Fall 2017 New England - Day 12

We had breakfast in the concierge lounge at the Marriott. After getting cleaned up, we caught a cab to Georgetown University. We met Jack for the 9:30 am Mass in Gaston Hall in Healy Hall. I was surprised how few people there were; I remember it as being packed last year. After Mass, the three of us walked to the reception in the Healy Family Center for donuts and coffee.

At this point, we said goodbye. I am actually coming back in three weeks and then Jack will be home for Thanksgiving in a little more than four weeks.

Sharon and I had a leisurely walk back to the hotel along P Street. The Marine Corp Marathon was going on in Washington DC. A number of streets in and around Rock Creek Park were closed.

After getting the room packed up, we had lunch at Cafe Deluxe (steak and tuna cobb salads). We had a late check-out of the hotel for 2:30 pm. We took an Uber SUV, a very comfortable suburban, to Dulles.

We caught a 5:20 pm United Flight direct from Dulles to Sacramento. We were on the ground a little early about 8:15 pm. Sharon's nephew Eric picked us up and we were home about 9:30 pm.

It was a great trip. We covered eight states, including Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland plus the District of Columbia. There were a few things that I would have done differently. I will try to do a trip summary in the next month.

Fall 2017 New England - Day 11

We slept in. After a quick breakfast in the concierge lounge, I did 30 minutes on the treadmill to stretch my legs, while Sharon meditated.

The plan for morning was a hike along Rock Creek Park. Last year, on Friday of the Family Weekend, we hiked from the Parkway Deli to Peirce Mill. We walked from the hotel along M Street to Rock Creek Park and headed upstream. We hike 4.25 miles along the park in an hour and twenty-five minutes and like last year ended up at Peirce Mill. A map of the hike is here.

We caught an Uber back to the hotel. After getting cleaned up, we walked to Georgetown. Sharon wanted to stop at the Nike store to look at some shoes for Jack. Unfortunately, I led her astray and we headed up beyond the store and had to back track.

From there, we walked on to the Georgetown Campus to the tailgate party for the football and soccer games. Like last year, the food was actually pretty good.

Jack spent the loin's share of the day studying for two midterms on Wednesday. Catching up with him, the three of us decided to head to the National Galley of Art. We wandered through the Dutch, German and Italian galleries for about an hour and a half. Jack has a midterm in his Art History class on Wednesday that covers a number of pieces that we looked at...

Catching an Uber back to the hotel, we spent some time relaxing and visiting in the room. Eventually, we wandered to a late dinner at Don Lobo's Mexican Grill. Like last Sunday night, I ended up getting some upsetting information on the way to dinner and was very distracted. Sharon and I both had crab and shrimp enchiladas, while Jack had a taco salad.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel. Jack took an Uber back to Georgetown University.

Fall 2017 New England - Day 10

When we were planning the trip, we spent some energy trying to figure out how to get from the Hidden Valley Bed & Breakfast in Connecticut to Washington DC for parent weekend. The flight and train options were expensive. By the time, you figured in dropping the rental car, catching the plane or train and then getting to the hotel, it would take almost as long as driving. We ended up deciding to drive the 320 miles.

Up at 6:00 am, we loaded up the car and were on the road before 6:45 am. Waze took us south across the northern tip of Manhattan, along the Jersey Turnpike past Philadelphia and through Baltimore. With two quick stops, it ended up taking about 6 hours and 45 minutes.

I dropped Sharon and the 130 pounds of luggage at the Georgetown Marriott. We are spending two night here on points. I then dropped the car at Hertz in the Washington Hilton. Less than a mile walk from the Georgetown Marriott, this worked out reasonably well as a place to drop the car. I would pick up or drop a Hertz car here again.

After I walked back to the Marriott, Sharon and I had a heavy snack at the bar. From there, we walked into Georgetown. Sharon did a little shopping on the way. Eventually, we got on to campus, picked up our parent weekend package and met up with Jack.

