Vermont Relocation Vacation {10/22: Skate Park, The Res, Ben & Jerry's, Enchanted Forest, Smugg's Disc Golf}

We had been watching the forecast closely as our time starts to wind down here in Vermont and when we saw Thursday (October 22nd) looked good, we jumped on it to knock off a few more activities on our VT bucket list. But first: another spectacular sunrise!

Next stop: Waterbury Center, where Gregg met up with a friend from work for a round of disc golf and the kids played on the skate park. No skateboards? No problem! They drove cars down the ramps and ran up and down and all around. I took laps around the playground and skate park and parking lot and racked up 6000 steps!

We had been hearing some squeaking and grinding
on the brakes for a couple of days, so after disc golf, Chris
let us borrow his paved driveway (pavement is hard to find
in these parts) to check and change them if needed.
Turns out they looked fine, so it was only a quick pit stop.

We had a few minutes to kill between brakes and ice cream, so Chris suggested we drive down the road to The Res (it's Waterbury Reservoir, but everyone we've met calls it The Res) to eat our sandwiches. We parked at the boat launch and walked across the dam and it was beautiful!

We love how most of the leaves are gone but these
yellows are just popping out all over the mountainside
like bright little polka dots.

Loved the font on this building. So Thirties.

Finally! It was noon and Ben and Jerry's was open! It's not the same experience as it was pre-covid (according to Gregg), but we still had a fun and delicious time. Callie chose Cherry Garcia, Sam got Mint Chocolate Chunk, Gregg got Oatmeal Cookie Chunk and I got Coconut Seven Layer Bar. Mmmm-hmmmm! We followed the signs from the parking lot when we were done to visit the "flavor graveyard" on the hill. That was entertaining!

The face she gave when she tasted my
coconut ice cream.

But she was happy with her choice.

Flavor graveyard on the hill. Spoooky.

Gregg's flavor was a special one brought
back from the dead!

One of the things the kids wanted to do before we leave is to find a cool, new park. A bit of googling showed us that there was one at the resort in Stowe, so off we went to Spruce Peak and found the Enchanted Forest. It was a great kids-size challenge ropes course type thing and Cal and Sam had a great time climbing and maneuvering from one end to the other.

Cute little covered bridge to the park! (You bet
we counted it ;)

One of Cal's picks was to find another easy disc golf course. Gregg had wanted to try out a course at Smuggler's Notch, which is where the pros play. It doesn't seem like it could check both boxes, but we found out that there are four tee boxes for each hole, and the red boxes are super short and perfect for kids and beginners. So we signed up for a 3:00 tee time and started playing. What a beautiful course! And it was so fun to play a pro course but at completely doable distances. We all had fun!

Practicing drives at the warm up area by the parking
lot.

A little log climbing while we waited for our turn to
tee off.

Gold tee boxes were the farthest from
the basket. (And had fancy astroturf!)

We saw so many mushrooms as we walked
through the forest.

All shades and shapes!

More of those aspens (or birch?) providing a pop
of color!

Green!

I knew I would love seeing all the leaves
while we were out here, but I have been
so surprised loving all the cool
fungi just as much!

By the time we finished 14 holes (couldn't quite make it the full 18 with two small, hungry ones) we were ready for dinner! We found a spot down the road in Jeffersonville called the Burger Barn. It was super yum!

Cheeseburger.

Not a burger. He wanted a hot dog, but
didn't really want it once he got it. Go figure.

Gregg got a rueben burger and I got the Ira
Allen (with blue cheese, bacon and pine nuts!).

As we were driving home, poor Sam was so tired from the day of fun that he conked out in the car at 5:45 and stayed asleep till the next morning! That gave us a little Cal and Mom and Dad time in the before bed which was excellent and definitely needed for her and us.

Bedtime stories by the fire (and we
moved the pumpkins to the back deck
so we could enjoy their glow now that
we had candles to light them up).