Vermont is a funny place
What a busy 2 weeks it's been! This past weekend, I took a bus up to Providence, RI to meet my friend Sue from Wellesley to go skiing in Vermont. The bus ride up was miserable -- 6.5 hours to get to a place that should normally only take about 3.5 hours. But we stopped in random places, like the two CT casinos and New Haven and New London (beautiful, beautiful town/city). More than halfway up to Providence, the driver seemed to get word that the bus was going to continue onto Boston. That sent me into some sort of weird retrospective look at my college years for the rest of the ride. (This is why I try avoiding going to Massachusetts/much further than the NY-CT border.)
Anyway, stayed the night at Sue's place in Providence, then headed up to Killington, VT the next morning through Massachusetts and New Hampshire. This was my first time skiing, so I took one of those "learn to ski" classes. The beginner's slope was MUCH too easy for me, but the next slope was too difficult for me, so we decided not to return the next day. Soaked in the hot tub, took a swim in the pool (we had it all to ourselves). We had dinner at The Wobbly Barn (a "taste of Vermont"), watched the Hope for Haiti telethon and then headed back to The Wobbly Barn for its live band and bar/club.
Had a great time -- was into the lead singer of the band (more so because of the alcohol and because he reminded me of Jason Castro than anything else), met these twins who were off-the-walls crazy and wanted to dance with us. So we finally gave in -- they didn't seem to want to admit they were twins but finally did. (Jim and John. Sue liked Jim better and I liked John better -- perfect -- but Jim seemed to want to dance with me more and John with Sue. Sigh.) Danced with them for a while before Sue suddenly decided she wanted to leave.
The next day, we had a slower start and had complimentary blueberry pancakes and eggs/toast/sausages at the hotel before heading to Waterbury, VT for the Ben & Jerry's Factory. We got a tour and a sample of ice cream, got more ice cream, and then went down the road to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. Sampled their cider donuts and their fruit butters before stocking up and heading to Montpelier.
Montpelier may just be the smallest state capital I've ever visited. It was teeny tiny. We had lunch at The Skinny Pancake, walked around a bit and headed back south to Chittenden. At the Mountain Top Inn in Chittenden, we signed up for dog sledding. I was curious about it but a little hesitant because of possible animal cruelty. Well, when it came time to head out and get strapped into the sled, the dogs were howling and whining and crying -- and both Sue and I were really regretful. But once we took off, the dogs seemed happy as anything to be running. We Googled this later and read a lot about the types of dogs that are chosen to do this and how they supposedly live to run. I hope so. It's probably not something I'd do again.
Had dinner back at the hotel, which was fine, and then headed back to The Wobbly Barn for Jim & Joe v2. Except they weren't there. It was much more crowded on Saturday night and the crowd was largely made up of BC Law students. A fight broke out between a girl and a random guy, and things just spiraled downwards afterwards, so we left. And the next morning we left for Providence. After Providence, I had a 4 hour bus ride back to NYC, which rounded out my travel time on Sunday to nearly 11 hours.
Vermont morning frost (this was taken from the inside of our car)
Vermont late afternoon sun
Ben & Jerry's
Montpelier
During the trip, Sue and I talked about memories and people we knew at Wellesley. There have always been crazy-fun-interesting characters (well, real people) I have known but not known anything about. As it happens, Sue was friends in her earlier Wellesley years with some of the people I later came to know through Laura and her LGBT party people crowd, so I got some back story and had a lot of blanks filled in. It’s crazy how quickly and drastically people change, fall into crowds and out of friendships. Alone on the bus home, I spent a lot of time thinking about college and Massachusetts and reliving it. It was kind of introspective, kind of depressing and kind of idealistic all at once. I'm supposed to go to Boston in the spring with Megan, but I think I might have to work some things out in my head before heading up again. Trips up the east coast are usually a little more emotional for me than I'd like them to be.
Anyway, stayed the night at Sue's place in Providence, then headed up to Killington, VT the next morning through Massachusetts and New Hampshire. This was my first time skiing, so I took one of those "learn to ski" classes. The beginner's slope was MUCH too easy for me, but the next slope was too difficult for me, so we decided not to return the next day. Soaked in the hot tub, took a swim in the pool (we had it all to ourselves). We had dinner at The Wobbly Barn (a "taste of Vermont"), watched the Hope for Haiti telethon and then headed back to The Wobbly Barn for its live band and bar/club.
Had a great time -- was into the lead singer of the band (more so because of the alcohol and because he reminded me of Jason Castro than anything else), met these twins who were off-the-walls crazy and wanted to dance with us. So we finally gave in -- they didn't seem to want to admit they were twins but finally did. (Jim and John. Sue liked Jim better and I liked John better -- perfect -- but Jim seemed to want to dance with me more and John with Sue. Sigh.) Danced with them for a while before Sue suddenly decided she wanted to leave.
The next day, we had a slower start and had complimentary blueberry pancakes and eggs/toast/sausages at the hotel before heading to Waterbury, VT for the Ben & Jerry's Factory. We got a tour and a sample of ice cream, got more ice cream, and then went down the road to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. Sampled their cider donuts and their fruit butters before stocking up and heading to Montpelier.
Montpelier may just be the smallest state capital I've ever visited. It was teeny tiny. We had lunch at The Skinny Pancake, walked around a bit and headed back south to Chittenden. At the Mountain Top Inn in Chittenden, we signed up for dog sledding. I was curious about it but a little hesitant because of possible animal cruelty. Well, when it came time to head out and get strapped into the sled, the dogs were howling and whining and crying -- and both Sue and I were really regretful. But once we took off, the dogs seemed happy as anything to be running. We Googled this later and read a lot about the types of dogs that are chosen to do this and how they supposedly live to run. I hope so. It's probably not something I'd do again.
Had dinner back at the hotel, which was fine, and then headed back to The Wobbly Barn for Jim & Joe v2. Except they weren't there. It was much more crowded on Saturday night and the crowd was largely made up of BC Law students. A fight broke out between a girl and a random guy, and things just spiraled downwards afterwards, so we left. And the next morning we left for Providence. After Providence, I had a 4 hour bus ride back to NYC, which rounded out my travel time on Sunday to nearly 11 hours.
Vermont morning frost (this was taken from the inside of our car)
Vermont late afternoon sun
Ben & Jerry's
Montpelier
During the trip, Sue and I talked about memories and people we knew at Wellesley. There have always been crazy-fun-interesting characters (well, real people) I have known but not known anything about. As it happens, Sue was friends in her earlier Wellesley years with some of the people I later came to know through Laura and her LGBT party people crowd, so I got some back story and had a lot of blanks filled in. It’s crazy how quickly and drastically people change, fall into crowds and out of friendships. Alone on the bus home, I spent a lot of time thinking about college and Massachusetts and reliving it. It was kind of introspective, kind of depressing and kind of idealistic all at once. I'm supposed to go to Boston in the spring with Megan, but I think I might have to work some things out in my head before heading up again. Trips up the east coast are usually a little more emotional for me than I'd like them to be.