Vermont

This last weekend we were able to go up to Vermont to see some of the pretty fall colors.  I've learned I should just refer to it as the "foliage."  I think growing up we just always said we were going to look at the leaves or whatever but everyone says "foliage" here, among various other words I never/rarely use that will take some getting used to.

Anyway, we are lucky to have one of John's friends from USU/Delta Sig living out here (he's from here, but randomly went to USU), Shawn, and his family has a friend with a ski cabin in Vermont he is able to use a few times each year.  We felt lucky to be invited and we had a great time.

We got up there late Friday night and got settled and then enjoyed a great breakfast with everyone Saturday morning.  We set out to do some hiking but had to alter our plans a little when one of our friends wasn't feeling well and so we took a detour to a hospital in Middlebury, VT (she ended up being fine).  While there we explored the town a little, took a nature hike, ate at a great little bakery, and got some sweet new Chaco's for half off (sandals for John, flips for me).

cool river we came across on our nature walk in Middlebury

it had this bridge over it

some train tracks

being cheesy :-)

it was a cool town, very "New England"

ha ha I can't believe they really posed for this one

I loved the town, the vibe, the shops, and the good deals

and this waterfall in the middle of town

We were still determined to go hiking though so altered our route a bit and ended up at Mad River Glen ski area where we had planned to take the lift up and then hike down.  Well, we missed the last lift ride so we decided to hike up as far as we wanted to/could before dark and then just come back down.  You probably could do this on a couple of green runs in Utah I suppose, but not with hope of getting to "the top."  The hike was actually pretty cool and had some great views and lots of pretty water falls, streams, and fall colors.  I wish I had a better camera because mine doesn't do the colors justice-so much prettier in real life!  We didn't quite get to the top because it was starting to get late, but it was still a good hike.

Some pics from the resort/hike:

single chair lift.  crazy old school.

There were some great views

lots of waterfalls

and great colors!

the easy way down :-)

John and Ken climbing the lift tower

I heard it was a great view

Later that night we ate at American Flatbread, which serves some very delicious pizza, which we had previously sampled at the Big E the weekend before so it was great to get the real deal...even if we had to wait nearly 2 hours for a table.  Sadly, my camera ran out of batteries at the end of the hike so I didn't take any more pictures to include the rest of the people we were hanging out with, there were 11 in all at the ski house for the weekend.

Sunday we took a very scenic way home (on purpose) so we got to see more of the quaint little towns of Vermont and enjoy some more foliage.  Vermont seems to be big on Maple syrup and other maple products, so we bought some maple cream and now we now why, it's delicious!

We had a great weekend, but it's always good to come home.  Our little place it feeling more and more like home all the time.  We hope to keep getting out on the weekends to experience more of the area and see some more great sites.

For all of the photos I took go here.