After Florida I went to Vermont, February 2018

From blistering heat to bitter cold, from sand to snow, I traveled from Orlando to Philadelphia and up the East coast to visit friends who had moved to Bennington, VT. The older kids had other things going on, so it was just the twins, Mr. Fantastic and myself for this adventure.

We drove on country roads as we got closer and soon saw a tall monolith on a hill. We went directly there and found a locally contentious memorial dedicated to the 1777 Battle of Bennington, which actually occurred across the border in New York state about 10 miles away. The Vermont site is, however, almost at the exact spot where a certain Catamount Tavern used to be, and we all know which the soldiers preferred so it all works out ok. It is very tall and isn’t open in February, by the way.

Below are the twins with John “live free or die” Stark

Bennington was adorable, we especially liked the candy store we found! Here I am (below) with chocolate moose! Two of them! This was at The Village Chocolate Shop. And for those of us who don’t eat refined sugar, this may not be a secret but it was a lovely fact- Vermont has maple syrup everywhere! I had a maple latte, maple cream pretzels, maple pecans, and maple syrup on unsweetened (well probably not 100% sugar free) pancakes. We also liked The Brown Cow Café.

I took a lot of pictures, everything is just too beautiful. Here’s our friend’s gorgeous house, with a cozy fireplace:

And their neighbor has horses and a barn, so picturesque:

We went to a nearby town called Manchester and spent time at the Northshire Bookstore. It has a loft in the kids section!

Our friends hooked us up with housing at the Bennington campus in an adorable little place.

And to top it all off, it SNOWED!!!!! You need that for the full Vermont experience.

It was so beautiful watching the snow out the window from the cozy places we were at- bookstore, little red house on campus, fireside at our friends’ house.

The area has little rock walls, winding roads, and houses with cedar shingles. The skies were beautiful. The campus was cute.

Vermont is really not too far away and I plan to go back to do more exploring of The Green Mountain State.

Ohio, May 2018

Nothing major to report on this trip. We went to see my parents, which is exceedingly difficult now that the kids have so much going on and I have to work weekdays. We did have the excitement of a kitten in the car! Kermit Serendipity Marvelous, or Kiki for short, is an adorable street cat rescued by the kids who we are fostering and maybe keeping. We figured she would be happier with us than at home with bachelor-for-the-weekend Poppa. Here are notes from this trip:

Unseasonably hot.

Garage sales, thrift stores, and strip malls

Agatha Christie movie- 2017 version of Orient Express movie. My mom and daughter are Agatha Christie fans, I guess it skipped a generation!

Patio furniture, grill, watermelon, ice cream cake

Biking with my dad around the development

Drive back through rural pa- Pine Grove was an especially cute town we passed through