This weekend is the perfect weekend to kick back, relax, think about back to school, spend some unstructured outdoors and just ... breathe.
There are a few scheduled activities that might interest your family: Project Native in Great Barrington is holding its Family Fun Fest from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 9; the annual Rock, Rattle & Drum Pow Wow will be held Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 9 and 10, at Bowe Field in Adams; and Kaith Harris will lead a talk for children on bicycle safety at 10 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, in the gymnasium at the Pittsfield YMCA. You can find details on all those in our calendar of events.
But a quiet mid-summer weekend with a great weather forecest - sunny and temperatures around 80 - just begs for some play time. We asked for people's favorite swimming holes on Facebook earlier this week, and we got three replies: Bellevue Falls in Adams, Natural Bridge State Park in North Adams and Fish Pond (formally known as Windsor Lake) in North Adams.
I will add two to the list: As a Pittsfield native, I love what the city has done with Onota Lake. The beach there is fantastic for kids, with plenty of nearby parking, a playground, bathrooms and a snack shack with awesome hot dogs. As a current Williamstown resident, I love Margaret Lindley Park, a no-frills kind of place but one that now has real bathrooms, thanks to the Williamstown Conservation Commission.
Post something for us here if you have any other places you like. Or if it's a nice quiet watering hole that you want to keep secret so it stays quiet, that's OK, too.
Maybe this is the weekend to head to the top of Mount Greylock and have a picnic lunch. Or maybe it's the weekend you just hang out in the hammock, savoring the peace before the craziness of a new school year begins.
Whatever you do, have fun!
Rebecca Dravis is the community editor at iBerkshires. She can be reached at rdravis@iberkshires.com.
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