I'm back! Well, I've been back in Virginia since last week but as with the end of every vacation, the trip back to reality has been pretty crazy! Not only am I dealing with work stuff, I'm also planning a baby shower from afar and trying to get a website up and running for my sorority's alumnae association. Anyway, I laugh every time I see people's reaction when I tell them Vermont is where Brad and I went for vacation, like it's some strange place. Everyone's been asking me to post pictures and tell them all about our trip, so sit back and read as I re-live 7 fantastic days in Vermont.
Saturday, August 7
To break up the 12 hour drive from Richmond to Stowe, Brad and I started our journey on Thursday, dropping Delilah off at our friends house in Northern Virginia and spending the night there and then staying with friends in Brooklyn on Friday. We left Brooklyn at a decent hour on Saturday, around 9 a.m., but so did every other New Yorker wanting to get the hell outta town. Ugh, traffic out of the city is miserable! Anyway, it took us about 6 hours to get to Stowe. I was so excited that we had finally made it, I forgot to take pictures of the Inn and our room! After getting settled in we decided on Piecassos for dinner, a fabulous pizza joint about a mile or two from downtown Stowe. My pesto pizza not only made a fantastic dinner, it was perfect for lunch the next day!
Sunday, August 8
In doing my research for our trip, I found the Inn's website extremely helpful. It was there I found recommended hiking trails we decided we would tackle our first day. Feeling ambitious, we had planned to hike Pinnacle Trail,
Moss Glen Falls and then ride a gondola to the top of
Mount Mansfield and hike down. The Inn's website describes the Pinnacle Point trail as "fairly gradual for the most part, though there is a short rocky section as you near the top." This may be so for a local but for Brad and I, the trail felt like an almost vertical climb! Despite the difficult terrain, the view from the top was absolutely amazing and the chilly breeze felt fantastic. Needless to say, the 2.8 mile hike was pretty exhausting and we completely crashed when we got back to the Inn. Check out the pictures from our first adventure!
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| Peak-a-boo! |
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| Brad in the random hut we found |
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| You can't tel from the picture, but the trail was pretty steep |
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| Brad wasn't the only one feeling this way! |
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| First overlook point |
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| Pinnacle Point - We made it! |
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| Beautiful view despite the clouds |
Monday, August 9
Despite feeling a little sore from hiking Pinnacle Trail, we decided to tackle Moss Glen Falls and the hike down Mount Mansfield on Monday. The directions to Moss Glen Falls on the Inn's website were a little iffy and at first we weren't sure if we were in the right place, especially because we didn't see any other cars in the parking area when we arrived. This turned out to be a good thing as I'll describe later on. Anyway, the trail was pretty overgrown and we had to walk through some marshy areas where we saw two snakes and a frog. It only took us about 15 minutes to get to the falls (the Inn's website said about 45 minutes) but what we saw was spectacular! Check out some of the pictures below. By the way, the Inn's website also mentioned the trail was not well marked but it was obvious and to stay to the left of the water. Brad and I toyed with idea of walking up past the falls in case there was an even more spectacular view elsewhere but without any clearly defined path, it made me nervous to venture into the Vermont wilderness with nothing more than two bottles of water and a couple of granola bars. On our way back to the car we ran into several groups of people which made for some awkward moments, especially through the marshy area where there was only two 2x4s to walk on.
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| Pretty meadow at the beginning of the trail |
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| Getting closer! |
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| Moss Glen Falls |
Since our hike to the falls was a short one we decided to get right to our hike down Mount Mansfield. We hiked down because Mount Mansfield is the highest point in Vermont and hiking up probably would have killed me haha. We took the ski gondola to the top of the mountain (although the not the summit, it's too rocky up there) and spent some time taking pictures. It looked as though a storm was about to blow in which made for some neat pictures. Check out the picture below - it was cloudy where we stood but the sun covered the rest of Stowe and the surrounding areas! I have to admit, I didn't enjoy this hike as much as the others. Brad and I stuck to the ski trails and the constant pounding on our legs and knees due to the steepness of the mountain really started to wear on both me and Brad. We stopped a few times and took pictures and talked about how fun it would be to come back and ski some of the trails. As nerdy as it sounds, I even tried to envision what it would be like if we had been skiing at that moment instead of hiking. It took us about two hours to finish the hike and when we were done, I was pretty glad to be done with hiking.
