little black journal

Ho-ly maple trees, I love Vermont. After breakfast in the bright and cozy dining room of our Manchester B&B, we said a little prayer for sunshine, grabbed a latte at Spiral Press Cafe and headed toward Mount Equinox to take in the splendor of the Green Mountains. While the clouds didn’t fully part for us, it was still pretty incredible up there – the hills here are blanketed in a thick fur of green and yellow, stretching as far as the eye can see. We snapped a few pictures, shivered among the frost-covered trees (yowsers, it was chilly up there!), and then slowly made our way back down the mountain, stopping every couple hundred feet to ooh and ahh at the vistas.

Shane took a photo of me nearly ten years ago at Hyde Park in London that still stands out as one of our favorites – I’m tossing an armful of fallen leaves in the air and looking very Mary Tyler Moore with my raised arms and goofy grin. We came across this patch of leaf-covered ground at the bottom of the mountain and Shane suggested that we shoot a sequel. Goofy, indeed…

From Mount Equinox, we wound our way around the northern part of the Green Mountains, pulling over here in there for more oohing and aahing.

We arrived at our B&B in Perkinsville late in the afternoon, settled into our room, and then headed back out the door to explore the area. Vermont is famous for its covered bridges – this little beauty was was just up the street from us.

We saw signs for Woodstock after we crossed the bridge and decided to head that way – I had heard good things about the town from my mom and dad. We listened to the Giants game on the radio while en route and had to pull over in the middle of the ninth inning to give Sergio Romo our full attention. And…yessssss! Despite my bitter doubts, our team is moving on to the next round. We whooped it up for a minute there in the car, then set out to celebrate. Bentley’s in Woodstock was the perfect place to grab a drink and revel in our victory – Shane raised his beer as a champagne-soaked Cain appeared on the TV over the bar.

We ate dinner back at the inn and ended the day with a cup of tea out by the firepit. I don’t know if it’s the brightly-colored leaves or the ultra-charming towns or the extreme calm and quiet, but dang, I really, really love it here. I’m not sure what kind of a living an architect and a systems engineer could make in rural Vermont, but I may be checking those want ads in the morning paper…