Burlington and Vermont's Scenic Byways
February 26, 2010 //
0 Comments
// Add yours »
This was round 2 of traveling around Vermont in less than a month, this time with my friends Mindy and Kamil for a weekend in the Burlington/Lake Champlain area. To be honest, we didn't spend a heck of a lot of time roaming around Burlington itself aside from checking out some of the restaurants and bars/pubs/breweries at night for a few rounds of Switchback as well as some other local brews.
The best part of the trip was leaving Burlington and exploring the area. Saturday morning we went out for breakfast at Magnolia Bistro and then hit the road, driving north through the outskirts of Burlington before merging onto RT. 7. We reached a small town called Milton and then swung right towards the mountains. Our first real stop that day was the Boyden Valley Winery. We had hoped they might have some cheese to snack on but it was just wine, good wine. My favorite was the Glogg, which is served warm and apparently popular around the holidays.
From there drove to Stowe, stopping at the Stowe Mercantile to sample some food, and then continuing our drive south with stops at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, Cabot Store Annex, and the Ben and Jerry's factory.
On Sunday morning we took the long, scenic route home, sticking to the scenic roads and byways. This gave us the best views of the trip.
Posted in:
A Day In The Life,
BlogSherpa,
Burlington, VT,
New England,
Photos,
Road Trips,
Travel,
USA,
Vermont
| Permalink
| 
Digg This
|
Share on Facebook |
Comments (0)
The Berkshires & Newport
January 13, 2010 //
0 Comments
// Add yours »
This past weekend started off with a drive through the Berkshires with stops at the Barrington Brewery for some great food and microbrews, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and a brief visit to the city of Pittsfield. It ended with a spontaneous drive to Newport, RI, where we stopped for a tour and wine tasting at Greenvale Vineyards, and then enjoyed some food and a traditional Irish music seisiún at the Fastnet Pub.
These two dogs kept trying to knock us over during the tour of the vineyards. The vineyard also had two massive Scottish Highland steer which they are using to eat away the treeline. Apparently they can't use machinery due to restrictions of the local preservation society, so they brought the animals in to do the job instead. I missed the opportunity to snap a good photo of them, but you can see what they look like here.
This shot was from our table at the Fastnet Pub just before the musicians started strolling in. You can see a video of that below the cut. The place has a great atmosphere and the food was halfway decent. It's definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a relaxing way to end your day in Newport without spending too much.
Continue reading "The Berkshires & Newport"
Posted in:
A Day In The Life,
BlogSherpa,
Food and Drink,
Road Trips,
Travel
| Permalink
| Digg This
|
Share on Facebook |
Comments (0)
Driving from Yellowstone to Connecticut in a rental truck
November 23, 2009 //
0 Comments
// Add yours »
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to travel to Yellowstone National Park for a work. The company I work for had been selected to restore nearly 200 lighting fixtures from the historic Old Faithful Lodge , so my co-worker and I were sent there to photograph the fixtures and then drive them roughly 2,800 miles across America back to Connecticut. (Project details here.)
The trip started in Salt Lake City, where we picked up our 16' rental truck, a bunch of packing supplies and a ton of snacks for the road. That afternoon we drove nearly non-stop for 600+ miles through Utah and Idaho to West Yellowstone in Montana where we crashed for the night.
Since Yellowstone closes to the public for the month of November, we were one of the very few people within the 3468 square miles of the park when we drove in the next morning. That meant if something were to go wrong, we' would pretty-much on our own. Fortunately we made it in and out without incident. No flat tires, no angry bison attacks, and no geyser burns.
Since I was there for work I didn't explore the park as much as I would have liked to, but I did manage to see some cool stuff, including several geysers and a ton of wildlife including some bison and wolves. The lodge where we were working was literally right along-side the Old Faithful Geyser, so every 90 minutes or so we'd take a short break to watch it go. We actually had to hike up to a scenic overlook of the geyser basin to sign the paperwork so we could leave - not exactly the worst way to spend a work-day.
The drive back took us several days, with brief stops at Belgrade in Montana, Mount Rushmore, Sioux Falls in South Dakota, and Chicago. After a good night's rest in Indiana and a quick meal in Ohio, we pushed straight through back to Connecticut and got home early Saturday. It wasn't exactly the classic all-American road trip, but it was still a great experience.
Posted in:
A Day In The Life,
BlogSherpa,
Cross-Country Road Trip 2009,
Photos,
Road Trips,
The Outdoors,
Travel,
Work Life
| Permalink
| Digg This
|
Share on Facebook |
Comments (0)
The Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough and the Rock of Cashal
August 05, 2009 //
0 Comments
// Add yours »
It was going to be a long day. The night before we had stayed out late on a pub crawl and that morning we had approximately 240 miles of driving planned with many stops in-between.
After a quick breakfast in Dublin (sandwiches from a grocery store), we made our way south towards the Wicklow mountains. Our first stop was Enniskerry, a small village which I had visited three years earlier. We grabbed a coffee and then visited "Aladdins Cave", an antique gallery on Church Hill that is PACKED with cool antiques including paintings, silver, jewelry,etc. After a long conversation with the gallery owner, John O' Brien, I picked up a circa 1870 Victorian-style tankard to make a pair out of the one I had bought at the same gallery during my last visit.
The next stop, a spontaneous one, was at Glendalough - home of an early medieval monstac settlement founded in the 6th century by St. Keven, a hermit priest, in a beautiful glacial valley.
Glendalough really impressed me. It's one of those many places in Ireland where pictures could never do justice. After walking through the gravestones and buildings, we took a few minutes to stick our feet in the water and relax for a bit. It was freezing, like we had expected, but also refreshing considering the long drive ahead.
We continued through the mountains and then made our way towards Cashal, passing through Kilkenny along the way. I had originally planned on stopping here, but with the stop at Glendalough we didn't have enough time.
Around sunset we found ourselves at the Rock of Cashal, much later than expected. The castle was closed at this point, but we still enjoyed the views from a nearby hill. For dinner we stopped at a local pub and it was probably the worst meal we had all week.
Posted in:
A Day In The Life,
BlogSherpa,
Ireland,
Ireland 2009,
Irish Travel,
Photos,
Road Trips,
Travel
| Permalink
| Digg This
|
Share on Facebook |
Comments (0)
Sunday Driving
July 20, 2008 //
3 Comments
// Add yours »
My original plans were to check out the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT with my friend Mindy. But somehow or another we missed the exit, and ended up taking a 200 mile road trip through New York and the Litchfield County instead. It was a fun, relaxing, destination-less drive. We passed a few abandoned insane asylums, discussed the feasibility of the vegetarian lifestyle, blasted a few Beatles albums, and passed a few apple-eating deer.
As we were heading back we stopped for a quick bite to eat at the Yankee Pedlar Inn in downtown Torrington. It's worth a visit if you've never been to a 19th century style tavern, but I'd recommend checking it out on a Friday or a Saturday night when there might be more people around. While we both enjoyed the food, the lack of other patrons and the dead silence that resulted made it feel a bit creepy.
Posted in:
A Day In The Life,
Food and Drink,
Road Trips,
The Outdoors
| Permalink
| Digg This
|
Share on Facebook |
Comments (3)