The three of us caught an Uber back to the Marriott and spent some time in the room visiting and catching up. After struggling socially his freshman year, Jack is settling to his sophomore year much better. He has a job with the Corp at Uncommon Grounds, has been working out with the climbing club and has joined the Knights of Columbus.

The three of us finished the night with dinner at Kaz Sushi Bistro. The food was fine, but nowhere as good as Mikuni's... Jack took an Uber back to campus.

Fall 2017 New England - Day 9

The plan for the day was a long hike along the Appalachian Trail. We had a communal breakfast at the Hidden Valley Bed & Breakfast with a couple from Missouri and an elderly couple and their Italian son-in-law. After the breakfast, we drove about 25 minutes east to Bulls Bridge.

It was a great hike. We covered about 5 miles in just under three hours. We hiked on the Appalachian Trail from the Bulls Bridge covered bridge to the top of Ten Mile Mountain and back. We were hiking right along the border between New York and Connecticut. If we had gone half a mile further, I think that we would have been in New York. I will post some maps in the next couple of weeks.

After the hike, we headed to Litchfield. Litchfield was the ending point of the Litchfield Hills Loop that we were following on Wednesday. We had lunch at the bar at the Village Restaurant.

After lunch, we walked around the town. Sharon got to explore a number of antique shops along the main street and we stopped and bought a bottle of wine.

Back in the car, we headed to New Preston. We had passed through this very small town on the way to the hike and she wanted to go back. There were a couple of more antique stores, including one that had the best selection of the type of pieces that she was looking for. Most of the pieces she liked are frankly out of our price range...

We headed back to the bed & breakfast. We spent some time on the back deck enjoying the view and having a class of wine.

Eventually, we got cleaned up for dinner. We finished the night with a late dinner at Arethusa al tavolo. I had Trio of Berkshire Pork (Tenderloin, Braised Bacon, Crepinette, Maple Glazed Carrots, Red Cabbage Gastrique), while Sharon had Roasted Mediterranean Sea Bass (Ratatouille, Chick Pea Cake, Citrus-Fennel Relish, Salsa Verde). When we sit down to look back on the trip, this dinner may be the best that we had!

Fall 2017 New England - Day 8

After a second night at the Birchwood Inn, we packed up, loaded the car and had a leisurely breakfast. We are continuing south. The plan for the day was another driving tour from the guide book. We followed the Litchfield Hills Loop.

We stopped in Norfolk. We walked through the beautiful Romanesque Revival library.

From there we headed to Lakeview. This area is home millionaires and movie stars such as Meryl Streep. Sharon saw a sign for a town called Sharon so we continued up the road. We stopped a took a number of pictures.

Getting back on path of the guide book tour, we stopped at the Limerick Race Track. Sharon wanted to stop there because Paul Newman had race there often. They actually let us in the facility and we drove around the infield and pit areas.

Driving through West Cornwall, we eventually stopped for lunch at the Fite N' Drum in Kent. From there we headed through Lake Waramaug to the Hidden Valley Inn. We got there about 2:00 pm, but the room wasn't ready yet.

Sharon wanted to visit antique stores as part of the trip. The town of Woodbury was billed as having over 30 dealerships and 20 stores along its historic main street. We headed there next. Unfortunately, the stores were spread over a couple of miles; they were not within walking distance. Additionally, some are closed. We ended up making five or six stops. It was a hassle from my perspective and somewhat of a bust from Sharon's perspective.

We ended up getting back to the Hidden Valley Bed & Breakfast about 4:00 pm. We are spending two nights. We unloaded the car and then took a bottle of wine and sat on the back den with our books. It is a great setting with a wonderful view of the valley. We have a very nice room: the blue master suite.

Originally, we were only going to spend one night. The next night we were going to head further south for one more night before the jump to Washington DC. After we booked the trip, the hotel for the last night was sold and we made a second night here. I am glad that we did...

We finished the night with dinner at at the White Horse Country Pub. I had Beef Stew and Sharon had a burger.

