Vermont Trip - May 2012, Part 2

Click here for part 1

We awake on Saturday, and head to the Deli/Brewery for coffee and pastries.  We then put rubber to the road and head into Burlington for a day of exploration.

This is a BAD panoramic, but that's New York across Lake Champlain

View down the main street of the market

Unknown to us, every Saturday, Burlington hosts an open market.  We found some AWESOME stuff there.  Wine was tasted, cheese was eaten, hot sauce... survived.  Bought the requisite maple syrup, some wine and tasty jam. 

Burlington is a really neat town.  Right on the shore of Lake Champlain, it was really easy to navigate and find our way.  Granted, we only stuck to one street, but still, we did not get lost.  :-)

Dogbite Bitter

So, after fully exploring this market, we were getting a tad on the hungry side.  Where else to eat but the Vermont Brewing Company!  As pictured to the right, I sampled their Dogbite Bitter.  Their newspaper style menu suggested this be paired with fried foods, so I ordered their fish and chips.  Beer was great, fish and chips, mediocre.  But I got a healthy portion, so that made up for the lack of quality.

At this point, we decided it was time to go take a break and see Dark Shadows (more on that movie in another post).  But first, we made the life changing decision to get a light snack from this place called My Little Cupcake.  Oh. My. Thor.

My Little Cupcake sells mini cupcakes.  Leanda and I got an order of six, and each chose three.

Holy delicious Batman!

Clockwise from upper left: Red Velvet, Coconut Lime, Mint Chocolate, Maple Bacon, Salted Caramel and Chocolate2. I can only personally vouch for the bottom three, but these are the bomb!  I could go on about these all day, but trust me.  If you are ever in Burlington, go here.

On our way back to the Trapp Family Lodge, we swung through the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream factory.  Neat little place.  Took a tour.  It was pretty neat; got a free sample, so that was cool.

Onto dinner at a place called Michael's On The Hill.  While the dinner was truly amazing, it was the cheese board.

Look at this thing!

Now, I've got cheese plates at other places.  But those plates usually just had the cheese, some grapes and some crackers.  Not here!  Starting at your left, I got a peach chutney, raspberries, apple, candied mango, local honey and strawberries.  Oh, and no simple crackers here.  Fig wheat bread.  Nom. Nom. Nom.

So, as you saw, Vermont is awesome.  Go there.  Look for more pictures on my Flickr feed (23 Frames a Second)

Vermont Trip - May 2012, Part 1

So this past weekend, Leanda and I took a trip up to Stowe, VT.  We love it up there!  We stayed at the Trapp Family Lodge, spent the day in Burlington, hit some breweries, saw Dark Shadows, and had a FANTASTIC meal at a little place.  To the pictures!

Our first stop was actually the Yankee Candle Flagship store in Massachusettes.  Took no pictures there, but boy is that place MASSIVE.

Leanda and her Blackberry Wheat

Me and the Belgian Double White

Next, we hit up the Long Trail Brewing Company in Bridgewater Corners, VT.  I've had a few of their ales before, and I looked forward to stopping here.  Leanda had the Blackberry Wheat ale, and rather enjoyed it along with their Grilled Portobella Sub.  I opted for something from their Brewmaster's Collection, a Double Belgian White.  Now that was a tasty brew.  Paired with their  Long Trail Bratwurst, this made for a fine late lunch.

Our journey then took us to the Ben and Jerry's factory.  But, alas, it was too late in the day to visit on our first day of the trip, so we planned to try again the following day.

So, where did we stay you ask?  The Trapp Family Lodge.  Yup, as in the Sound of Music.

View from the parking lot

Either Dunkel or Vienna Amber

Nice place.  They have a couple of beers that they brew.  Yes, I bought two of them.  They came in 1 liter bottles.  Impressive, I say.  I tried one of two.  I say this because when I had an impromptu tasting on our last day there, the beer I thought I had the first night was not the one they showed me at the tasting.  Oh well, they were still tasty brews.  The food was ok, nothing special.

So, I realized that this post is running long.  Stay tuned for our adventures in Burlington, which include some seriously bad ass cupcakes!