Vermont and a run in with Gustave

Alright, I think that our regulars haven't been getting their blog fix this week, sorry! Its been a manic week... or rather a manic weekend and several days of stress recovery!

So we packed up (or rather threw all our stuff into the boot of a rented car) last Friday and headed north into rural New England. City living was fun and all but it was time to follow the trees and see some of the countryside. Basically, we had spent some time watching episodes of the Gilmore Girls and wanted to see small town living Vermont style. On the 4 hour drive up through New Hampshire: "Live Fee or Die"... yes their state slogan was such a shock that I missed the camera op, so you'll just have to believe me... we stopped off in the White Mountain National Forest for a walk, a wonder and a run in with some pretty persistent mosquitoes.




By the late evening we arrived in Cabot where we met Lydia and her Mum... the plan was to meet her in town, when we asked where in town she replied that we'd know that when we got there. Turns out town was only two shops so all was well. We had a perfect evening in Caleb and Mary's farm house where we picked and ate the best sweetcorn I have ever tasted, home-grown burgers and many local favorites like local ales, dips and of course Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Thank you for having us!

As we woke up the next morning we found out that Hurricane Gustave was heading towards New Orleans and that our flight for the following morning was canceled. With a lot of help from Lydia and Peggy (Brock's mum) we avoided too much financial pain... sort of. Honestly, both of you deserve medals thank you soooooooooooooooooooo much. So hurricane or no we had not been deterred from visiting Ben and Jerry's factory on Saturday. It was tasty and filled us with dreams of creating an empire of ice cream!




To de-stress Lyds took us to Brock's bar/restaurant called Splash, on the Lake Champlain water front of Burlington (which is also really pretty). It was really beautiful and the water didn't smell like lakes in England. It was clear, fresh and bordered by distant mountains. Vermont really was the most beautiful place we've seen in America. Anyhoo, that in mind we got drunk... and took photos... eeek.

Next day we took a dip in their private beach which was realllllly cold but definitely chilled me out. I say we of course by that I meant me and Lydia , the boys were too chicken. HA. Then we headed out to the mountains to get a good view of the landscape... truly breathtaking. You all should go see it.



In the evening we were lucky enough to get an invite to the family corn-roast... even after we has been such a pain with stress and phone calls, can you believe it! We headed out into the sticks to Lydia's grandmothers farm. This was such a cool night, we got driven on a chevy truck thing to a field where a fire was lit and a buffet of homemade grub was laid out on the back of a truck. Our gift the the group was a pack of jammy-dodgers and some hobnobs. I think they went down pretty well!



Having Brock as a chef/tour guide we got to experience over the next few days the best breakfast places in town (they were amazing, i have a new appreciation of breakfast and its many forms). Throughout the week we camped at North beach, an amazing site right next to the water with amazing views across to the mountains, and spent 2 days wondering up and around the lake and the town, eating in cafes, going to tea shops, shopping and watching Tv at Lydia's.

Now we are sitting in LA after a 7hr flight across country, tomorrow we start our 28 day Trekamerica, so for those Blog junkies out there, expect some delays!! but we cant wait, its going to be amazing!!!