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| Starting our trek up the mountain on the gondola |
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| Top of Mount Mansfield - Check out that view! |
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| Storm rolling in |
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| Trail to the summit - Looks pretty impossible! |
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| About halfway down the mountain |
After the hike we decide to pay the $25 to take the toll road to the top of Mount Mansfield. As it turns out, in the winter the toll road actually serves as a "green" ski trail. The road was really steep and pretty windy but unfortunately there wasn't too much to see, especially since it was cloudy. Here are a few pictures.
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| The top of Mount Mansfield |
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| Ski trails in the distance at 3,602 ft. above sea level |
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| I kept imagining myself skiing down the mountains |
Since it was getting pretty cloudy after traveling up and down the toll road, we took showers and then made our way to the
Cabot Creamery Annex. Cabot Creamery makes some delicious cheddar cheese as well as several other varieties we got to try while we were there. All those samples turned out to be my lunch and were very filling. Not only did they have cheese, there were crackers and dips and wine tasting. The wine came from
Snow Farm Vineyard about an hour and a half from Stowe. We tried some of their reds and whites as well as some of their red and white ice wines. For those of you who don't know, ice wine is made from grapes that are still frozen when they're harvested. I didn't learn until Wednesday that Virginia does in fact make ice wine. I just figured it never got cold enough, but more about that later. Anyway, because of the short growing season in Vermont their red wines aren't as strong as reds from other states. I'm usually a big fan of red wine but I didn't much care for this winery's red. I did, however, fall for one of their white wines which we ended up buying along with a cheddar shaker (think Parmesan cheese that comes in those shaker bottles), maple syrup, a maple syrup recipe book and a dog treat for Delilah.
After a brief thunderstorm, Brad and I made our way to
Ben and Jerry's but it was late in the afternoon and
packed with the next available tour almost 2 hours away. Neither of us were "feelin' it" so we headed back to the Inn.
Tuesday, August 10
On Tuesday we had originally planned to go to Montreal, but after two days of hiking and some rainy weather in the forecast for later in the week, we decided to rent bikes and tackle the 10 mile round trip bike trail in town. This was the first time I had been back on a bike since mine was stolen off my front porch in seventh grade, and it felt great to be "back in the saddle" as they say. The bike trail is paved and is pretty easy although going over some of the wood slat bridges was a little scary because they're so narrow, especially when other people on bikes or people with strollers are making their way over. Our rental was for a half day, about four hours and we took our time, taking about 2 hours or so to ride the entire trail from start to finish with a few stops in between. I had spotted another trail off of Main Street earlier in the week we thought about trying but between the hiking the two days before and the 10 mile ride on the trail, Brad and I were pretty beat.
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| Our bikes for the afternoon |
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| Helmet heads! |
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| Nearing the end of the trail |
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| Cornfields and mountains |
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| A touch of fall creeping in |
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| Last stop of the day |
With the whole afternoon ahead of us, we decided to try our luck again at Ben & Jerry's. Of course when we got there, the next available tour time was an hour and a half away. Thankfully they let us buy tickets for a later time so we decided on 4:30 p.m. and made our way to
Green Mountain Coffee. On a side note, Brad gave me a hard time during our trip for checking into different venues on
Foursquare. For those of you who are not familiar, Foursquare is a location-based social networking application that lets you tell your friends where you are. Anyway, I checked into Ben & Jerry's in the parking lot and lo and behold I was rewarded with free admission! I know the admission isn't pricey ($3) but still, I thought it was cool that I was rewarded for my check-in. Tickets in hand for the 4:30 p.m. tour, Brad and I made our way to Green Mountain Coffee, Brad's favorite coffee roaster. The visitors center is housed in an old train station and the main lobby is set up for a self-tour. In different places around the lobby there were big plastic coffee beans you could slide over to reveal an interesting fact about coffee, which I thought was pretty neat. There was also a computerized quiz you could take to determine your coffee personality. After our tour we moved into the retail shop. I bought some coffee for my dad, a pretty recycled glass star key chain from Ghana and some iced coffee. When we arrived at Green Mountain coffee I had checked into Foursquare and had sent my location to my Twitter friends. While we sipped our coffee outside on the rocking chairs, I got a message on Twitter from Green Mountain welcoming me. Once again, I loved the fact that another business was interacting with me through Foursquare/
Twitter. Check out some pictures from our trip to Green Mountain Coffee.
