Field Trip - Stowe Vermont Area

Last week we ventured up north to the Stowe area of Vermont.  This was a two day field trip and we made reservations to stay at the Trapp Family Lodge (of Sound of Music fame).  Once we crossed over the NH border at Lebanon/Hanover, our first stop was the home of King Arthur flour in Norwich VT. In addition to the store they have a cooking school and a restaurant.  As soon as we smelled baking bread as we approached the building we knew we would eat lunch there.  We perused the packed full of glorious kitchen ware and food items store to pick out what we felt like we couldn't live without and then we ordered lunch - sandwiches of course so we could eat their good bread.  And their brownie we had for dessert was really good too.  Fun place and one I have wanted to visit for a long time - Yay!

 Next stops were Quechee Gorge and the lovely town of Woodstock.  Then we took wee little back roads all the way to Stowe.  We checked in our room at the breathtakingly situated Trapp Lodge and drove back down the mountain to the Yankee magazine recommended restaurant called the Bistro at Ten Acres Lodge, also in Stowe and very delicious.  After dinner, we drove in to downtown Stowe and meandered through the last day of Art in the Park.  Stowe is a lot smaller than I remembered from the last time I was there about 10 years ago so other than perusing all the art stalls, there wasn't much else to do that evening in town.  The next morning we walked all over the Trapp Lodge grounds; so beautiful!  What a heavenly location/farm this singing Austrian refugee family found way back in the 1940s for $1000.  Theirs is a fascinating story and staying there surrounded by it was really nice.

 Quechee Gorge

 Flowers along the bridge in Woodstock.

 Above and below - I love orange and yellow and the Bistro at Ten Acres had the rooms painted in these delicious color!  And there was a red room and blue room too.

 The Trapp Family Lodge

 This is a private garden next to the Lodge where Maria and Captain Von Trapp are buried.

 View behind the Lodge

 Lodge gardens above and pics below.

 These are the cutting gardens for flower arrangements.

 After we left the Lodge and breakfast, we drove down the road to the town of Waterbury to the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Plant.  Here you can tour the facility, learn how it all started and how they make the ice cream and then you get free samples.  Each day the factory makes one flavor only.  When we went through they were making Chocolate Fudge Brownie.  Our free sample was Cookies and Milk.  Like an oreo ice cream but with 10 times the oreos you usually get in other brands.

 Getting ready to go through the door where all the ice cream magic takes place.

Whatchu lookin at?

 Instead of the ice cream I see and am so embarrassed by my dirt stained thumbnails!  People, I scrub them every day but all the weeding I do has stained them!  How many times have I posted dirty thumbnails lately? After our ice cream tour (and we bought additional flavors to try afterwards), we headed to the largest city in VT, Burlington, which is really just a big town.  But it is a very beautiful and neat as a pin.  The downtown area has been made into a huge pedestrian mall not far from the University of Vermont and Champlain College.  It was really fun to walk around there.  Great shops, a lot of strange looking people and I don't mean that disrespectfully but I felt like we were in a foreign country.  I can't even explain it but it felt a bit odd.

 Hey, even they admit they are weird and proud of it.  After we left Burlington, we headed to the town of Charlotte to climb Mt. Philo.  Another 1000 footer, a great big hill really in the middle of farm land with gorgeous views of Lake Champlain and the NY Adirondacks in the distance.

 Look at this barn!  After our hike we headed to Weybridge to the Morgan Horse farm owned and run by the University of Vermont.  This is the place the Morgan horse was first bred by the man Justin Morgan.  These horses are known for their immense strength, intelligence, and vitality.  Long bodies, short in stature, very thick necks.  We arrived a half hour before closing so all the horses had been put back in their stalls and we were allowed to visit each stall and watch them being fed and groomed.  The place smelled fantastic!  I love the smell of horses and everything that goes with them.  And the barn!

 Following the DanMan from stall to stall.

 A youngster.

 Leaning in for the kiss!

 After leaving here we drove to and explored Middlebury - this town was famous for its marble quarrying at one time - the old marble works right in the center of town is now a large and attractive retail and commercial area.  And Middlebury College - we drove all through that lovely campus - instead of the quintessential New England brick you see on campuses all over this region, all the buildings are grey/white - unpolished, unhoned marble and limestone blocks/bricks.  Really striking.  I didn't take any pictures, I just oohed and aahed.  Before heading for home, we stopped again in Woodstock and ate Italian food at Pi Restaurant, another yummy meal.

Field Trip - Camden, Maine

Dan and I try to take a day trip every week if we can to some place in New England.  This post and the next one are two we did recently; one in Camden Maine and the other in the Stowe area of Vermont.  Two of the millions of things I love about living in New England is that each state of the six that make up this region has its own particular flavor and feel even if the geography doesn't vary greatly, and that there are hundreds of towns in each one worth a field trip - I've lived here for 17 years and I feel I've barely scratched the surface.

