Vermont Part 3: Miscellaneous

The Vermont story continues. We left Burlington Monday mo headed to Adam and Marcy's newly purchased home in Northfield. Northfield is 10 miles south of Montpelier, which is a substantial distance by Vermont standards. Our week was spent exploring this part of the state, entertaining Sophia, and relaxing. Josh went on numerous mountain bike rides with Adam (see previous post). I mostly sat around being grumpy as I had a limited capacity to eat and talk (see previous post).


The new house.


One of Sophia's favorite activities is painting the cars (with water of course).

We headed to the Green Mountains on Friday night to camp near the race Saturday morning. Race details to come in Part 4. The plan was to camp again Saturday night, but the mosquitoes were so bad that we had to spend every moment inside the tent. As 100% DEET wasn't keeping these hungry guys away, Marcy's organic bug repellent certainly wasn't stopping any bites. We were all so miserable that we returned to Northfield Saturday evening. Sunday we headed to Waterbury, where we mountain biked, ate ice cream, hung out at a brew pub , and swam at a waterfall.


At Ben and Jerry's. I have a horrible ice cream addiction. In an effort to be healthier, I stopped ice cream cold turkey in March. As a post-race celebration, we went to this famous ice cream location. We didn't actually take the factory tour, just stopped for a treat.


You will notice I am purposefully smiling with my mouth closed.


On Monday, Josh and I ventured out on our own to Smugglers Notch, a must see according to our hosts. This was a pretty cool area where the cliffs formed a narrow notch just big enough to drive through. We had planned to climb to the highest point in the state, but the weather had different plans. It had been warm and sunny that morning, so Josh and I were wearing shorts when we stepped out into the cloudy, windy, cold air at the top of this pass. We ended up eating our picnic lunch in the car and driving the scenic route home.

During our trip, Josh and I observed a few things about Vermont that we found odd. First Vermont is small compared to the Western states, but natives seem to think it is just as big. A two hour drive seems like a ridiculously long distance to cover in one day.


Also, Vermont has a couple road signs in kilometers. And these signs are in the middle of the state, not next to the Canadian border.


During our journeys though the Vermont back roads, we also got to see numerous covered bridges.

Josh and I had a fantastic trip to Vermont and we are so grateful to Adam and Marcy for their hospitality. We hope to return to Vermont someday, maybe in the winter to experience skiing in the Northeast.