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| Sign near the front porch |
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| Front porch - Around the corner lots of people were working on their laptops |
To waste some more time before our Ben & Jerry's tour, we took a short drive through and outside of town to see the sites. Unfortunately, we were sort of in the middle of nowhere and there wasn't much to see so we headed to the tour. We ended up being about 15 minutes early so we spent a few minutes taking pictures, check them out below.
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| Moo cows! |
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| I have no words, just laughs |
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I actually had been a tour of Ben & Jerry's before but it had been so long I couldn't remember what we were going to see. Unfortunately, they don't allow pictures of their factory (you know, so
Haagen-Dazs doesn't try to steal any secrets) so I don't have anything I can share from that part of our trip. I will tell you though, their sample of the day was chocolate chip mint, my favorite ice cream flavor, which was absolutely delicious. Brad on the other hand wasn't a fan so he bought himself a different flavor from the cafe outside. While we were in line, I spotted a guy with a
Virginia Tech tee shirt. I've been known to talk to random Hokie strangers, so of course I had to say something, especially since we were 1,000 miles from Virginia. As it turns out, he is a Hokie who now lives in New York. We talked for a few minutes about the campus and how it's changed over the years which made for an interesting conversation. After we finished our ice cream (I got chocolate fudge brownie frozen yogurt which is just as good as the ice cream), we called it a day and headed back to the Inn to figure out what to do for dinner.
Wednesday, August 11
Wednesday was a day I was really looking forward to because we had made reservations to go kayaking down the
Lamoille River to the
Boyden Valley Winery. We needed to leave the Inn by 1:00 p.m. so we slept in and had a lazy morning so we would have plenty of energy to make it down the river. When we arrived, we were greeted by two college kids who were happy to talk to some young kayakers. After a brief lesson, we suited up with our life jackets and carried our kayak to the water. Right before we got in, I spotted a young boy with a
UVA hat (boo!). Once again, since we were 1,000 miles from Virginia, I had to ask if he and his parents were from Virginia, which they were (Charlottesville). We chatted for a few more minutes and then started our four mile journey down the river.
The college kids had told us that if we let the river do all of the work it would take us about three hours to get to the winery, if we paddled vigorously it would take us about an hour and if we did somewhere in between, it would take us about an hour and a half to two hours. I wanted to do the in between thing, paddling a little bit and letting the river take us a little bit so Brad and I took turns paddling and cruising. It was so incredibly beautiful that day with a bright blue sky and puffy white clouds, the water clear and cool beneath us. The ride was relatively easy but my arms felt like they were on fire. Side note: before we left for vacation I discovered an in-grown hair on my knee, a result of shaving. This said hair had become infected and therefore I had to take an antibiotic on which I was informed I should avoid prolonged exposure to the sun. Unfortunately, my brain was also on vacation this day and I completely forgot about sunscreen. About an hour into our trip, my arms were bright red and literally felt like they were on fire. I would be miserable the rest of the week because of my lapse in judgment, oops! Despite my burning arms, I was really enjoying myself but I was curious about how much longer we had. Brad and I both agreed we probably had about a half hour to 45 minutes left, but moments later I looked up and saw a tent at the same time Brad said, "we're here!" I have to admit, I was a little disappointed the trip was over so quickly but I was excited to taste some wine.
