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The AACA Tour to the Berkshires
Eastern Divisional Tour August 4-7, 2008
Hosted by the Connecticut Valley Region
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Host Hotel
Crowne Plaza
Pittsfield-Berkshires
One West Street
Pittsfield, MA 01201
413-499-2000
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Reservation Deadline:
May 31, 2008
Contacts:
Chairperson: Lori Baronas 413-665-3190
Registration: Paul Hanson 207-642-6835
or Dick Sitnik 413-782-4185
Email all at our tour address: CVR2008@GMAIL.COM
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2008 Eastern Divisional Tour
As the guests of the Connecticut Valley Region (CVR), you will enjoy three(+) days of touring and entertainment throughout the beautiful Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. All vehicles over 25 years old are welcome to participate in tours to historic homesteads and museums, along the winding and hilly Mohawk Trail, and to attend the musical highlight of the 2008 Berkshire season.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Registration opens at 9:00AM for those early-birds who want to take on optional tours to the Crane Museum (where all the U.S. currency, as well as other paper products, are produced), Herman Melville’s Arrowhead home (where he wrote “Moby Dick) and Edith Wharton’s “The Mount” (estate and gardens). Tour information sessions will be offered at 9AM and 4PM to introduce tourists to the events of the upcoming week and to discuss possible side trips. Our Hospitality Area will have informational brochures and maps for tour participants throughout the tour period. At 7PM, the opening reception will be held on the top floor of our hotel overlooking the entire Pittsfield area.
There will be indoor garage parking for all touring vehicles at the hotel. Trailered vehicles may be dropped off at the hotel’s parking area with space provided for the trailers only a short diostance away. Self-contained motor homes will be directed to an area within Shaker Village, about 5 miles from the hotel. Hidden Valley Campground, just north of Pittsfield, will accommodate all other campers.
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Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Each day will start at the hotel with a continental breakfast. You should be on the road by 9AM to make sure you complete the planned tours to Stockbridge and Great Barrington and are back early in the afternoon for a very special afternoon and evening event.
Back roads will lead you past the Tanglewood show grounds and scenic overlooks to Great Barrington, a quaint New England town with plenty of shops and restaurants. After a brief stop for shopping or refreshments, you will continue onto Stockbridge, the location of Norman Rockwell’s famous painting of the picturesque Main Street. Stockbridge is also the home of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” and the Red Lion Inn. You will want to find a place to park and browse through this town.
Plan to return early to the hotel as we will be caravanning to Tanglewood in mid-afternoon. At Tanglewood, we will park on the grounds, select dinner from a variety of vendor booths, and walk the manicured grounds “people-watching” (a highlight of any Tanglewood event). An evening concert of “Tanglewood On Parade” by both the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops will end with a fireworks display. This will be a very special evening as the concert will have a car theme.
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Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Our tour day will start at Hancock’s Shaker Village which was founded in 1783 and functioned as a Shaker community through the 1960’s. Here we will tour the village and have a planned lunch while our vehicles are being judged by tour committee personnel. This afternoon, we will tour to Norman Rockwell’s Museum in Stockbridge and to Daniel Chester French’s Chesterwood studio. It was at Chesterwood that Mr. French created the Lincoln statue for the Memorial in Washington, DC and several other famous pieces.
Back in Pittsfield, we will participate in “Wednesday on Wheels” as the city’s Main Street will be barricaded to allow us to have an evening “block party” just around the corner from our hotel. You will have plenty of time to enjoy the street vendors and entertainment and have dinner at one of the local restaurants.
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Thursday, August 7, 2008
Our final tour day after breakfast, today’s tour will be about 100 miles taking you across the Mohawk Trail to the Natural Bridge and the Hoosac Tunnel—an engineering wonder of its time creating a five mile railroad tunnel through several mountains over a 25 year construction period. You’ll navigate the famous “Hairpin Turn” just before getting to your destination of Shelburne Falls. In Shelburne Falls, you’ll walk the Bridge of Flowers, view the Glacier Potholes, and experience glass blowing and candle making before making the trek back to the hotel past sugar houses and the magnificent Mt. Greylock.
We finish this day with the final event of this tour—our closing banquet. At 6PM the social hour starts and at 7PM the festivities transfer to the closing banquet, all at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. After dinner, we will award the prizes that resulted from the morning’s judging at the Shaker Village.
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Tour Itinerary
Sunday, August 3rd
· 4:00-7:00PM Registration Open
· 4:00-7:00PM Hospitality Area
Monday, August 4th
· 9:00AM-6:00PM Registration Open
· 9:00AM & 4:00PM Info Session-Tours, side trips, question and answer period
· 4:00-7:00PM Hospitality Area
· 4:00-6:45PM Dinner on your own
· 7:00-9:00PM Opening Reception
Tuesday, August 5th
· 9:00AM-3:00PM Registration Open
· 9:00AM Suggested starting time for tours (lunch on your own)
· 3:00PM Dinner, Tour & Concert at Tanglewood
Wednesday, August 6th
· 9:00AM Shaker Village (judging 10AM-Noon) Lunch and tour included at Shaker Village
· 1:00-5:00PM Tours and museum visits
· 4:00-7:00PM Hospitality Area
· 4:00-10:00PM “Wednesday on Wheels” (downtown cruise)
Thursday, August 7th
· 8:30AM Suggested starting time for tours (lunch and diner on your own)
· 4:00-5:30PM Hospitality Area
· 6:00PM Cocktails/Cash Bar in the Banquet Room
· 7:00-9:30PM Closing Banquet
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