Vermont: It's Green

and mountainous...hence the name: the green mountain state. I don't know who gave it that nickname, but I totally support it.

So, Jon took me to Vermont for my birthday (a week early) and it was just lovely. I'll give you the blow by blow. Why Vermont? Because I've never been there. And because we had a coupon!!

We left B-ham around 11 am on Sunday and Jon planned a whole itinerary for the drive! I was so impressed. Usually on vacations, I do most of the planning. I LIKE planning, but sometimes it's a lot of pressure to choose things. Maybe they'll be boring. Maybe everyone will hate it... You know how it is. And me, I'm pretty much pleased with everything, so I'm easy to plan for.

First, we drove down to Biddeford and got off on 111 (I think) and over to 202 (?...something like that). I've never been over that way. We went through Alfred and Sanford, Lebanon, then into New Hampshire. Around Northwood, NH, we got hungry, so I pulled into the first little cafe I saw. It was called Susty's, and much to our delight, it was vegan! Now I'm not really a vegan, or even a vegetarian necessarily, but I get a lot of anxiety about eating meat that I don't know where it came from, or who prepared it. So usually, on the road, I try to go for the meatless options. This place made it easy. I got the spicy hummus wrap and lentil soup. Jon was adventurous and got the Soysage bomb. Yum! I even had bread and butter-less butter.

Moving on, we went to the Shaker Village at Canterbury. The last Shaker here died in 1992, but apparently there are a few remaining in Maine. I've actually driven right by the one in Maine (near Poland) but have never stopped in. Anyway, we went on a tour and I thought it was very interesting. They were basically communist celebates (is that a word?) who focused on living self-sustainably. They hit their peak in the mid 1800s, but since they don't have children, they've kind of died off (sort of a fatal flaw it seems).

This is the Shaker Meeting House. This place was gorgeous! Can I be a Shaker now?

Then we went to Concord because Jon needed a good pair of comfortable dress shoes. He found a place called Joe King's, which was a total mecca of shoes. It's a dangerous place for me to be, but luckily, we got there 20 minutes before closing, so I was able to resist. Jon didn't though. He bought a pair of clarks.

This is the view from our room.

Around 6:30 we pulled into Brattleboro, which was our destination. We stayed at the historic Latchis Hotel, which is a 1930s era art deco establishment. The room was nice and clean, nothing fancy or anything, but totally acceptable. there is also a historic movie theater in the hotel. Our package included 2 nights, a movie, a $50 dinner at a local eatery, a bottle of local wine, some shampooey type stuff... all for $250 or something. I thought that was pretty good. The hotel is also located right on the main drag in Brattleboro, walking distance to tons of cool little shops.

Monday we drove to Bennington, through the mountains, which was fun and very pretty. Drove past a trailer park in Woodford Hollow, which was about the cutest place I've ever seen in my life. If I lived in a trailer, it would totally be there. We tried to go to Robert Frost's house (one of many, I gather) but they were closed. A sign very casually "closed today." Grrr. There was a giant phallic symbol in the mountains there, some sort of war memorial. And we got lunch, and saw some covered bridges.
Covered bridge in Bennington. According to the lady at the visitors bureau "they are all the same." We saw two just to confirm, and she wasn't lying.

"Closed today."

Giant Phallis of the Green Mountains.

Main movie theater at the Latchis. This is where we saw Pirates.

That's me! The janitor gave me a quick tour this morning while Jon was eating breakfast.

Terrazo floors circa 1930 something.

Local wine and cheese in the hotel room!

What else? We saw two movies (Pirates of the Caribbean and Thor - I highly recommend Thor). I did some shopping at a bead store called Beadnick, which pretty much hit the Brattleboro vibe. It's a total hippie town. I started layering my clothes in strange ways and teasing out my hair (not really! but I did stop blow drying it) just to fit in. Even the old people dressed like hippies. We also got 1 gallon of Vermont maple syrup for $75 and some delicious local cheese from Sugarbush farms, which went fabulously with our free white wine (which was actually pretty good for local wine).

I guess that about covers it. Sometimes I prefer the unplanned vacations where you have no expectations, because then you can just come across some unexpected pleasures. The weather was a little dreary - sort of like it's been in Maine. But as I write this, the sun seems to be poking out for the first time in weeks so hopefully it will stay!