It's Friday, it's Friday, it's the end of the week!* This is the song I sing to Mason to wake him up on Friday mornings, and if I forget, he sings it to me.I feel a little more back in the swing of my normal life but like always, there is still so much to do. I promised myself I would not let the weekend come without writing at least one of my last weeks Monday Motivators so grab your coffee and enjoy.
It's no secret how I love autumn and the fall colors. Dave has been talking about a trip to New England in the fall for as long as we've been married so last year he started planning the jaunt for our 10 year wedding anniversary. For Christmas he gave me a New England calendar and a vacation tour book and noted some of the plans he had already made. We flew into Boston on Saturday and spent the day walking, walking, walking, eating, drinking, walking and walking some more. What an impressive city! It was a gorgeous day with unseasonably warm weather, perfect for seeing the Freedom Trail, the waterways, and so many of the historical monuments. I was especially moved by the Memorial Garden made up of thousands of military dog tags honoring our armed services. The artist that created that memorial did an amazing job, really amazing. Something I found interesting in Boston was their farmers market. It was massive and as we approached it I asked Dave, "What/where are the outlying areas that grow the fresh produce?" He said he wasn't sure, but clearly there had to be rural agricultural areas within driving distance. Of course I thought. As I walked through the market I noticed that nearly all the produce was imported. The fruits had stickers on them, some of the vegetables were bagged and basically, it was the produce department of your local grocery store outside. Though it was big, and colorful, it didn't really seem like a farmers market to me. I admit, I'm spoiled with Placer Grown real food and living in a state with such rich agricultural roots. The farm-to-table concepts were alive an well in Vermont though! More on that when I get to Vermont. We didn't have enough time in Boston (or any of the places we went for that matter), but we had to head south to see Dave's sister JK and her husband Jim. We spent a night with them and had a wonderful visit. They live on several acres and have a lake in their backyard. We sat by the lake with a glass of wine and watched the sun go down, it was just magical.
Sunday we headed north through the back roads of Mass to Vermont. We spent very little time on the major highways so our trip was almost exclusively scenic. We had some goals for our trip, of course to renew our wedding vows (Dave planned all of that with the minister, the Inn, flowers and more!), but we also intended to see a moose, visit several forts, and I wanted to get several specific photos. We've all seen the amazing images that come out of New England in the fall and I wanted to shoot some of those myself. I wanted some sort of abundant pumpkin patch with flowers and scarecrows surrounded by all the colors, a covered bridge, a brook or creek with red maple leaves all around, and of course a reflection shot. Additionally, we brought one of my painted rocks with us and photographed it along the way. I will post lots of pictures on my blog and send the link out once they are up.
The colors were not what I expected when we arrived and I wondered if I had set the bar too high. I mean, they were pretty, but not like the photos I had seen. I started to get an inkling that maybe those images were not exactly what the human eye really sees, if you know what I mean. We had lunch at The Golden Eagle in Vermont, known as the restaurant on "The Famous Hairpin Turn" and the view was beautiful. It seemed to me that the colors had not arrived yet though the locals were saying, "Look! Their here!" We continued on to our Inn making a few stops along the way, one being The Vermont Country Store. You might know this store from the catalog, but let me share with you, it's impressive. They carry all the touristy stuff, unique clothes, local artists work, and all kinds of retro candy, toys and gifts. You can get stuff like Gee, You're Hair Smells Terrific! shampoo and conditioner. Do you remember that from the 1970s? Well, back then it was $1.98 a bottle and today to have your hair smell terrific will set you back $14.99 per! They carry a wonderful selection of meats and cheeses, candies and wine. We picked up some venison sausage and it was to die for! Just one of those shops you can browse and shop in for hours.
We arrived at The Weathersfield Inn after dark but it was fun to pull in the driveway and see the historic house all lit up. Our room was small but quaint with a fireplace and claw foot tub. Here's where our trip really gets good, with the food that is! The Inn keepers have a garden and work with the local farmers to create a menu that is truly farm-to-table. All the selections were of seasonal fare and Dave and I both had meals that were like none we've ever eaten. If we are friends on Facebook, you got to see many of the delicious meals we ate along the way. Monday morning we got an early start to photograph the Jenne Farm (the most photographed farm in America) and to toodle Vermont, oh and go see our moose. Yes we did, we intended to see the moose on Monday! The folks at the Inn let us know it was dawn and dusk that were the likely times and probably near water. On our scenic drive, I noticed that there were bouts of vibrant color, but not really that much more impressive than what we have here in northern CA but when we did round a corner to a bouquet of WOW, Dave heard me gasp, and OOOH & AHHH! What he heard more than anything else in 10 days was, "So pretty. It's just all so pretty." He can hear it in his sleep. Laughing! We stopped at a park, one of those just a little sign and a gravel parking lot on the side of the road to have a picnic lunch and as I gathered my camera Dave boldly said, "Kathy, there's a moose!" I hurried softly (that sounds like a contradiction, but it is exactly what I did) and sure enough, in the trees right there at the start of the trail head was a young bull moose. He just looked at us, kind of like Spencer does, let me take his picture and then walked away. We couldn't have been more thrilled, we high-fived and whoo-hoo'd. We started back toward the park and when we realized the pond was more than 2 miles in, we decided to get back on the road and see more and hike less. Not only that, we had seen our moose, we didn't need the pond. As we came back out on the road, there were 3 moose running along the freeway back into the woods. Seeing them was less impressive than being face-to-face, but it was cool to see more than one, and let me share with you, they are big!
Let's stop here and I'll pick up with more fun in my next post. I have several really funny stories and lots of great pictures to come!
* Posted on Friday 10/21 due to travel.
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