Vermont Relocation Vacation {10/3: Park, Golf, Tram, Provisions}

Our first day out of quarantine was Saturday, October 3rd and we made the most of our freedom! We started out right after breakfast by dropping Gregg off at the golf course where he met up with some Jay Peak/Vermont friends for nine holes. While he was playing, the kids and I drove down the road to Montgomery to do our own playing at a park we had passed coming into town two weeks ago. The kids played hard, but we didn't have very good cell service, so after a couple hours we headed back to the resort (after stopping at another park at the elementary school first!) so we could be in touch with Gregg when he finished his game. We wandered around the Stateside base area for a while and just enjoyed the freedom of being outside.

The playground was a bit soggy after rain the night
before, but that didn't stop these guys!

At the back end of the park was a little pump track course.
If we would have known it was here, we would've brought
the bikes with us. When I offered to go back to the condo to get
them, the kids both said no and continued to run their little legs off
up and down the hills.

Behind the pump track is a bike trail that
goes up the hill into the woods. It was hard to
see the trail since it was covered with leaves, but we
wandered in a ways to see what we could see.

More running. Run kids, run!

Lots of cool lichens on the trees around here!

Here comes the sun, do do do do.

I was really impressed with their creativity in games
while we were here. They found a tennis ball on the court
and made up some game involving throwing and running
and who knows what else. Sam also spotted a discarded
water bottle on the soccer field and brought it to the tennis
court to kick around for a while.

We all thought that bowery in the background was fun
because it had a spiral staircase at one end that leads to the top
level for a higher view of the soccer/baseball fields, I guess.

See what I mean about lichens?

These are the woods at another edge of the park
above the basketball court.

Here we are at the Montgomery Elementary playground -
the kids liked the trucks in the sandpile and I thought
the specially built and installed hand sanitizer shelf was
so 2020.

Cal was monitoring my phone in case we got
any service and had a text from Gregg as we drove
back up to Jay.

Checking out the old Tram cabin that now
serves as a shuttle stop at Stateside.

Wandering the base area.

Around noon, we all met up at home for lunch and the opening talks and songs of General Conference. (We'll catch up on the rest of Saturday's sessions eventually!) Then we headed out again. Next stop: Provisions. If you've talked to Cal or Sam recently, you probably heard them mention what they were most excited about or the thing that they liked the most after quarantine being Provisions. But what the heck is "Provisions"? Here's the background: Provisions is the general store slash gift shop at the Tramside base area of Jay Peak. Gregg had told the kids all about its wonders and they were dying to go inside and do some shopping. So we browsed the racks of shirts and hats and books and toys and trinkets for a good (long) while. We told the kids we'd buy them each a hat or a shirt so Cal picked a teal blue Vermont ball cap (it's darling on her!) and Sam chose a red, white and blue beanie with a tram on it (also adorable!) but when it came to spending their own money, that was a little trickier to part with. Cal ended up with a Jay Peak sticker (and plans to come back for something else later) and Sam ended up saving his dollar he'd collected for a hot wheels car at walmart.

Provisions is also where you buy tram tickets, so we did that in the store and eventually headed outside and around the corner to the tram house. They limited the number of people per ride to 15 (usually it can hold 45 riders!) so we had a bit of a wait, but they were moving both tram cars back and forth pretty quick, so it wasn't too long in line. Soon we were soaring up over the runs and trees and the view was spectacular! A sign at the top welcomed us to the top of the world and we got out to have a look around the peak. We scrambled up some rocks to get to the tippy top point (~4,000 feet) and had epic 360 degree views: Mt. Mansfield in Stowe, Lake Memphremagog in Newport, Canada! It was windy and cold up there, so we didn't stay too long, but we did explore more of the backside views out of the wind. And then we hopped back on the tram for our return trip. It's SO nice to be out of quarantine!

Here's the tram house.

Gregg snapped this with the big camera
while we waited in line.

New hats on those masked faces.
Pretty cute even if they're hard to recognize. ;)

In the cabin and ready to roll!

Up we go!

Don't mind the masks if it means we can play!

The scramble up to the top.

This is the life!

I thought these lichens (I assume they're lichens)
looked like snowflakes.

Math this week was all about time and money
so this was a fun outing for Cal to show off
her analog clock and dollars and cents knowledge.

Waiting for our return trip.

Buh-bye peak!

Past peak, but still stunning.

We stopped back in Provisions after our tram
ride, too - they couldn't get enough. I spotted
this sign that I thought was cute while they mulled
their choices of keychains and magnets.

Next on the docket: purchasing actual provisions to keep us fed and restocked on some of the little things that we'll need for the next little while (a baking sheet, toothpaste, scotch tape, you know). In hindsight, we probably could have better spent our money by stimulating the local economy at a small grocery store close by, and we'll probably do that next time a grocery trip is called for, but this time we drove half an hour to Newport to the closest Walmart. Gregg took the kids matchbox car shopping while I got started on the groceries. At home I do a big shop every two to three weeks, and for some reason it's hard for me to break that mindset of meal planning/grocery list making. So that's what it ended up being this time, too. Only no one else seems to shop that way here. My cart was full to the brim and it took a good 20 minutes (I don't really know - it felt like FOREVER!) to get through the checkout line with all my stuff. Vermont has a plastic bag ban and they don't want the COVID risk of resuasables right now, so most people just put their purchases straight back in the cart after it's scanned. I had too much stuff to have it all out of the cart on the belt at the same time, so Gregg snagged me another cart to put my paid-for food in as soon as it came off the scanner. Only a couple checkout lines were even open so there were tons of people waiting for me. I felt kind of dumb. But the couple in line closest to me were kind, even if they thought I was crazy. "You really must like to cook, don't you?" Yep. Yep I do. And the man in the wheelchair checking my receipt at the door thanked me for my part in keeping him in a job (after he exclaimed "oh. my. land!!" (he didn't say land ;). So I guess we did a bit of good? At any rate, we're set for a good (long) while on the food front, and plan on spending our free time playing hard!

Finished the last bit of the last chapter
as we drove to Newport. This was a fun
listen - full cast performance, exciting story,
great characters. We all loved it.

High on the grocery list was more apples -
these were delicious MacIntosh type apples.

 

And Sam's fave: Golden Delicious. (I had to
ration him to one apple a day before our shopping
trip so they would last. Now he goes crazy with 2-3
a day and I let him because I know we can always stop
at a farm stand (or grocery store) and get more whenever
we need to!)