Following the success of our trip to Connecticut and Massachusetts in November last year, we were inspired to explore more of New England, particularly given the convenient direct flights which are available from Grand Cayman to New York JFK.
Friday 13 June
We left a rather warm and rather humid Grand Cayman on the Jet Blue flight on Friday afternoon, to land at New York's JFK airport in the early evening in the midst of an almighty thunder storm. A complete contrast to entering the USA through Miami, the queue for aliens was virtually non-existent and the Border Protection officers were not only civil, but good humoured too, being able to crack jokes with us about the extreme weather which had greeted us. Indeed, the weather was so bad that we were told there would be a delay in getting our bags as the thunder and lighting was so close that ground operations had been suspended for fear of the baggage handlers being the subject of a direct hit. Unfortunately that meant that our luggage had been sat on the tarmac for the best part of 10 minutes during the worst of the storm, and we were less than pleased to find that T's car seat had been out there long enough to get noticeably damp. Still, despite that minor setback, we were still through the airport, out to the car hire and on the road into New England within 1 1/5 hours of landing, which by our standards is pretty good.
Our final destination was a small town called Chester, up in the Green Mountains about 1/3 of the way into Vermont. However, given that we were not arriving into New York until the evening, and we had no particular rush to get there, we decided to break our journey with a stop at Milford, just down the road from New Haven in Connecticut (home of, amongst other things, Yale University). We woke fairly early the next morning, after a good rest (courtesy of the Hampton Inn) and were ready to hit the road again, with a rendezvous to pick up our keys in Chester at 3pm that afternoon.
Saturday 14 June
The drive upstate was easy and fairly uneventful, and as we were making good time we decided to take a brief diversion to Amherst, which is best known for its association with the poet Emily Dickinson, and is a delightful sleepy college town with a Georgian main square and ivy clad college buildings belonging to one or other of the five institutions which call the town home. There was a farmers market on in the main square as we passed through, but as T was sound asleep we passed over the opportunity to wander about in favour of a solid nap time sleep and the prospect of a decent lunch further up the road. Crossing the state border, we arrived in the town of Brattleboro, an industrial town which sprung up in the late 19th century, and which was given a new lease of life in the mid 20th century when the beatniks and the hippies moved in, and reclaimed it as a centre of counter-culture. The result is an eclectic mix of industrial architecture which has been turned into artists studios, cycle shops, yoga studios, outdoor outfitters and locally sourced fair trade restaurants and cafes. In a way, Brattleboro is a good advertisement for all that Vermont stands for - independent minded, proudly local, hardy and resilient, resourceful and civic minded, with a penchant for sticking it to the man. We found a great little cafe called "The Works Cafe and Bakery" on the main street for soup and a sandwich, which was lovely, and then set to exploring. There was something for each of us. I was happy to find not one but three bike shops, along with a huge outdoor outfitters spanning three stories of an old warehouse. The wife lost herself for a while in the antique stores lining the main street, and T marvelled at the old fairground carousel horse on display outside one of them. Eventually our parking meter ran down and we set off on the final portion of our journey to Chester. We covered last 30 miles or so 'cross country', leaving the interstate and heading down the back roads. Up to this point the scenery had been fairly uneventful, as while we had seen the backdrop of the green mountains for the last hour or so, the settlements we had passed through on the interstate were fairly large industrial towns. However, away from the lifeline of I91, the scenery was refreshingly different. Now we were passing through pastures with herds of cows (until the mid 1970s Vermont was best known for having more cows than people), alongside babbling brooks criss-crossed by the ubiquitous covered bridges for which New England is so well known, and through pre-revolutionary villages of white washed clapperboard houses which appeared to be suspended in time.
We finally reached our destination in the mid Saturday afternoon, and were delighted to discover that our lodging for the best part of the next week would be a delightful little 4 room cabin set on half an acre high up in the woods over Chester. We dumped our bags and ran back into town because (and this shows we have been in Cayman too long...) we were worried the shops would shut and not be open on Sunday. Of course, this being the real world there was no danger of that, and the local shopkeepers reassured us that they were open until at least 7pm that day, and that we would still be able to buy things on Sunday. We divided our resources - Bonnie hit the local grocery store, Lisais, which we were pleased to discover had a good range of local organic produce and a great butchery section, while Barn went over the road to the Mediteranean delicatessen to stock up on beer, wine and local cheese. Bliss! Groceries in hand we returned to the cabin to settle in and cook up dinner.
Sunday 15 June
The next morning we set out to get our bearings with an explore of the local area. First stop was Chester village, which we had not really spent any time in the previous morning. We grabbed a coffee from the Moon Dog cafe in the town, which was a fantastic little organic bakery (there is a trend here...) in the heart of Chester, and had a walk around the local cemetery. It had been flag day the day before, which is the day the Americans celebrate the introduction of their flag, during the first congress, and flags are flown and placed on the graves of American heroes. We were surprised to see so many flags in the graveyard placed on graves of soldiers who had fought during the war of independence - a reminder that we were in one of the original colonies, and the charter of the town pre-dated the United States as we know them...
