The Breuers: Vermont

Joseph and I went to Vermont the weekend of September 26 to attend my friend Ali's wedding. She grew up in Vermont before moving to Atlanta in middle school, and her parents have now moved back there since they're retired. We were excited to attend - for the wedding, of course, but also because we had never been to Vermont.

Joseph's parents volunteered to watch Lola, so they arrived Thursday night. I was a little nervous since we had only left Lola once before, and it was for less than 48 hours (she stayed at Julie's when we went to Cabin Fever in March). But Diane didn't seem worried, and I explained everything about Lola's routine and where things were in our house while trying not to go overboard (although Joseph will say I did).

We flew up very early Friday morning, connecting at LaGuardia. We arrived around 1 and headed downtown to get lunch. We ate at a delicious pizza place called American Flatbread, which Paige had recommended. After lunch, we met up with Paige and Courtney and took them to their place (they rented through AirBnB). We checked in at our bed and breakfast, the Willard Street Inn, and it was beautiful! The woman that checked us in told us about the B&B and showed us around. We were the only people checking in at the time, and it was nice to have the personal attention. We stayed in the Rose Garden room on the third floor. It was a very nice room - quite large and with a king bed - although Joseph did hit his head on the angled ceilings a few times. We caught up with Sarah and Ben, who were staying in the room next door, and then we walked around the gardens for a bit. Then I took a short nap before getting ready for the rehearsal dinner.

The rehearsal dinner was at Halvorson's Upstreet Cafe in downtown Burlington, They had a great patio out back, which was a little chilly, but fine with the heat lamps. We mingled with the other guests and had a nice dinner. We knew a few other people there in addition to Paige, Courtney, Sarah, and Ben - mainly other Georgia Tech people, but also a few of Ali's Denver friends that I had met before. After dinner, we dropped Sarah and Ben off at Nectar's (Ben's "mecca", as it is where Phish played before they got famous) and Paige off at her place (Courtney and Joey went out to some bars); then we headed home.

Saturday morning we got up early and had breakfast with Sarah and Ben at the B&B. The breakfast there was amazing - you got to choose from an egg dish or a sweet dish, and they changed every day. They brought us coffee and a basket of delicious pastries to eat while we waited for our food. Everything was just great. After breakfast, we picked up Paige, Courtney, and Joey and headed to Waterbury. We started out at Ben & Jerry's and did the factory tour. They weren't producing ice cream since it was the weekend, but it will still neat to see where they make it. And we also got a free sample of their flavor of the day, orange cream. In addition to the sample, Paige, Joseph, and I bought ice cream cones. I had the maple and walnut flavor, which was delicious.

From Ben & Jerry's, we headed to the Cabot Cheese Annex. It turned out to be more of a store than a cheese-making factory, but there were a ton of cheese and food samples, so we enjoyed it. Probably too much - not sure it was smart to eat a ton of ice cream and cheese before noon. I also stopped in the Lake Champlain Chocolates shop to buy a few sweets, including a present for Lola.

We headed to downtown Waterbury (which is really only about 4 blocks) for lunch. Courtney and Joey opted to drink their lunch at a local brewery, while the rest of us had a small lunch (like I said - so much cheese and ice cream). After lunch we went back to Burlington to rest up before the wedding.

The wedding was the Burlington Country Club. The weather was just perfect - they said it was unseasonably warm. The sun was shining and the temperature was comfortable until the sun went down. The ceremony was outside on the lawn and was beautiful. Then we all went inside for the reception. There was a cocktail hour and then a seated dinner. It was a lot of fun, although I must admit not as much fun as if I had been drinking :) Paige and I commiserated with each other. But I still enjoyed hanging out with friends and celebrating with Ali, and I did indulge in one glass of wine with dinner.

Ali had asked me to be her getaway driver since I would be sober, and I was honored to do so. I drove her mom's car, and I pulled it up to the walkway before their exit. They ran through a line of guests with sparklers (twice) and then into the car. Joseph and I drove them to their hotel, and it was nice to have a few quiet minutes with Ali and Mike. Joseph thought about going out after with Courtney and Joey, but we both ended up just going to bed.

Sunday morning Joseph and I drove to Shelburne Farms to explore the farm. If you didn't know, Joseph's dream is to have his own farm, so he was excited to visit. We rode a tractor from the parking lot to the main farmhouse. They had several animals (chickens, cows, goats) and a little garden. There were activities throughout the day, one of which was milking a cow, so I got to milk a cow (it was a bunch of kids and then me). They also run a cheese-making facility there, so we got to see cheese being made. We did a short hike up to the highest point of the farm, and it was beautiful. We could see lake Champlain and the surrounding hills. We had lunch outside at the farm, and then we went back to our car.

We drove around for a bit, just exploring the countryside. It is very pretty up there, even though the leaves hadn't started changing yet. We went back to the B&B and considered going to Ali's lakehouse (she had invited us), but I decided I was just too tired. We took a nap and then had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, Trattoria Delia, in town before going to bed early.

Monday morning we had to check out of the B&B. We had a bit of a flight emergency when our flight to LGA was delayed, which would have made us miss our connection, but luckily we found out about it early and Delta was able to rebook us on United to Dulles. We went to town to shop for presents for Joseph's parents and Lola, had a quick lunch, and then went to the airport.

We made it home without any trouble, and we got to our house while Diane was still putting Lola to bed. So we got to see her and say good night, which was nice. We really missed her!