On rainy Wednesday we packed up and headed north about an hour and a half to Stowe, Vermont. But driving I had no sense of direction, it felt like we were going East not North. We were able to see more colors by going North. There were some red in the mix. We arrived in Stowe right at lunch time. Since Jeff has had so many burgers I looked for a place that had something he would eat besides a burger and I found a grilled cheese at Stowe Bee Bakery. It ended up being right past the lodge where we were going to be staying, Field Guide Lodge. It was a cute little family owned bakery in small strip mall area. Jeff had a grilled cheese and I had a chicken salad wrap. I got a peach tea refresher and Jeff got a strawberry tea refresher. The menu said it was “sweet” tea. Well it wasn’t southern sweet tea and we ended up having to add sweetener. It was all really good.

After lunch we drove into the downtown area and found a parking spot on one of the side streets and walked around the area and visited the stores and stopped in at the famous white church while we waited for our check in time. We got a maple milkshake from Lake Champlain Chocolates.

After exploring the area we went and checked in. Got settled into our room and then we decided to start walking on the trail back towards downtown to get pictures of the white steepled church nestled into the fall backdrop. Everything here is gorgeous and so fall in a small town. This town has a stop sign, not even a traffic light, so that is how small this town is.

For dinner we went across the street to a restaurant called The Bench. We started with poutine fries and I had the New York strip with mashed potatoes and it came with brussels sprouts which I don’t like. I did try one to see if maybe I like them now. Nope still don’t!! Jeff had mac and cheese. After dinner we went back to our room. Everything here closes early too.

On Thursday we got up to another rainy day. So we grabbed our raincoats and off we went. We started with breakfast across the street at a place called The Skinny Pancake. They had crepes. Jeff had what was called Noah’s Ark. It was supposed to be an egg breakfast with crepes. When it came to the table he didn’t have crepes. We asked and what the cashier didn’t tell us was that when she offered breakfast potatoes it was in place of the crepes. So we ended up grabbing an order of the sugar shack crepes. Julie had the de ja vue crepes.

After breakfast we went back the room and decided that we would venture out to the Von Trapp Lodge in the rain. We bought tickets for the history tour and made our way up to the lodge. We got there a little early and just hung out in the store until it was time. We sat in a Yurt while our guide told us the history of the family. She told us that some of them are buried on site. She told us about a chapel up in the woods. Took us by the gravesites where they have flowers planted on top of the graves. She said that this is how it is done in Austria. She then took us to the lodge and we watched a short documentary and then heard from the daughter of Johannes the youngest of the Von Trapp children. This year was the 60th anniversary of the movie and the 75th anniversary of the Lodge. Stowe is where the family settled in the US after fleeing from Austria. They also told us that some of the names were different in the movie and that they moved around the birth order a little.

After the tour we walked up the the chapel, what they don’t tell you is that is a mostly uphill walk. We made it and rang the bell on the chapel. We then made our way back and went across the street to the flower garden and then decided it was time to grab lunch. We settled on the Von Trapp Brewery. We didn’t realize that we needed reservations. The hostess that checked us in said that since it was just the 2 of us that she might could seat us shortly after our arrival, but I think she forgot about telling us that and we waited forever for a table. Had we realized we needed reservations we would have made them and probably gotten in quicker. So if you plan to go, go ahead and grab a reservation first!!

I had the chicken schnitzel and maple lemonade. The waitress said that it was really good. We are in Vermont so why not try all things maple??? Well I’m not sure what that flavor was, but it didn’t taste like maple or lemonade. But it was wet and I drank it. Jeff had a burger and spaetzle with regular lemonade, which did taste like lemonade.

After lunch we did some sightseeing driving and took the scenic route to one of the Cabot’s Creamery stores and we went into a Vermont Flannel company and another Lake Champlain chocolates. Then we went to Cold Hollow Cider Mill. One of the places that everyone tells you to go to. They have a tasting container in the store and it was some delicious cold apple cider. We got the “famous” cider doughnuts and you guessed it a maple creamie!! The doughnuts are cake doughnuts with no icing. I think it would be better with a light glaze. (I can’t believe that neither of us took a picture of the donuts, oh well they were brown and cake like with no glaze) The cashier here asked where we were from and said that he had spent a couple of summers in Birmingham during college working with a church, but couldn’t remember the name of the church.

