There is nothing more fun on vacation then paper work!
We left a document unfinished related to annual home taxes which were due by the end of march, so we waited till the very last minute.
We reached Montpelier which is the capital of Vermont since we knew would have a FedEx or something similar.
We had to do something simple, log in on line somewhere, fill a form, print and mail it, seems simple enough.
We stopped at the Montpelier tourist information, got a city map, and asked on the local attractions, the guide pointed to a few restaurants, state building, maple farm and that’s it. I am still not used to capital cities which are so insignificant for a tourist. It’s a regular city, actually the smallest capital in America.
We passed by the state capital with its golden dome, passed the post office and reached main street. We heard of the ‘new England culinary school’ which we assumed would have good clam chowder. This place is a chef school that operates a restaurant and bakery, we went there. Of course it was closed, for one week only… this week, spring break. So we went to some random diner for chilly and some local hot dogs in corn cover. Alla had an apple and brie cheese crepe.
We reached the library at around 3 pm and started to fill the annoying form, on the way we found that we had to have it signed by a notary, lucky again for a city since we may not find one elsewhere. So 30 minutes later we finished the form, printed it and headed on to city hall for the notary. A few minutes later we found a building that acts as the local dance theater and also holds the office of the mayor and reached the main office that sells theatre tickets and does Notary work. Then we found that they need ID to do their notary work, where is the ID? Not here, why would it, it would be to simple. It was close to 4PM and this office closes at 4:30 and we didn’t know when the post office closes. So we rushed to the car, got the ID, rushed back, in the middle noticing that the camera was missing. We made it in time for the notary and had it signed, then found the camera in Alla’s stuff (usually it would be mine). We got to the post office in time and mailed it. Mission accomplished.
Filling very accomplished we left down town Montpelier (drove 1 minute) and went to Morse farms. This farm has a model of the capital building, so we took a snapshot. This farm harvests maple sap.
We stopped at the little shop before we took the tour. We visited the “factory” which was 1 not very clean barn, with steam coming out. The guy explained the process on taking sap from trees which has mild sugar and heating it to extract the water and leave the maple syrup. It was a nice simple process, after that we went to look at the trees and got the real picture. The farm has over 4000 maple trees with lines between them, each line hooks inside the tree like an IV line and the lines lead back to the factory, all they do is milk the trees and vent the water. We took a very short hike in between the trees. The guy who explained to us about maple was a 7th generation maple harvester. Later on a brochure showing Vermont’s attraction, this guy was on the picture. We sampled some maple ice cream and left the capital area on our way to Stowe.
Stowe is the fancy shmency ski area where the celebrities go (we didn’t see anyone btw). By this time I was tired of skiing attempts (more on that later). We found a bed and breakfast called TimberHolm which was inexpensive and went to the hot tub. We went to pie-casso which is voted top 11 slices pizza in the nation, I don’t know who votes but they should all be fired.
The next day we started with a great breakfast made by Gym, the owner. Since we were the only guests we had a choice of when breakfast would be served. So we tried some local stuff. Chedder omelets and oatmeal pancakes with great maple syrup. I tried maple before, it’s usually viscous and over sweet, but this stuff is flowing and gentle, Gym also made some parfait with lots of fresh fruit, simple and simply good.
We rented snow shoes and drove passed Moscow road through the town of Moscow till we reached the woods, put our snow shoes on and began hiking up. Snow shoes are long wide additions below your feet so you want sink in the deep snow. It was mildly difficult in the beginning, you need to get used to walk a bit differently, but soon you catch on, it was not easy to walk on the part of the trail which were narrow and sloped to one side but we overcame that. We saw a sign that they have wild cat in this area, such as the lynx we saw a few days prior in Montreal. We saw paw tracks in the snow and we kept our eyes open but the white fur illusive cat remained hidden. The hike took about 3 hours of a mild challenge and a new activity to add to the check off list.
Wet from sweat and wet snow we were hungry and stopped in some food related destinations.
At the cider mill we shared an apple doughnut (came free with a coupon on the map) and purchased hot apple cider to warm up, also bought some home(cider) made sauces.
At the Cabot annex we sampled various types of cheddar in all forms of strengths and mix of flavors. It turns out I am not a cheddar enthusiast, I prefer the mild kind but also got some wasabi cheese. at At the chocolate store we took one sample and bought nothing.
The end of this food fast was the Ben And Jerri’s factory. We seen the movie on how they begun and enjoyed a nice factory tour which included a new flavor (chochhwowling something with cow fudge), not bad.
After that I was full of sampling but alla sampled less and was hungry, so we went to one of the attractions of Stowe. The von trap lodge. The von trap is the family from the Sounds of Music. They have an Austrian lodge here with Austrian food, Austrian themes etc.. I asked about my Tyrolean knoodle soupen, they had it occasionally but not today. Alla had an apple strudel and some sandwich with kraut and I had nothing (too full from ice cream), the day ended early for us, we relaxed at the lodge with movies, and a game of table shuffle board, which I finished 2nd in the whole lodge tournament; if you recall we were the only guest, you can guess who won.
Then next day, which is today, we woke up, packed and went to enjoy another great breakfast. Great waffles ( I usually find them dry and flavorless) but these were soft and yummy with bananas glazed in maple, after a plate of fruit. If you come to Stowe, we recommend the TimberHolm. (btw Holm means a small round island. Gym the owner, moved from warm Florida to cold Vermont to run this place, a very nice man, great cook but did not know what Holm meant, I had to Google it.
We drove through the scenic route through the Vermont mountains and found some amazing views, then crossed on the Ferry to new York and saw one bold eagle sitting on a tree.
That was around 7 hours ago and since then we are driving, we just passed buffalo so 3 hours left to go….
After the day of pain a few days ago, I relaxed, watched Israel win, went to the hot tub, and in the evening we wall went to an Hibachi place which is always a fun experience.
On the next day I had a long debate with myself about trying to ski again. I rented shoes again and went to another lesson. Before I was in green level, now I was pushed back to light green and had a more basic lesson, still difficulty, still pain, but less, it was tolerable when I was doing the right moves, and immediate pain when I didn’t, but I passed the lesson still standing and after rest at lunch I took another lesson, this time we focused on speed and I was doing slalom on the shadows of the cable car above. Not a perfect smooth slalom but slalom none the less. I can turn left very well, but my right turn are bad, and when there is a steeper area it gets worse. I was excited about somehow skiing and happily relaxed at the hot tub again. The next day the group dispersed as Inna went to new York, Rita home and we stayed for one more skiing lesson, I was tiered again, felt not as good on the ski’s as the previous days, but in the end , on the shallow areas I felt like I was making great turns on both sides, not so good on the steeper parts. So after 5 lessons I am still a beginner, somehow depressing but will try again next year.
Cheers from my 37th state, though right now we are somewhere in western new York.
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