Fall 2017 New England - Day 7

When we were walking around Lennox on Monday, we passed an amazing Catholic Church (St. Ann) just a block from the inn. I persuaded everyone to get up early for the 7:00 am Mass. Much to Sharon's chagrin, the Mass turned out to be in the hall next to the church rather than in the church. We did find a side door open so we were at least able to walk through the church after Mass. Afterwards, Sharon, Tom and I had breakfast at the Birchwood Inn. It was a great spinach soufflé.

After breakfast, we made a quick stop at The Mount. This is Edith's Wharton's home. After some discussion, we decided not to wait until it opened and headed down the road.

The goal for the morning was the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. The museum exceeded my expectations. Rockwell's output was amazing. It includes an astonishing array of Saturday Evening Post covers, print advertisements, media promotional material (Stagecoach!) and portraits. I was particularly impressed with the portraits of Eisenhower, Nixon and Kennedy. They had a special exhibit contrasting Rockwell's works with Andy Warhol.

Given that Rockwell is viewed more as an illustrator than an artist, his works are not displayed at other museums. This is really the first chance that I have had to look at his art.

At this point, we parted ways with Tom. Both Sharon and I had thought that we were going to spend more time with Tom, but he seemed to be marching to a different drummer.

I have lamented in the past that we didn't have a guide book. This time we had Lonely Plant's New England's Best Trips. After parting ways with Tommy, we followed the Berkshire Back Roads trip.

We stopped in Stockbridge and walked around the town. From there we headed to Great Barrington. We parked and walked through the downtown. Based on a recommendation from the tour book, we did the river walk.

We continued winding our way through Monterey, Tryingham and Lee. We eventually stopped at Cranwell for a snack. Sharon had been talking about nachos for an hour. Amazingly, they had nachos!

Sharon had talked off and on about spending a couple of summer weeks in the Berkshires some day. Based on our driving tour, I was not impressed.

After a nap, we finished the night with dinner at the Wheatley Hotel. This will probably be our most upscale meal of the trip. We had the four course meal. I had Swordfish as the entree, while Sharon had Arctic Char.

Fall 2017 New England - Day 6

After last year's summer vacation that featured several long days of driving, we designed this trip with bit sized jumps on the travel days. After yesterday's two plus hour jump to Walpole, today featured another two plus hour jump to Lenox, Massachusetts.

Tom, Sharon and I had a leisurely breakfast with two other guests at the Inn at Valley Farm. The owner had a long soliloquy about the farm's operations.

Leaving the Inn late, Tom went on ahead. Sharon and I made stops at Alyson's Orchard and Burdick's Chocolates. We had a hot chocolate at Burdick's and then walked around Walpole a little.

Getting back in the car, we headed south. We took the Mohawk Trail Scenic Byway west across Massachusetts. It was a beautiful drive. We stopped in Shelburne Falls. We walked through town, looked briefly at the glacial pot holes and walked across the Bridge of Flowers.

We took a very brief drive though Williams College before turning south towards Lenox. We are spending two nights at the Birchwood Inn in Lenox. Tom is spending one night here before he moves on.

After getting settled in the rooms, the three of us explored Lenox. We ended up at the Get Lit wine bar in The Bookstore. We had a couple of glasses of wine with the owner [Matthew].

We had dinner at Alta. Sharon had Coq Au Vin, Tom had trout and I had pasta with shrimp. Sharon was very disappointed in the meal.

The three of us finished the evening with dessert and coffee in the library at the Birchwood Inn.

Fall 2017 New England - Day 5

Up early, Sharon and I took off to hike the Crawford Path Trail. We hiked about 1.30 miles round trip in about an hour to Gibbs Falls and back.

Heading back to the hotel, we got cleaned up and packed up the room. Putting the luggage in the car, we had a buffet breakfast in the main dining room of the hotel. We spent almost exactly 48 hours at the hotel!

The plan for the day was to head South. We designed the vacation with about two hour jumps between stops. At breakfast, we decided to head to the Long Trail Brewery. This side trip took us about 30 minutes off Highway 91 through Woodstock, New Hampshire. Sharon really liked Woodstock; the Woodstock Inn and Resort is on the itinerary for a future trip.

