Stowe, VT

Luke

downtown Stowe, VT

along the recreation trail, i liked the semi-broken tree

Ben & Jerry's factory, Waterbury, VT

our bed-n-breakfast, Sunday morning after the snow

Luke and I went to a Winter Festival this weekend in Stowe, VT. OK, well, we tried. We arrived on Saturday. We stopped at the Ben & Jerry's factory for a tour. No ice cream being made b/ it was the weekend. We got a free sample, though. It was tastey; chocolate ice cream with chocolate covered almonds and a nugat swirl. We checked into our hotel and then wandered around downtown. Ate some fondue at a Swiss restaurant for a late-ish lunch. It was OK. I liked the bacon pieces the best! :>) We walked Main Street and did a little shopping. It started to snow and we tried to go see the ice sculptures from the contest that'd happened a few days before. We couldn't find them in a certain hotel's courtyard b/ they had collapsed from the warm weather and rain earlier that day. We hung out at our room and then tried to go see the parade. Well, we missed it b/ there were fireworks going off as we drove to downtown. bummer. The fireworks were kinda slow, but at least there were some. After the finale, we had dinner at Mr. Pickwick's at an English establishment/hotel. VERY GOOD. I had my first pheasant. It was served with a yummy sauce that had apple bits, "mac n cheese" cous cous, and some sauted greenery. I managed to eat most of it. I also ordered a hard apple cider b/ it was made locally. It was a very mild flavor. I remember liking the apple cider at that one bar in San Luis Obispo that Phillip took me to a few years ago better.... We drove around to see what else was going on, but there weren't many people out. Back at our hotel, it was just as quiet. The owners had gone to bed already, and most of the cars were still out. Luke talked me into going into the spa. It was SNOWING!, may I remind everyone. It was definitely a new experience.

On Sunday, we had an awesome breakfast made by the owners of the establishment. There was some yogurt and fresh fruit, a blueberry/coconut muffin, and a fritata with sausage, grits, local cheddar, onion, and salsa. We definitely ate well this weekend. We went downtown, again, and walked the recreation trail. There wasn't enough snow on the ground to try out snow shoeing, though. On our drive home, we stopped in Montpilier. NOTHING was open. We'd found the downtown area and all the shops, but most of the stores were closed. This greatly added to the small town feel of VT - even in the capitol. Afterwards, we made our way home, unpacked, and swapped cars in the driveway (since I didn't have to work on Monday and it was due to snow).

It was a good weekend. It was fun and relaxing despite the bummed-ness of not seeing the events of the festival that we wanted to. Stowe is a quiet town when not overrun with tourists. The festival we went to brings about 3,000 guests. The antique car show in the summer brings around 12,000 guests.... just a little trivia.