Litchfield County, is famous for its view of the Litchfield Hills, its dairy barn, its democratic

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Community

Who Needs Disneyworld? We Have County Fairs

It's the season for the annual county and country fairs, and they can be schizophrenic affairs—earnest agricultural competitions side by side with scary rides and schlock. The carnival side of the Dutchess County Fair is Coney Island-in-the-country, featuring the usual games of chance along with a petting

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Community

Festival Frenzy: A Weekend of Music & Happenings

No matter where you go this weekend—from Wassaic to North Adams, from Norfolk to Annandale-on-Hudson—you will find a one-of-a-kind festival. If it sounds too good to be true, it is because there is no way to take advantage of everything that is going on in our neck of

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Community

Walk on Over: The 2nd Annual Hillsdale Historic House Tour

If, like us, you could do with a little less driving in your life, you'll be happy to know that the second annual Hillsdale Historic House Tour is a pedestrian-friendly event: All of the buildings are on  a 1/4 mile stretch of Cold Water Street, which has

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Community

We ♥ Rhinebeck: A Guide for Chelsea Clinton's Wedding Guests

Who knows whether most of the guests invited to Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky's riverfront wedding in Rhinebeck on July 31 will arrive by helicopters, private Amtrak cars or limousines and head home right after the party. But for those who plan to make a whole weeekend of

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Community

The Millbrook Mystique: Inside Fitch's Corner Horse Trials

Horse shows are a wonderful combination of sport and style, and nowhere are the equestrians more style-conscious than clubby Millbrook, which every year encourages outsiders to attend—for free!— the Fitch's Corner Hunter Trials Weekend on July 24 & 25. If you admire beautiful, well-groomed, well-trained horses, there

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Community

Wrapped! Father & Son Mummy Reunion at Berkshire Museum

"Mummies represent the potential for people to be immortal," says Dr. Jonathan Elias, an Egyptologist and curator of the new exhibition Wrapped! Search for the Essential Mummy at the Berkshire Musem (June 19 - October 31. ) As he installed the exhibition featuring the museum's own 2,

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