We weren’t really hungry until late, so we opted to visit the bar/restaurant at the hotel, Apres Only. They had some live music and we got popcorn chicken and pretzel bites with water. When I opened my mouth to speak the bartender was like hold on and then went on to guess that we were from Alabama. She said that she has gotten pretty good at picking up on accents. We only had a couple of people say anything the entire week about our accents.

Friday we made plans to ride the gondolas to the top of Mount Mansfield and have lunch at the Cliff House Restaurant. We did know that there was a short gondola you could take to a shopping area and the gondola that you take the top of the mountain. We didn’t know how much time we should take to check out the area and we ended up overestimating and had arrived too early. We got there and took the gondola over to the shopping area. As we checked out the few stores we realized that we were not going to be able to waste the time until our late lunch reservation. So we got on the app an found that there was one available at 11:45. So we change our time and go to get back on the gondola to go back across the road so we can head up the mountain and guess what??? There is a fire alarm going off and the gondola is closed!! Just our luck! The guy tells us there is a shuttle that picks up from the other end of the area. We go to the shuttle stop and there is not a current schedule posted in the little hut at the stop. We waited a few minutes and decide that we are just going to have to walk if we are going to make our new reservation time. So we start walking and are about a fourth of the way down the drive and we see the shuttle. We are too far to chase it back to the stop so we just keep walking. This sweet bus driver stops and asks if we are trying to get back across the street. So we hop on the bus and man are we glad she stopped. It was going to be a lot farther than we thought and we would have had to walk along the edge of the main road.

We get on the gondola and start the ride to the top of the mountain. We get up there and get checked in. The hostess tells us she has the best seats about to come available and she recommended that we waited a few minutes so that she could put us in the window. Well we wait, and wait, and wait some more. It takes forever!! There ends up being a line out the door. We ask a couple if we can jump in line to check and see how much longer. We ended up standing and waiting in the restaurant while the waitress checks out the other guests. Finally we are seated and the seats have great views, not sure if was was REALLY worth the wait though. Jeff had mac and cheese and I had a burger and Caesar salad.

After lunch we rode the gondola back down the mountain. We did some more exploring and found Moss Glenn Falls. It is an easy walk. The path out to the falls has landscape timbers laid over the muddy areas. When we got out there the falls were beautiful! They had been having a drought so about half way we got to wondering if it was going to be worth it, but it definitely was.

After we left the falls we went to Red Barn Ice Cream Shop and got ice cream and a maple creamie. After all I won’t be able to find them back in Alabama, will have to enjoy them while we are here. We then rode over the mountain and made our way back towards the room to check in for our flight and pack up. For dinner we went to Pie-Casso. We started with the polenta fries, they were good. Jeff had spaghetti and meatballs and I had Pasta Rovetto which was shrimp pasta. We regretted not getting pizza. The pasta was just subpar.

Saturday morning we ended our trip in Stowe back where we started with breakfast back at Stowe Bee Bakery. I had the ham and cheese biscuit with iced tea and Jeff had the sausage, egg and cheese biscuit with hot chocolate. We went back to the room and loaded up and checked out. We had an afternoon flight so we went to Shelburne Farms that the couple from Connecticut mentioned one night by the fire in Woodstock. We wished that we had made plans to spend more time there. We didn’t have time to walk the trails for the scenic views.

We get to the airport and who gets pulled for a “random” check??? Me, at this point it’s no longer random. I’m convinced that I am flagged from the one time I wore jeans with rhinestones on the pockets thru the Las Vegas airport on the 2nd time I had ever flown. Whatever…….they swiped the soles of my shoes and sent me on my way. We grabbed lunch at the airport, our only option was Skinny Pancake. Jeff ordered a burger and the cashier said you got our last one. Guess what I was planning to order??? So Jeff changed his order and got a breakfast and let me have that last burger. They were out of a lot of food items. We did see someone make a delivery to them as we waited for our flight.

Our flight home through Charlotte was good and we made it home by a decent hour and found where we parked when we left the Birmingham airport, thanks to the pictures I took in the parking garage when we got out of the car on Sunday.