For the first time in just about a year R and I took a vacation without M.  We went to the Berkshires and camped in a Yurt at October Mountain State Forest.  I am not sure you can call it camping, because there are beds, and walls, and a lock, and electricity.  But there were no bathrooms or showers, except the campground ones that you had to walk to with a flashlight, so that totally counts as camping!  While the Northeast was undergoing a heat wave, we were nice and cool in our Yurt with a ceiling fan and bunk beds.  The main attraction of our two nights away was a day pass to Kripalu, a center for yoga and health.  We camped in order to save some money.  $30 a night is pretty affordable and it turned out we were much cooler than the people sleeping at Kripalu.  We headed up that way on Wednesday after work, got settled in our Yurt and then hit Lenox for dinner.  We looked at every dinner menu in the whole town, each one even better than the last, and we settled on Cafe Lucia.  We celebrated a great professional opportunity and a good review at work.  We celebrated M, we celebrated us, and it was wonderful!  On Thursday we headed out early to Kripalu, so we could catch breakfast.  The food is absolutely pure and amazing.  There is very little, if any, meat and I assume most everything is local and organic.  First we attending a seminar about opening your heart, literally and figuratively.  Next we went off on our own on a hike down to the lake.  After lunch, we headed out on a guided bike ride through the rolling hills of the Berkshires.  About half way through I figured out I had eaten too much lunch and the heat of the day (I think it was 100!) made me need a nice little break before continuing – but I think we all did.  We rode through Lenox and into Tanglewood.  In the end I was so glad we decided to go.  After a few hours of taking it easy, we hit a moderate yoga class, dinner and then a seminar about breathing techniques for relaxation and meditation.  It was such a perfect day.  On Friday we had planned to check out the Appalachian Trail but instead opted to go out to breakfast and window shop and eat our way through Lenox.  My favorite store was Colorful Stitches.  It was just a beautiful store, with beautiful things.  I especially loved the front porch railings and tree trunks which were all knitted around.  I want to do this at my house so bad, but SOMEONE won’t let me!  It was just a perfect vacation.  It wasn’t too rushed, and it wasn’t too long (read: I missed her, but I wasn’t crazy missing her, because I knew she was safe and sound with my mom).  I hope this is a yearly tradition we can have.  We are lucky to live less than an hour and a half and a quarter tank of gas away from an amazing place like this.