From the Long Trail Brewery, we headed to Morgan and David's new house in Acworth. They bought a 19th century schoolhouse about two weeks ago. I really liked their new house. Sharon's brother Tom met up with us at Morgans. He will be traveling with us for the next two days.

After a brief stop, we headed to the Inn at Valley Farm. Tom, Sharon and I are spending one night here.

The three of us took off for an early dinner at Leslie's Tavern in Rockingham>. We met Morgan and David there for dinner. Sharon had Halibut, Tom and Morgan had lamb chops, David had surf and turf and I had salmon.

We had a very nice dinner that got sidetracked by some upsetting developments. Given that Morgan and I were together, we were able to piece together some puzzle pieces that had been bothering me since Saturday. This put a number of efforts in motion and put a damper on the evening...

Fall 2017 New England - Day 4

Up fairly early, we got coffee and bagels at the hotel. The plan for the day was to take the 9:30 am cog train to the top of Mount Washington. When I went to get coffee, I noticed that the top of the mountain was shrouded by clouds. It didn't get any better over the course of the day. Yesterday when we got to hotel, the top of the mountain was clear!

We got to the Mount Washington Cog Railway just before 9:00 am. The visibility got increasing bad as we went up the mountain. At the top, you could see about 50 yards and the wind was about 30 miles an hours. We spent a little over an hour at the top, including touring the museum. Although the museum was not worth the price of admission ($2), I was amazed by the stuffed fox.

As we went down the mountain, the visibility cleared up. We got some great views.

We headed back to the hotel for lunch. We had a great table outside at Stickney's. Sharon had a chopped salad, while I had a melted salmon sandwich.

After lunch, we headed to Crawford Notch State Park for a hike. We hiked the Sam Wiley trail to the Appalachian Trail. We then hiked back along the Westside Trail. This turned out to be a little bit of a mistake. While the trail was well marked, it was not well traveled or maintained. It was very slow going. We ended up hiking just under 3 miles in two hours.

Back at the car, we drove about 15 miles further up the road before heading back to the hotel. While we were told that the peak of the foliage was a week ago, the scenery was still amazing.

We finished the night with a late dinner at the Bretton Arms dining room. This was the best dinner we had on the trip so far. After splitting a Tempura Artichoke (Crispy Prosciutto, Charred Baby Bell Peppers, Vermont Goat Cheese Pesto), I had Misty Knoll Statler Chicken Breast (Guajillo Chili Roasted Chicken, Grilled Corn, Chorizo, Sweet Onions, Queso Fresco Grits, Chicken Jus), while Sharon had Herb Roasted Rack of Colorado Grass Fed Lamb (Crispy Potato Au Gratin, Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Green Apple, Black Fig Demi Glace). For dessert, we had Maple Creme Brûlée. The chicken was very good; I never order chicken in a restaurant!

We went with their suggested wine pairing, including: Erath, Pinot Gris, Oregon with the starter; Jelly Jar, Old Vine Zinfandel, Nova Vineyard, Lake County, California with my entree; Mollydooker, The Boxer, Shiraz, Australia; and, Eden, Ice Cider, Heirloom Blend, Vermont with dessert.

Although we promised each other that we are going to check out the Cave speakeasy, we passed and crashed in the room...

Fall 2017 New England - Day 3

Up fairly early, we had got cleaned up and had a lackluster continental breakfast. After breakfast, we walked about half a mile to the Vermont State House. With a population of only slightly more than 7,000, Montpelier is the smallest state capital. The building exceeded my expectations; I enjoy the intersection of architecture, history and geography.

We rolled from the Inn about 9:45 am. We are heading east to New Hampshire. After some debate, we made a stop at the Cabot Creamery. We watched a short video, did a tour of the cheese plant and tasted a wide variety of cheese. We also stopped very briefly at the Goodrich Maple Farm.

We got to the Omni Mount Washington Hotel about 12:45 pm and were in the room by 1:00 pm. The view of Mount Washington and and the surrounding area is spectacular. We had lunch in the hotel at the Rosebrook Bar (chowder, chicken sandwich and crab roll). The view from our table was amazing. After exploring the property for a while, we did a 50 minute history tour of the hotel; there was just Sharon and I plus one other person with the docent.

