... otherwise known as Vermont!
Tom and I took a long weekend and took a road trip up to Vermont to visit with our friends who have a cabin up that way. Our friends now live in Florida, but Vermont is such a draw--they still came up and invited us along! The drive for us was about 6 hours--and it was gorgeous. The scenery reminded me a lot of Washington State-- just with shorter, much shorter, mountains. The majority of the roads were non-highway and every turn brought picturesque scenes that were postcard worthy! We stopped a few times along the way to snap some shots and just enjoy the trip! After 4 hours of arm out the window singing along to the tunes road-tripping, we opted to spend the night in Rutland, Vermont--just outside of the Adirondack Mountain range (that we drove through while in upstate NY).
This town was small, but big enough to have a Main Street complete with a street fair, organic shops and great restaurants to chose from. For those of you in Seattle--the town was a cross between Chelan (a bit bigger than Chelan) and Bellingham (a bit smaller than Bellngham). The weather was nice-- and more than just the nature scenery reminded me of "home"-- it was pretty granola ie: vw bus driving--Birkenstock sporting--fleece wearing--organic food selling-- ski and mountain bike bumming... and Tom and I loved it!! While parts of Jersey and NY also have their "natural" sections that remind us of home-- being in Vermont was the first time since we have moved to the East Coast that we really felt like a Seattle person could move here and fit right in. It was awesome... and did I mention gorgeous!
In Rutland we ate at the trendy yet homey Table 24. We dined on delicious meals that were half the cost of what we are used to and just to represent properly--we had wine from Walla Walla, Wa. After dinner we walked the street fair, shopped the local shops and enjoyed the fresh air!
The next day we got an early start to our destination: Stowe, VT (and made only a few short stops to take some pics and stop at the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory Headquarters--yum).
Stowe is an extremely popular ski town and in the summer-- a hiking/mountain biking town. It is smaller than Rutland but still compact and close knit like Rutland (or Chelan, WA). Tourism is clearly the industry here as in most ski areas.
We met our friends, at their condo at Smugglers Notch (also the name of a beautiful, narrow, nail biting, boulder filled road in the area).
Mike and Virginia have 3 boys, Alex, Jack and Christopher who also had a friend, Jason, up with them. Smugglers Notch is a famiy resort (no dogs allowed :( ) but Tom and I--we fit right in--the boys were calling me Auntie by the end of the trip (ahhh I loved that--great boys). We visited, shopped in Stowe (Farmers Market, cute shops etc), rode the water slides with the boys and relaxed. We had such a nice time and only wished we had more time to spend with them and also to do some hiking---there are so many trails and gondolas and resorts---
We intend to go back soon (hopefully sooner than later)!
Here are some pics:
-us at one of the picturesque hiking spots
-Virginia and the boys waking up early to tell us goodbye...
-new resort in Stowe (Spruce Peak) with one of the ski mountains behind it
-picturesque birdhouse across the street from the Farmers Market we roamed
-Gondola at Stowe
-Us at one of the many covered bridges
-area of Stowe
-Tom looking over the creek (it looks dirty, but it isn't)
-The boys at the condo (Christopher is the poser on the rock, Jack is holding up his $$, Jason is next to Jack and Alex is to the right.
-Diana at Ben & Jerry's
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