After a short tour of the winery, we tasted the different wines and were treated to some delicious Vermont cheddar cheese, French bread and pretzels. I fell in love with a $60 bottle of red dessert ice wine which I decided to buy. It wasn't until later that afternoon when I posted a picture of the bottle on
Facebook that I learned Virginia
does make ice wine. Although I have to say, I don't think it's as good as Vermont's seeing that it rarely gets below zero in Virginia. Once we tasted all the wines, the college boys took us by bus (powered by vegetable oil) back to our cars. Check out pictures from our kayaking and wine adventure below.
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| All the kayaks ready for the trip |
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| The river |
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| Making our way to the winery |
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| We made it! |
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| The vineyard |
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| Entrance to the winery |
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| Outside the winery/tasting room |
Thursday, August 12
When I woke up on Thursday, I wasn't feeling well, like I was getting the beginnings of a summer cold. This was the same day we decided to get up early and head to
Montreal. Brad woke up extra early and went to the Bagel Stowe (haha get it?) to get us breakfast and we were on the road by 9:00 a.m., a little later than we had anticipated. It's about a two hour drive to the border and about 30 minutes from the border to Montreal. Our first stop was to a large, outdoor farmers market called
Jean-Talon Market in Montreal's Little Italy. There was so much beautiful, fresh produce and Brad told me everything smelled amazing (darn my stuffy nose!). I wish I had taken some pictures but I didn't because the Jean-Talon Market is locals spot and I really didn't want to look out of place. With a stuffy nose and no appetite, we didn't stick around long and decided we should probably find an ATM. Fortunately,
Bank of America is a partner of
Scotia Bank so we were able to get cash without a huge ATM fee. Also, the exchange rate while we were in town was almost 1:1 which was great. After grabbing some cash we attempted to visit Montreal's modern art museum. Unfortunately, no
Google Maps nor Google Street view could help us find the place. Not only did we endure a ton of traffic on our way, I was feeling crappy and starting to get frustrated.
With little success at the market and museum, we made our way through traffic-heavy downtown Montreal to
Old Montreal and the waterfront. We were able to find a parking lot which made it much easier (considering it's very difficult to parallel park a pick-up truck) for Brad and started exploring. Our first stop in Old Montreal was the
Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal and it was absolutely
gorgeous (see below). We took a tour to learn about the church's history and discovered a smaller, though still incredible chapel
inside the basilica behind the pulpit, amazing! Check out some of my favorite pictures.
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| Outside Notre-Dame |
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| The photo doesn't do it justice |
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| Being artsy with the memorial candles |
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| Check out that detail - 14k gold foil everywhere! |
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| A little blurry but so beautiful |
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| The chapel behind the pulpit |
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| There were fleur-de-lis everywhere |
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| Pretty memorial candles |
We spent at least an hour at the basilica and afterward I was starving and feeling pretty crappy. Brad and I had an 8:30 p.m. dinner reservation but at that point, I was really ready to head back to Vermont. Unfortunately, this was no ordinary reservation and we felt really bad about the possibility of canceling. Our reservation at
Au Pied de Cochon (which means the leg of the pig in French) was made by the former owner of the establishment, a friend of Brad's friend, Jonathan. This restaurant has been featured on
Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" and one of the staff has his own show on
Food Network Canada called
"Wild Chef," so there was no way we could
not go. After debating for 20 minutes about what we were going to do, we decided we'd just go to the restaurant and see if they could try to fit us in. Thankfully, with the help of Brad's name dropping, they seated us right away at the bar. Our waitress was nice but I think she could tell we were a bit uncomfortable with the menu which was in French, so she sent over a manager to explain everything to us. We started with a liquid fois gras (fattened duck liver) that I wasn't able to taste because of my stuff nose, but Brad said it tasted like the gravy they serve with Salisbury steak. Next it was on to our main course: I had the seared tuna and Brad had the pot pie. Half way through dinner my nose decided it would clear up a bit and I was able to taste the absolutely fantastic food we both had. Both of us stuffed, we decided to skip dessert, a decision now I hate to admit I regret, paid our bill and headed back to Vermont.
