October 21 - 27, 2013 - Part Two

Friday morning, after breakfast at the hotel, we all gathered to take a hike Jim and Sue had scoped out.  Nephew Dan and his girlfriend, Kelly, had arrived late Thursday.  The hike was over two miles through the woods, up and down hills, and we were snowed upon at times and sleeted upon at other times.  It was cold when we started out but most of us started shedding our outerwear at the halfway mark.  Here are a few of the photos I took along the way:

And:

Of course, we had to make the requisite stop at Cold Hollow Cider Mill and yes, I ate an apple cider donut and drank the BEST apple cider EVER!!!

Snow at elevation

Vicki, Kelly and me

Then we all went back to freshen up for our dinner at Jim and Sue's:

Vicki, Carol and Sydney

Pat, on bass, and Chris, guitarist and vocalist, entertained us.  They are SO talented.

Saturday morning we awoke to snow which turned to rain so outdoor activities were not in the picture. Steve, Dan and Kelly went to Burlington for the afternoon; Vicki went back to Montpelier for more shopping; I stayed at the hotel and watched Carol, Laura and Josh in the pool.  Then we all went back to Sue and Jim's for games and more food.  Vicki stopped at a farmer's market and brought back the MOST beautiful veggies - rainbow carrots, rainbow beets, Brussels sprouts and romanesque [the spiky green things - like cauliflower].  DELISH!

Family:

Matt

Steve

Carol

Sue

 Above, is Vicki, VERY proudly wearing an ice cream cone pin that Josh won for her at Ben & Jerry's.  They went there for the Halloween festivities and Josh said he wanted to give his winnings to Grandma Vicki because she lost her dragonfly pin.  He's such a sweetheart - always knows the right thing to say.  But there's no doubt, he's ALL BOY!

Jim

Chris

Kelly

Laura

Pat played a few tunes for us.  I'm going to try to add videos later.

Sydney found instructions on her iPhone for Laura to do her first Starburst bracelet.  Mighty fine job for her first time.

Back to the Great Room at the hotel to watch baseball.

Sunday morning, we all gathered in the lobby.  Vicki and I were going to leave without having breakfast as we'd spotted Rosie's in Middlebury and wanted to stop there - and at other places on the way back.  The rest of the group went to a little place in Waterbury Center for breakfast.  Dan and Kelly were going to drop Steve at BIA for his trip back.  Here are Vicki, Chris, Sydney and me.  I sure hate not living closer to my family!

So, off we went - stopping at Shelburne Farms, at Rosie's for a late breakfast and a few other places.  Vicki discovered that the car problem has not been completely remedied so she's going to see her mechanic in Ridgewood.

We stopped at the Chit Chat Diner for Schnitzel and Noodles!  YUM!

So, that's it.  It's Monday morning now and Vicki's doing laundry and I'm blogging.  This takes more time than I thought it would but I enjoy it - and I hope you do as well.  We have a few plans for this week, including shipping Heady Topper back to Dallas, and of course, a few items I purchased here which will definitely put me over the 50 pound limit for my suitcase.

October 21 - 27, 2013 - Part One

On Monday, we discovered Vicki's trusty [to date] Santa Fe had a little problem.  When we were heading out to do a little returning of clothes/shopping, her car didn't start when she turned the key.  After jiggling the shifter, it started, so we ventured out and were lucky it started when she jiggled the shifter.  We stopped for a quick lunch at The Crow's Nest [excellent roast beef sandwiches] as Vicki had to work the three to seven shift.

We'd thought about renting a car for the Vermont trip but after talking with my very own personal Car Guy, we took the chance and decided not to rent.

Tuesday was spent preparing for our trip to The Green Mountains.

We left for Vermont at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday.  Steve was scheduled to arrive at Burlington International Airport at around 5:00 p.m. so we had plenty of time.  However, when he arrived at LaGuardia he was able to get an earlier connecting flight and his new arrival time was 1: 30 ish.  Relying on my iPad to get us a faster route, once we hit Rutland we took Route 7 into Burlington and it was a wonderful trip through Middlebury, Brandon, Shelburne.   Steve was standing outside only for about 10 minutes when we got there.

We checked into our hotel and freshened up.  At 6:00 we went to The Hen of the Wood for dinner with Jim and Sue.  Here are a few photos to enjoy:

Crispy Pig's Head [wonderful]

Here's the wine Steve selected:

Family:

Sue and Jim

Vicki and Steve

Steve and me

And:

Vicki and Sue

Jim and Steve

Jim, Sue, Steve and Vicki

We had a wonderful time and love the location.  We'll definitely be back to this spot.

Thursday morning we drove down the hill back to The Hen of the Wood to capture the beauty of the stream:

Then, we decided to go to Montpelier, but alas Vicki's car had the aforementioned problem.  She called Jim who called Sunoco Bob in Montpelier who diagnosed the problem over the phone.  So off we went to Montpelier.  We dropped the car off at Sunoco Bob's and walked into town.  Montpelier is beautiful so we walked around town for a while, snapping photos here and there.  Lots of churches in Montpelier with beautiful steeples:

By this time, we were looking for a place to have lunch and came across a sign that said "Farm to Table" and it is a part of the New England Culinary Institute.  So, we had lunch at NECI on Main and was it ever good!!!

I had Parsnip Soup [and Cosmo]

Vicki's Pumpkin Risotto

Steve's Ploughman's Platter

My Autumn Salad

Pumpkin Creme Brûlée

Vicki's Cheesecake

After lunch, we walked a bit and Steve purchased a jacket in Onion Sports.  The Onion River meanders through Montpelier and several stores have "Onion" in the name.

Back over the bridge to see about the car.  Sunoco Bob is a good guy and he put Vicki's car in front of others as he was aware we were from NJ and didn't want to be stranded.  So back to Waterbury Center we went.  Vicki's son, Matt, and his family had arrived by then and we hung out for a while.  Josh and Laura love being tossed around by Steve.

Matt and Carol went into Stowe for the evening leaving Josh and Laura in our capable hands ;0).  We took them to dinner in the hotel, and then Jim and Sue joined us in the Great Room.

Back in the Great Room, Jim dazzled us with his juggling abilities.

In truth, they were non-existent!

Matt and Carol returned from Stowe and Carol decided she's going to have to find new babysitters in the future as we didn't put the kids to bed by 8:00 p.m.

I'll end this now and continue our Vermont trip in the next post.