Next stop on our local area tour was Ludlow, a sizeable town about 10 miles to the North West of Chester, which is the base town for the Okemo mountain ski area. As it was Father's Day, Bonnie and T treated Barn to lunch at the Pot Belly Pub, but T was more interested in the motorbikes which were parked outside. The bikers (who were actually a really friendly group of retirees - not your typical hells angels) noticed his interest, and let him touch the very highly polished motorbikes -apparently what he wants is a limited edition Harley Davidson Firebird, but we guess he will have to wait until he is at least 21 for that...
After lunch we explored Ludlow a little more, then took the rte 103 down through Springfield (apparently the Springfield, for Simpsons fans out there, which was chosen for the premier of the movie), a quiet former industrial town, which is now a typical Vermont mountain settlement, and on into New Hampshire, where we followed the Connecticut river downstream, passing through some picturesque villages before crossing back into Vermont at Bellows Falls, and heading back uphill to the village of Grafton, famed for its cheese (and also a very pretty old New England settlement, with picturesque village square and inn). We didn't linger long in Grafton, as T was getting sleepy, so we took a drive a bit further up the road to the nearby village of Weston, yet another pretty town, and also home of the Vermont Country Store. This is a fantastic shop, based around the old village store, selling local produce and handicrafts. After extensively sampling the full range of the comestible produce available in store, we stocked up on a selection of local cheeses and other delights and headed back to the lodge for an evening feast.
Monday 16 June
Having settled ourselves into the lodge and had a good explore of the area, we decided to head out for the day early on the Monday morning, and explore upstate. Our intended destination was Burlington, on the edge of Lake Champlain, and probably the largest town/city in the state, however as all good journeys should be, this trip was not about the destination, but about the journey, and we had planned a few stops on the way out/back to break up the drive (and to give T a chance to stretch his legs). We headed out North up the I-91, and then across towards Burlington on the I-89. Our first stop, after nearly two hours driving, was Montpelier, the state capital of Vermont. For a state capital, it was very small, consisting of just a few streets straddling the confluence of the Dog and Winooski Rivers, albeit with a very impressive gold-domed state house. However, Montpelier itself was not the reason for our stop - instead we were headed to the Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks, about 2 1/2 miles out of Town North on Main Street.
Morse Farm is (apparently) one of the oldest Maple Sugar producing farms in Vermont, where generations of the family have been tapping the trees in the "Sugar Bush" using techniques taught to them by the indigenous indian tribes for over 200 years. We were treated to a very informative video in the old woodshed, explaining the process, following which we were free to explore the sugar works, and walk the trail up through the sugar bush to see the trees being tapped. The highlight for Barn and Bonnie was being able to conduct a maple syrup "tasting" to learn the difference between the various grades of syrup. However, the highlight for TJ was undoubtably the old farm machinery around the farm which he was free to clamber on. He duly took up residence on an old red Massey Ferguson tractor, and would have been content to stay there all day but cruel as we may be branded, we prised him away, as more treats lay in store.
Our next stop was about 10 miles up the road in the town of Waterbury, and was to visit possibly the greatest and most recognisable land mark and symbol of Vermont in the world - not the hotel at the nearby ski resort of Stowe, but the Ben and Jerry's ice-cream factory! We took the 30 minute factory tour, which was very good - TJ was (as usual) fascinated by the machinery, and Bonnie and Barn were happy to finish his free samples for him, so everyone was a winner!
After all that sugar, we were getting rather peckish, and we pushed on for the last 25 miles to Burlington where we planned to find some lunch. Burlington is a very laid back and trendy town, and the influence of the large student population from the University of Vermont is clear. It is also a very outdoorsy town, with branches of outfitters such as The North Face and Patagonia lining the main street. We stopped for lunch in a lovely gastro-pub we found just of the main street, and then spent a good couple of hours exploring the town and nosing in the shops.
By this time it was mid-afternoon and Mr T's afternoon nap was fast approaching, for which the long car ride home would be perfectly timed, but there was just one more stop we needed to make before that (mostly for his benefit). Our final stop was at the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory in Shelburne, which is the only place in the USA where they make the traditional style "jointed" teddy bears from scratch. We were treated to a factory tour, and could see each stage of the creation of these wonderful toys, which TJ loved (although not as much as clambering over the piles of finished or near-finished bears at the end of the tour). For him (and us) the highlight, however, was choosing a new member of the Finnigan family to bring home with us. After much cuddling, tugging at fur and generally pawing the bears, TJ alighted on his new friend, who we have christened Chester after the town we were staying in. We also adopted another new family member, who we have called Ludlow, who will be sitting in wait for TJ's sibling, when they finally arrive...
After such a fun packed day, it was time to head back to our cabin in the woods in Chester, and plan our next day's activities.
Tuesday 17 June
Having had a very full day on the Monday, we decided to keep it local again on Tuesday, and revisit some of the places we had been earlier in the week. In particular, we had liked Ludlow and decided to explore the area around the town again. We headed north of the town and up to a set of waterfalls called the Buttermilk Falls, which were very picturesque and would make a great spot for some summer time swimming.