Friday, August 13
We decided to spend our last full day in
Burlington, a 25 minute drive west of Stowe. I was exhausted and feeling incredibly crappy when we got back to the Inn the night before, but I had slept extremely well and was rested and ready for the day. Before we started our last adventure, we stopped back at Green Mountain coffee so I could pick up a key chain for my sister and get some more iced coffee. My poison of choice was the wild blueberry iced coffee and it was delicious. Fully caffeinated, we made our way to the
Magic Hat Brewery for some beer tasting. The brewery was a lot smaller than I had imagined and they only hold guided tours on the hour beginning in the afternoon. We took the shorter, less informative self-tour, checked out their very cool gift shop and tasted some beer. One of my favorites,
Single Chair Pale Ale, is only sold in Vermont. Luckily, we learned while we were in town that
Magic Hat had been sold to a larger distributor so I'm hoping we'll get some of the Single Chair ale in Virginia soon! Check out some of the pics from the Magic Hat Brewery!
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| Yay beer! |
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| Bottling station |
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| Random signs and packaging section |
After touring the brewery, we met up with Brad's friend Dave for lunch. Since we made it to
Church Street (the hip area of downtown) before Dave, we stopped at
Old Navy where I picked up a pair of a jeans and a top for $25, tax free! Purchase in hand, we met Dave who took us to an Irish pub where we had some awesome food and drinks. Stuffed, Dave took us on a mini tour of downtown Burlington and down to
Lake Champlain where he bought Brad a
Creamie (sounds inappropriate but it's what Vermonters call soft-serve ice cream which is apparently really good). Remember my burnt arms from Wednesday's kayaking adventure? Yeah, they felt like they were on fire this day as well but thankfully, Dave took us to a beautifully shaded park right on Lake Champlain, a short walk from the Creamie stand. It was so nice to sit outside and not sweat and feel disgusting and we spent a good hour and a half talking about everything from college and drinking to weddings and babies. Check out some of the pictures below:
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| Lake Champlain boat dock |
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| Burlington waterfront |
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| Park beside Lake Champlain |
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| Check out the mountains in the distance, just beautiful |
By the time the last photo above was taken, we had been talking for almost two hours and Dave needed to call it a day. Brad and I said our goodbyes and headed back to Stowe for our last dinner in town.
Saturday, August 14
With a 10 hour drive ahead of us, Brad and I woke up at 4:00 a.m., checked out and got on the road. Knowing we would encounter ridiculous traffic around NYC, we opted for a route around the city which turned into quite an adventure. Everything was going well until we got to New Jersey (go ahead, insert your crude Jersey joke here). The route took us through Princeton, which is beautiful, but there were stoplights and traffic everywhere. When we finally made it to 95 south, we were in Pennsylvania and heading toward Philadelphia. I guess it wasn't the worse route we could have taken but we ended up being in the car for almost 12 hours. Thankfully, the Turpins had an ice cold beer waiting for us when we arrived.
A couple of observations from Vermont:
- Stowe/Vermont is the land of 1,000 Toyota Tacomas. Brad and I started a game, kind of like the punch buggy/VW game, where we would yell out TACOMA every time we saw one. At one point there were probably 10 within a five minute period.
- You can find/buy maple syrup almost anywhere in Vermont.
- Vermonters do not stop at stop signs; they execute the rolling stop maneuver.
- Women do not wear bras in Montreal (or in Brooklyn).
- On our first night we took a walk through town and found a super affectionate cat Brad named "Stowe-cat." We looked for Stowe-cat several other times throughout the week but we never saw him again.
Our vacation to Stowe was Brad and my first vacation together in the almost seven years we've been together and I couldn't have asked for a better trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventure as much as we enjoyed living it.
