Vermont Overnighter! :Day 209

Jim and I headed to VT for 24 hrs to celebrate our 29th anniversary....no definite plans...just wanderin'...Our first stop was the VT Deli...a favorite stop for years and years...we had pesto pasta, roasted pumpkin and black eyed pea salad, and Waldorf chicken salad..mm-yum. They were fantastic as usual.


From there we drove north...headed to Winhall Brook to camp. Once we arrived, however, we decided instead to try someplace new, and continued farther north.

Our next stop was here...another favorite.
We purchased a couple of little trinkets, sampled some cheese (but no candy:( ) and then headed due west toward Emerald Lake State Park to set up a camp. We FINALLY arrived-took a while, as we drove all around before we finally found it. It was wet and there were lots of mosquito's but...we set up the tent and started to blow up our mattress..until we noticed a very monstrous hole in it....bummer. After a try to repair it with electrical tape (no success) we decided to head south toward Manchester, VT and look for a hotel/inn to stay at. However, all we found we ones we couldn't afford, and then the ones we didn't want to stay in. We headed further south towards Bennington, VT....at this point we had had nothing to eat since the cheese sampling at VT Country Store, so we were famished. We found a nice little bar and grill on Main St. in Bennington and asked the waitress for suggestions on a place to lay down our heads for the night. She told us about the new Hampton Inn just up the road, and after dinner we headed...it was lovely...just perfect for what we wanted.

She also gave us a great tip for a wonderful breakfast at a place with a funky name.. can you read it below? It's called Allday's and Onions. Funny name, but we had a wonderful breakfast..homemade scones with maple butter, and brie, bacon and apple omelets with homemade sourdough bread..delish.

We walked around Bennington after breakfast..we were so full we needed to! We checked out some shops...and a river trail...kiss kiss :)

We were heading due east now...back toward Brattleboro and I-91. We stopped at a "junk" aka a General Store in Wilmington on the way, and then jumped on 91. We impulsively decided (well I talked Jim into it I have to say) to stop and check out Yankee Candle, their flagship store (city-sized) in Deerfield, MA. Wow..a HUGE HUGE place.. We bought one candle on clearance..lol...you should have seen the grocery carts full of stuff we saw people buying..a big moneymaker there for sure. The grounds of the Yankee Candle were beautiful..the flowers were also huge and very lush. Pretty place to poke around for the day sometime (without Jim!) as it is so much more than candles.

Our last stop, but no pictures was Amherst, MA...cute college town...got an ice cream cone for lunch, walked around a bit and found a great little Newbury Comics store where they had cool posters on sale. Made Taylor and Joe happy with a poster for each of them. We headed south again, this time straight for home...where we were glad to be. A fun, romantic adventure we had...but it was good to be back!

Happy Anniversary, honey. I love you 29x29x29x29x29.........:)