Stowecation: Seven Amazing Days in Vermont

Every time I tell someone Brad and I decided to vacation in Vermont, I get a funny look. No, we don't ski and no, we didn't go in the winter. We chose Vermont (specifically Stowe) and we chose August because of all of the outdoor activities and ideal weather. Brad and I went on a lot of adventures and took hundreds of pictures over the course of seven days so here are the highlights of my favorite moments.

Sunday, August 8
In doing my research for our trip, I found the website of Green Mountain Inn (our digs for the week) extremely helpful. It was there I found the recommended hiking trails we decided we would tackle on 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." The trail may be "fairly gradual" 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!

You can't tell from the picture, but the trail was pretty steep

Beautiful view despite the clouds

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 spend the morning tackling the 10 mile round trip bike trail in town. The bike trail was paved and was pretty easy to navigate, although going over some of the wood slat bridges was a little scary because they were so narrow. Our rental was for a half day so we took our time, spending about 2 hours or so riding the entire trail from start to finish, making a few stops in between.

Our bikes for the morning

Cornfields and mountains

We finished up our biking adventure around noon and with the whole afternoon ahead of us, we decided to visit Ben & Jerry's. When we arrived, the next available tour time wasn't for an hour and a half so we bought our tickets and headed over to Green Mountain Coffee, Brad's favorite coffee roaster, to kill time. Green Mountain's visitor 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. 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 star key chain and some iced coffee.

Sign near the front porch

Even with our visit to Green Mountain, we ended up being about 15 minutes early for our Ben & Jerry's tour so we spent a few minutes taking pictures. Check them out:

Moo cows!

I have no words, just laughs

I had actually been on 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, however, wasn't a fan so he bought himself a different flavor from the cafe outside. 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 tour guides who seemed 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.

We were told it would take anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours to get to the winery depending on how much we relied on our paddling or the river to move us. 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; the bright blue sky and puffy white clouds above us, the water clear and cool beneath us. The ride was relatively easy but my arms felt like they were on fire and I quickly realized I had forgotten to apply sunscreen before we left the Inn. Despite my burning arms, I was really enjoying myself but was curious about how much of the river we had left to cover. Brad and I both agreed we probably had about a half hour more to go, 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 a variety of 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 that I decided to buy. After all of the wines had been tasted, the guides took us by bus (powered by vegetable oil) back to our cars.

The river

Entrance to the winery

Thursday, August 12
When I woke up on Thursday I wasn't feeling well. This was the same day we decided to get up early and head to Montreal, a two hour drive from Stowe. 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 because the Jean-Talon Market is a local spot, I didn't want to look out of place.

Battling our way through traffic-heavy downtown Montreal, our next stop was to Old Montreal and the waterfront. Our main motivation for visiting Old Montreal was the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal and it certainly didn't disappoint, it was absolutely gorgeous. 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!

We spent at least an hour at the basilica and afterward we were both starving. Although we had a dinner reservation for a little later in the evening, I still wasn't feeling well and wanted to head back to Vermont. 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), which was made by the restaurant's former owner, a friend of Brad's friend, Jonathan. The restaurant has been featured on Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" and a member of the current staff has his own show on Food Network Canada called "Wild Chef," so there was no way we could not go. After debating what we were going to do, we decided go to the restaurant to see if they could fit us in a bit earlier. Thankfully, with the help of a little explanation from Brad, they seated us at the bar right away. 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 stuffy 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. Halfway 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.

This is just a snippet of our week in Stowe and I couldn't have asked for a better trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures as much as we enjoyed living them!

Boyden Winery Canoe & Kayak Trip

I am super pumped because I just booked a tandem kayak river and winery tour on the Lamoille River in Vermont! Our three hour tour will begin at Umiak Outfitters Outpost and will end with a wine tasting and tour of the Boyden Valley Winery. The guy I talked to said we should bring shoes we don't mind getting wet and maybe a change of clothes to leave in the car, just in case. I really hope a change of clothes won't be necessary. I'm think this means I probably shouldn't bring my camera (or camerah as Jenna says on 30 Rock) or my phone which means I won't get to share what promises to be the beautiful scenery. Bummer. Also, my mom mentioned they limit the amount of alcohol you can drink at the winery since you have to kayak or canoe back, but I asked the guy while I was making the reservation and he said they bring you back. SCORE! This is why they call it a vacation. Five more work days until we leave!

I'm So Excited & I Just Can't Hide It

I normally don't wish time away, (life passes so quickly why would you want your days to go by faster?) but I have to admit, part of me is wishing it was August because I am absolutely ecstatic about my vacation with Brad to Stowe, Vt. Growing up, my parents rented a house on Long Beach Island, the nicer area of the Jersey Shore, for our family vacation. Every year, for probably almost 10 years, we would spend a week in August building sandcastles and collecting shells for our driveway-side business, Shell World. When we got a little older, my parents decided it was time to take more adventurous vacations and we spent two summers in Cape Cod, Mass. and two summers in Stowe, Vt. Aside the from the Jersey Shore, the vacations that have stuck with me were those to Vermont. Not only is the scenery breathtakingly beautiful, the weather is absolutely perfect - mid to upper 70s during the day, upper 50s to low 60s at night.

Back in April, I told Brad I wanted us to go on a vacation. Although we've been dating almost 7 years, this will be our first official vacation together. We've done long weekends together and vacations with friends, but this will be the first time we vacation alone for an entire week. Naturally, I said I wanted to go to the beach - I could work on my tan, take naps in the sun and work on my summer reading list (which by the way is quite short this year). Brad had other thoughts. He's not much of a beach bum and doesn't really enjoying laying out in the sun. If he does go to the beach he wants to play frisbee or do something more active. Naturally, the compromise hats had to come out.

After deciding on Vermont, I did some research and found a couple of great places for Brad and I to stay. We decided on the Green Mountain Inn which is on Main Street in the center of town. It has the charm and romanticism I was looking for and it's close to nearly everything we would want to explore. While we haven't put together any sort of formal itinerary (do you really need one on a vacation?), we have some activities in mind - biking the 5 mile trail through Stowe, visiting the Magic Hat brewery, taking a tour of Ben and Jerry's, taking a gondola ride up Mount Mansfield and hiking down, and exploring Toronto because Brad's never been to Canada. This morning when I had a few minutes at work, I decided to glance over the Inn's website. They had a whole page of activities, which of course got me super excited. I found some highly recommended hiking trails and learned there will be a fall festival the week we're in town sponsored by a local chocolate shop. There are wineries nearby, canoeing, dog sled rides (yes, even in the summer - they use carts!), etc. Gosh, I'm getting excited just typing all the great things we'll be able to do.

So now the countdown is on. Five weeks from Saturday we will have made the 12 hour (yes, 12 hour) drive from Richmond to Stowe (with a stop in Northern Virginia to drop off Delilah and a stop in Brooklyn, NY to break up the drive) and will be relaxing, maybe in the white wooden rockers on the porch or perhaps poolside with a drink in hand. More than likely though, you'll find us exploring every little bit of Stowe and enjoying every minute of it.