On our way to Camden, we stopped at a diner I have read and heard about for years - Moody's Diner in Waldoboro ME.  This place is a veritable 50s type diner and famous for its pies.  Finally I got to experience it!  And you know what?  Once was enough - I never have to return.  I ordered a lunch that was was truly "dinery" - half a tuna salad sandwich and a cup of chicken noodle soup.  The food tastes exactly like you would make it at home; not bad but nothing special.  Not fabulous and very ordinary.  Meat loaf with mashed spuds, hot turkey on toasted white bread, spaghetti and meatballs, burgers, etc.  We ordered the four berry pie and chocolate cream pie for dessert and I found the chocolate cream to be gummy where I could taste the flour in the homemade pie pudding; the whipped cream was real, the crust tasted like a shortening crust - it was flaky.  And they serve a lot of pie - everyone seemed to order a slice and workers kept bringing out more pies for the case.  In a nutshell, very ordinary - I was a little let down because the place was packed, there was a big line to get seated and it's really famous.  We passed through Wiscassett (another super pretty Maine town) and Red's Lobster Shack on our route, another famous Maine eatery with very long lines and there was one as we passed - we ate there last summer after waiting in line for an hour and that place did not disappoint - absolutely worth the wait!  Before Camden, we stopped in Rockland at the fabulous Farnsworth Museum in that adorable and charming downtown and spent a good piece of time looking at great art - like a lot of original Andrew, N.C. and James Wyeths.  I highly recommend this delightful and lovely museum.  Camden was our final destination and we first quickly toured the town to pick out our dinner location for later on and then headed to Mt. Battie to climb the 1000 foot mountain and sit at the top and enjoys fantastic views of the town and harbor.  After, we walked all over town, went in stores, sat at the harbor to watch people and boats and then ate at a fantastic Thai restaurant owned by a Thai couple called Long Grain that I had read about in several magazines; a tiny hole in the wall place with a long wait (we got in by eating at 5:15 and sitting at the bar) and listened to the phone person take reservations for days and days in advance.  This is a tiny place that doesn't even have a sign outside with its name on it - we had a hard time finding it.  The food was absolutely wonderful.

 Lunch at Moody's

 This diner attracts mostly the older crowd, at least when we were there.

 Red's - go there!

 They pull the cooked meat right out of the crustacean and dump it in chunks on your bun - no cutting or arranging or mincing.  Mayo and butter on the side.

 Camden harbor from Mt. Battie

 The view behind us while we looked at the harbor.

 This is Long Grain restaurant - No sign on building.  Tiny and worth finding.

 Camden's walkout basement beautiful library.

 We collect these on our travels for our pool fence - scored this one in Waldoboro - 10 bucks.

Field Trip - The Cog Rail Train to Mt. Washington NH

A couple weeks ago, Dan and I drove north for a little adventure; through the Lakes area and in to the White Mountains National Forest.  Our goal was to take the famous Cog Railway that climbs to the top of the highest peak in New England.  Other facts about Mt. Washington in case you don't know: the strongest winds ever recorded on earth occur there and it has some of the worst and coldest weather in the world too and there is a weather station up there that operates year round to record all this.  You can hike the 6,289 feet on foot (which I would like to do someday) that takes about 7 hours and you can also drive the treacherous auto road that goes up there and if you do, you get a bumper sticker telling the world that you did.  We chose to take the train and it was very enjoyable and we learned many things as well.  Most of the trip up is a 25% grade but there are a couple places over 30% and the brakeman at the back of the train car is standing 14 feet higher than the people at the front although you can't tell when you are sitting on your seats.  It's not until you get up as if to walk around that you walk as if you are hiking a very steep trail.  Pretty cool.  Here are some pics of course.

Our trip really started at Calef's Country Store in Barrington NH on routes 109 and 125.  This is a quintessential New England General Store and a great place to buy New England made food items, fun candy, homemade donuts and fudge, common crackers and cheese, and freshly made sandwiches.  And the place smells wonderful.  Connected to it are several small shops selling crafty and other New Englandy things.  I stop by once or twice a year at Elfmade and Company and buy their fragrance oil concoctions that I use to add to my own homemade potpourris and room sprays.

 The bountiful display of potpourri oils.  This place also sells jars and bags of their own potpourris.

 We drove up through the Lakes areas skirting the west side of Winnipesaukee and Squam Lakes.  We stopped for lunch across the street from Squam and to my surprise, Dan ordered a lobster roll up here.  

 When we arrived at the base of Mt. Washington, the sun faded away as a huge cloud mass came rolling in.  As it was, we couldn't see the top of the mountain and were told that visibility had been sketchy all day with low clouds passing through often and chances were slim we would have much visibility at the top.  Oh well.

 We were the first in the train car!

 Heading up!

 The trail is so steep that the buildings you pass look as if they are built very lopsidedly.

 We're going in to the clouds here.

 Look at those poor hikers!  Actually I was quite jealous of their adventure.

 This was the top and that's all you could see - no vistas, no Presidential Range, and it was 40 degrees and we have left 80 degrees F at the bottom.  I had a flashback of winter and knew I wasn't ready for it.

 Our ride down.

 Our ride up.

 As soon as we started the descent, the clouds blew out and the world brightened and visibility returned.

 There are cairns (piles of rocks) frequently on the trail to help hikers stay on course in inclement weather which is frequent up here.

The hiking trail above the tree line.

 After our rail adventure, we went on a very mild hike compared to Mt. Washington - a 45 round trip hike to Ripley Falls.  By the way, that 7 mile Zealand Falls hike showing on the sign below is one I have done, about six years ago with four other women and it was a doozy and one that took from early morning until evening round trip.  I popped Good N Plenties all the way up.