New England in a Week

We planned an impromptu trip to Rhode Island and Vermont, trying to burn a little PTO before it expired at the end of the year. My sister Sarah and her husband, Ryan, just relocated to Rhode Island from Chicago and neither Justin nor I had been to Vermont for the fall foliage so east we headed.

As luck would have it, we managed to line up our trip to overlap my other sister's visit by a day. 

We had a fun oyster shack dinner together the night we arrived.

 

And the three sisters had a group photo before Buffy departed.

 

Justin, Ryan and I checked out the Columbus Day Parade in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Providence.

On Tuesday, the four of us headed north for a week of clean mountain air. Justin and I climbed Mt. Monadnock near Keene, NH. I don't think we've ever hiked up something like Monadnock...it is just one giant boulder after the next.

Here we are on the summit with the rolling New Hampshire hills below.

We followed the cheese route north to Burlington, VT on Wednesday. We stopped at Morse Farm in Montpelier for maple syrup and maple creemees (soft serve).

Picturesque Morse Farm

Ryan rides the milking cow at Morse Farm.

Dozens of different syrups. We did a taste test and found the Dark Amber A to be to our liking.

On my birthday, we traveled to mecca, aka Ben & Jerry's. We sampled their newest flavor, Schweddy Balls.

Justin enjoyed rolling the balls around in his mouth.

For my birthday, we had dinner at Hen of the Wood in Waterbury. We just happened to be seated right next to the GOVERNOR of VERMONT. Our waiter tipped us off to who he was and after he finished his dinner, he came over and wished me a happy birthday. Pretty cool, eh?

The Birthday Girl--outside of the old mill that houses Hen of the Wood.

 

Bucolic Vermont