Vermont Relocation Vacation {10/29: Farewell to Vermont Tour}

Our last day in Vermont! We packed up the car and tidied up the condo and checked and double checked all the cupboards and under the bed to make sure we didn't forget anything. And then we hopped in the car and waved farewell to our beloved #4016 at Jay Peak. Our final destination for the day was Laurel and Bret's home in Connecticut (we figured if we were in the east coast "neighborhood" we might as well stop by and say hi to Gregg's sister and her family, right?) but we decided to take it slow and make our departure day into one more day of Vermont adventures.

First stop: Stowe. We went back to play at the cool Enchanted Forest playground in Spruce Peak. It was a chilly day though, so we didn't stay long. Then we wound our way over to the Edelweiss Deli for some delicious treats to eat with our picnic lunch at nearby Thompson park. It was more than chilly for a picnic, but we braved it (some of us were braver than the others who ate in the car) and opted for a brisk walk after lunch to warm up. There were other reasons for this walk along the rec path: a) it is lovely and relaxing, and b) we were stalling for time for Leslie at Inntopia to check the mail one last time to see if our ballots (we had requested absentee ballots to be mailed to the office in Stowe so we'd be sure to get to vote while we were out of town) made it in time for us to get them before we left the state. (Spoiler alert: they didn't. We actually got a text from her on November 6th, while we were in Nebraska on our route home, that they had arrived. Great timing, US Postal Service!) Even with no ballots, we had a fantastic, long walk along the river and through the woods.

Sam chose the world's biggest oatmeal creme
pie and Callie opted for a lemon cake - both of
which we all shared because they were ginormous!

Also: messy!

First bridge crossing of our walk. (There
were two more to come.)

Posing by the old tractor at the edge of a field.

Just a couple weeks ago we were getting lost in this
corn maze and now it's all mowed down!

From there, we took a backway detour out of town past the Trapp Family Lodge and on to Waterbury Center for one last stop at Cold Hollow Cider Mill (voted best cider donuts in the state by us, after eating over 40 during the month). By now it was starting to rain and the rain just kept raining for the rest of the day. Talk about a rainy day road trip!

Gotta get a taste of cider!

Here's another peek at the pressing process.

We realized that we could hit the longest wooden covered bridge in the country (and longest two-lane covered bridge in the world!!) as we headed south, so we ventured over to Windsor, VT to check it out. It was amazing! We drove over it into New Hampshire (check another state off for our trip!) and then turned around and drove right back. While we were in the area, we also checked out an old ski resort that closed in 2010 but has reopened again recently called Ascutney. (It happened to be a good spot for a potty break in the rain, too, as it turned out.)

The Cornish-Windsor bridge (so named
because it connects Cornish, NH to Windsor,VT).

It's 449 feet long!

Peeing in the rain at the base of a ski
area. What could be better?

Our next visit was to the Vermont Country Store in Rockingham. That place was like the Disneyland of country stores! Everything was made to look like an old-time general store and you could buy just about everything you can imagine inside. My favorite rooms were the toy room (got lots of fun potential gift ideas in that one) and the food rooms (treats and preserves and syrup and cookies and cheese and yum!). We had fun browsing and buying a few gifts and then we were off once again to our last stop of the day: dinner pick up at the Vermont Country Deli in Brattleboro (we loved it so much we had to make another visit!). We ate in the car as we continued our drive (in the rain and the dark) through Massachusetts and into Connecticut, where we were welcomed warmly into the Farrer homestead. We visited with them much later than we should have, and happily fell asleep in Cohen's room.

Doesn't this look adorable?! And it's written
by Gary D. Schmidt? I didn't know he did picture
books! (I should have bought it - I got home
and checked my library and they don't have it!)

Another one that looks cute and my
library doesn't have!

I think Sam would dig this.

And these just look funny and fun.

Toy room heaven!

Ha!

Callie was eyeing these cute hand sanitizer bottles
 at the checkout counter. So 2020.

And we got to see one more bonus covered
bridge as we pulled out of the parking lot!
It's not on the official list of 100 in the state,
but we counted it anyway and got up to 53 or
so? (I can't remember for sure) total covered bridges
seen and/or driven/walked over on our trip!

Finished up this delightful collection
on our rainy day road trip out of Vermont.

 Farewell, Vermont. You have been good to us and we can't wait to come back someday!