After a lovely walk down the riverbanks, we then headed up the rte100 towards the village of Plymouth, as the map showed that there were a string of lakes which looked nice. We were not disappointed. Our first stop was at a local furniture maker we passed called Clear Lake Furniture, where all the pieces are made on site from local resources. Then we headed on towards Lake Rescue and Echo Lake, where we came across the Camp Plymouth State Park, another great resource for exploring. After all that exploring we were getting hungry, so headed back to the village of Weston, where we had been before to visit the Vermont Country Store, and decided to stop for lunch at the Bryant House Restaurant, the family run restaurant which is run by the Ortons, who founded the Vermont Country Store. Like the store, the restaurant shares a similar ethos - good, traditional fare which has been locally sourced, and the menu reflected that, with lots of classic New England dishes such as Chicken Pie. After lunch we headed back to Grafton for a walk, and to explore some of New England's famed covered bridges.
Wednesday 18 June
By Wednesday we were ready for another trip out a little further afield, so we packed a picnic and headed out towards Manchester to visit Hildene house, the home of Robert Lincoln and his family. If the name sounds familiar, that is because he was the only surviving child of Abraham Lincoln, and went on to become the president of the Pulman company (who manufactured the plush rail cars used the world over) during the late 1800s. The house was a beautiful and perfectly sized Georgian revival property which was wonderfully located with views over the valley below, and very reminiscent of the Yorkshire Dales. We were the first people through the door, and the volunteers were wonderful with TJ, even going as far as giving him a one-off recital on the 1000 pipe organ located in the hallway. While the visit round the house was the draw for Bonnie and Barny, there was plenty for TJ too. In the grounds behind the house was a fully restored Pullman car that would have been used to transport dignitaries and VIPs in its day (the private jet of the rail age), which the volunteers let TJ run through. As if that wasn't enough there was then a ride on the tractor-tram through the woods and down to the home farm, which has been reinvented as an organic goat farm making boutique cheeses. We arrived just in time for the daily milking of the goats, and TJ was mesmerised watching the goats being herded into the milking room and then milked. Once we had been through the farm, we went to watch the baby goats playing in the field while we waited for the tractor-tram to take us back to the house again.
On our way home from Hildene we drove through the nearby town of Manchester and decided to stop for a coffee. Manchester is a lovely, and clearly very wealthy, New England town, with lots of nice shops and cafes. The lower half of the town is an open plan outlet village, with top end outlet stores filling existing and purpose built buildings, and there was plenty to browse.
Thursday 19 June
Having had a fairly busy week, we decided to spend our last full day in Vermont relaxing in the outdoors, so we packed a picnic and headed back to the Camp Plymouth State Park on Lake Echo. TJ busied himself playing on the climbing frame, and then chased daddy in the lake, which was not as warm as the Caribbean sea, to say the least...
Friday 20 June
Our last morning in Chester was spent tidying the lodge and packing up before hitting the road. Our destination for the day was Hartford, CT. Aside from being a convenient mid-point stop on our drive back to New York, Hartford was also the headquarters of Bonnie's old firm, and as she still knew a few people in town it made a convenient excuse for a catch up. While Bonnie went and met up with some old colleagues, Barny and TJ explored the centre of Hartford, and TJ made some new friends in the park. Later that afternoon, we all headed to Elizabeth Park on the outskirts of Hartford, a beautiful English style park with a gorgeous rose garden in the centre. As we were playing with a ball with TJ, he took his first linked steps. Then a few more, and then as his confidence grew started chasing his daddy around. By the end of the hour we spent there he was getting quite confident on this feet and we were both blown away and over the moon - however, we suspect we are about to be in for a shock, once his confidence (and mobility) improve...
Saturday 21 June
Our final destination was New York JFK, so we could get a good rest before our flight home on the Sunday morning, but that left us the whole day to get there. We had brunch arranged with some local friends, and then hit the road. We broke our drive at Norwalk, a former industrial town on the Connecticut coastline at the bottom of the I-95. We had planned on going to the recently opened aquarium as TJ loves watching the fish, but as we he was hungry we looked for somewhere to eat first, with a view to heading to the aquarium later. South Norwalk is clearly very up and coming, with lots of little bars and cafes, and we found a great place called The Brewhouse for a snack, but by the time we were done it was too late to fit the aquarium in as well, so we headed on for JFK.
Having threaded our way through the New York traffic, and carefully navigated the warren of streets around JFK, we pulled up at the Hilton Garden Inn, which is where we thought we were staying, only to find that we had actually managed to book ourselves into another hotel around the corner which is also confusingly called the Garden Inn (and not quite of the same calibre). With the last minute fire drill, we then had only minutes left to navigate back through the airport access roads to return the car, but made it in time (just). It did, however, add some un-planned and unexpected excitement to the end of our vacation.
All in all, the consensus is that we will be back to Vermont, just as soon as we can...!
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