We crashed in the room for awhile. Eventually, I took my book down, sat on the verdana and watched the sun go down.

We finished the night with a late dinner in the main dining room. We started with Tasso Ham and Crab Stuffed Oysters. We spilt a Signature Caesar salad. For entrees, Sharon had Maple Braised Beef Short Rib (Pappardelle Pasta, Roasted Mixed Mushrooms, Asparagus, Tomatoes, Spinach, Mozzarella Pearls, Toasted Pine Nuts, Red Wine Veal Reduction) and I had Georges Bank Scallops (Green Pea Purée, Artichoke Rice Cakes, Peppers, Spinach, Mango Pineapple Cipollini Relish, Cashew Crumbs). We walked through the Cave speakeasy before crashing for the night.

With this dinner, we celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. This year, we picked out some presents ahead of time. Sharon got some David Yurman earrings to match the bracelet that I got her last year, while I got two Apple Watch bands.

Fall 2017 New England - Day 2

Not moving very fast, Sharon and I eventually got dressed and out for the morning. We walked the length of the Church Street Marketplace. The Church Street Marketplace Vermont Roadside Historic Marker is here. With very few places open, we eventually settled on a coffee and some scones at Uncommon Grounds. Jack is actually for a franchise of the same company on the Georgetown campus.

From there, we wandered down to the waterfront. The plan for the morning was a cruise on Lake Champlain on the Spirit of Ethan Allan. This exceed my expectations. The weather was nice. We got a great view of the city and the surrounding area. They did a nice job providing an overview, facts and history of the lakes and the area.

After a quick stop at the hotel, we had lunch at American Flatbread. We had a couple of lunch specials with the Evolution Salad and a couple of mini-flatbreads. We enjoyed sampling a number of beers from the Zero Gravity local brewery. During lunch, Sharon said "I could definitely live here."

With a late check out from the hotel, we walked back through the Church Street Marketplace. Although everything was closed when we walked through looking for breakfast, the area was crowded with people having lunch. Sharon made a quick stop in Macy's and then we headed back to pack up the room.

Leaving Burlington, we headed to Stowe. We are going to work our way east over the next couple of days. Parking in Stowe, we walked through the main part of town and then down to the Stowe Recreational Trail. We walked about two and a half miles out and back including parts of the Quiet Path.

We headed next to the Von Trapp Lodge. For the second time during the day, my expectations were exceeded. Given that we had taken a four hour Sound of Music tour last summer in Salzburg, it was a natural to stop at the lodge. I was impressed by the setting and the outside of the building. Sharon and I sat outside and enjoyed a couple of adult beverages.

Trying to get to Montpelier before dark, we continued east. We are spending one night at the Inn at Montpelier. We are staying in room one.

We finished the night with dinner at Kismet. We had a great meal of oysters, seared beef, halibut and polenta fries. Sharon judged the meal better than the first night!

Fall 2017 New England - Day 1

Up about 4:30 am, Sharon and I had her nephew Eric take us to the airport. We caught a United 7:45 am flight from Sacramento to Dulles. This was followed by a 5:20 pm flight from Dulles to Burlington, Vermont. Using a bushel of airline miles, Sharon upgraded us to first class on both legs. It was very nice; I could get used to flying first class...

We hit the ground in Burlington just after 7:00 pm, collected our luggage and picked up a Hertz rental car. We are spending one night at the Courtyard Burlington Harbor.

Sharon made a late dinner reservation for the Hen of the Woods. After some oysters, we had small plates including Grilled Octopus (Sunchokes, Scallions, Ginger), Hen of the Woods Mushroom Toast (House Bacon, Poached Farm Egg) and Ox Tail.

After a quick nightcap at the bar at the Courtyard, I finished the night watching game five of the Yankees versus the Indians American League Championship Series. The Yankees won by the score of 3 to 2 and eliminated Indians.