Good Times, Good Company

 "Vermont day" was a milestone day in the New England trip my husband and I took. It was literally the middle day of the trip, we had a number of big stops planned, and I was going to see a dear friend for the first time in more than a decade.

But it began at Sunset Hill House, the bed and breakfast where we'd stayed the night. We'd talked the night before about how maybe in the morning, we'd sip coffee at one of the tables out front and enjoy the view. But now that morning had come, it felt a touch too cold. That turned out to be fortuitous, because we instead found the reception room at the back of the house, where we could comfortably sit inside, on couches, enjoying this view out the large windows:

Then we hit the road, driving into Vermont to the Rock of Ages Quarry. Vermont is known for its granite, and this quarry has (they say) a supply of thousands of years to take from. Their white granite doesn't end up as anyone's kitchen countertops; their specialty is enormous pieces that have become parts of solemn memorials and stately buildings around the world. On their tour, you go to an overlook on the massive quarry pit itself, where you see all manner of machinery busily at work. Occasionally, a useless piece of slag is dumped over the side wall, where it splashes down in the water hundreds of feet below in an echoing boom that sounds like explosive blasting. It was quite a sight (and sound)! A second leg of the tour would have let us see inside the facilities where they polish up the massive chunks for ultimate use... but we had a schedule to keep that day and unfortunately couldn't linger for more.

Next we drove to Hill Farmstead Brewery, a significant stop for a couple of reasons. First, it has an elite reputation in beer snob circles. Year after year, it places at or near the very top of the list of rated craft breweries. It is often claimed to be, put simply, The Best Brewery in the United States. Occasionally, it's even held up as one of the best in the world. If we were going to put a gold pin on our brewery map for the state of Vermont, it could hardly have come from anywhere else.

The brewery is quite out of the way, a trek to quite literally a farmstead on a hill, at the end of a long dirt road that apparently becomes completely impassible for anything but a truck in the winter months. It made for a beautiful view on this early fall day, though. And the beer? Well, let's be honest: no thing is going to stand up to the billing of being best in the country. But what we had was tasty; not especially experimental, but rock solid.

The company I kept, however? Delightful. Years ago, while working at Decipher, I forged a friendship that would last a lifetime. My dear friend and I literally live in different countries now, and I hadn't seem him in over a decade. But we still text and email each other all the time, sharing all the important developments in our lives. It doesn't feel like it's been a decade. Nevertheless, it was a thrill that my friend drove down from Canada to spend the afternoon with us. It was especially great that my husband at last got to meet my, as he liked to put it, imaginary "Canadian boyfriend." We enjoyed beers at Hill Farmstead... not exactly "catching up," as there was no need for that. Just enjoying that we actually got to spend time together.

As a trio, we headed south into Vermont toward the Ben & Jerry's factory. But we had a little time before our scheduled tour, so we stopped at the nearby Cold Hollow Cider Mill. We'd hoped to get some late lunch there, but unfortunately arrived just as they'd stopped serving anything but cider donuts. Those New England treats, somewhere between a cake donut and a bread, were something I'd heard I had to try on the trip, and so having that chance here was fine. But sweet dessert on top of sweet cider, with ice cream just around the corner? It quickly became too much.

When we did make it to Ben & Jerry's a short while later... I have to admit, I was a bit underwhelmed. I don't know if I was expecting an operation on the scale of say, Coors, whose massive facilities I've toured close to home here in Colorado. But it turns out that Ben & Jerry's ice cream is made in a single room that seemed shockingly small -- and you weren't allowed to take pictures of it. The entire process, through 8 stations, was described to us in a few minutes. Then everyone was led into another room for a free sample. And that was the whole tour. More fun was the "flavor graveyard" on a hilltop outside, where dozens of headstones marked different flavors of ice cream that have been discontinued by the company over the years.

One last stop with my friend joining us: that was at Smugglers' Notch Distillery. This was notable as a place that makes both its own spirits and its own maple syrup. And of course, it uses its own barrels from the former to make variants of the latter. I'd imagined visiting the actual site of all that tasty work, but the location turned out to be more of a retail front for the operation. Still, the bourbon and rye were fine, and the syrup sample good enough for us to get a variety pack to bring home and enjoy in the weeks ahead.

I wish that there had been time for a board game with my friend. But alas, we now parted ways, promising not to let it go another decade-plus before we meet again. Then my husband and I headed on to Burlington, where we had a nice dinner at a place called Leunig's Bistro, followed by one after-dinner drink at a bar across the street called The Whiskey Room (with a huge selection of whiskey, including scotches that would have cost as much for a single pour as every hotel room we stayed in for the entire trip).

The next day would be our biggest travel day of the vacation... but with interesting highlights nonetheless.