NEW HAMPSHIRE & VERMONT

We left Maine and headed into New Hampshire. This drive of Day #9 was by far the most beautiful drive (consistently) of the whole trip. We got up early and headed out at the advice of my dear friend, Stacy, who loved Vermont when she lived out east. I was glad we did. We drove hours upon hours through the fall foliage of the green and white mountains. Our excitement grew with the number of moose crossing signs. 

I kept wishing that I had the guys from American Pickers (love that show!) with me because they definitely need to scout out Highway 2 through VT and NH. From the looks of it, they could find some impressive stuff. I wanted to stop but seeing as how 1. I had spent too much money already, 2. we were kind of on a timeline and 3. we had no room in the car left; we didn't. I just looked on and dreamed of what I could find inside. Had my MIL come along, I think we would've stopped. I think together we would've talked ourselves into it and just strapped our treasures to the roof of the car. I keep envisioning the Chevy Chase movie when they tie Grandma to the roof and I keep laughing out loud! 

Moving on...

Our first official stop was at Mt Washington in Sargents, NH. Apparently the tallest peak on the east coast, nestled in the green mountains of NH. We were true leaf-peepers here and enjoyed the area thoroughly. We stopped and ate in an open grassy area and just enjoyed nature. We also did some souvenir shopping and we found this locally produced hand cream in lavender (for me) and lilac (for M). Despite the $8 price tag per TINY bottle, I had to bring some home. LOVE IT! 

From there we headed into Vermont and Montpelier (pronounced, as I learned that day, MOUNT peel YOUR -- not MONT-peel-E-A, as I pronounced it prior to arrival). Montpelier was the sweetest little capitol city ever. Absolutely adorable.

We strolled about the downtown and ate at a little restaurant called the Skinny Pancake that served all natural and organic, primarily local, crepes. Yum! Our lunch was delicious. 

We shopped around in a few art galleries and took some cute pictures of this cute town. I just can't get over how cute and quaint that capitol city was.

For dessert, we made our way the 20 minutes to Ben and Jerry's! Quick tour but cute facility and we got mint chocolate chip ice cream during the tour. Afterward I also enjoyed some chunky monkey and maple ice cream. The Vermont maple was incredible. I will say that I got my ice cream fill and after some photo ops we decided to hit the road.

We then went to the Von Trapp Family Estate in Stowe, VT. First things first, am I the ONLY person in the continental US who did not know that Fraulein Maria was real????? It was like finding out that the Tooth Fairy is actually real. I was kind of speechless for awhile, thinking, "how did I miss that history lesson?" 

Anyway, their estate was gorgeous and right in the middle of the mountains. They also provided me with the garden I would like to have one day in the distant future. I figure I'll start small and develop it from there. While I was busy paparazzi-ing the place, I noticed that the chefs were out there digging out some herbs and veggies for the dinner that night. Perfect!!  We saw lots of deer and wild turkeys on the drive in through our gravel road entrance (we apparently followed Lou when we should've followed the road signs). 

After that we went into the town of Stowe and to our cute lodge for the evening. It sat right on the edge of a small creek right in the middle of the mountains. Super cute. Marianne had to do laundry so I decided to take myself on a date into downtown Stowe. It was a great night. I met a lot of really nice people this night (including two mountain-men Matthew McConaughey look-a-likes for M but she wasn't with me) and walked around the town. There were cute stores and restaurants and an elementary school? I accidentally stumbled upon a school where karate must've been letting out. Kind of felt like a creeper so I kept it moving. Had a good time out and about but headed back a little while later to get a jump start on sleeping.

Sadly, this was as close to a real moose as I got. For $15,000, you can bring him home. Yowza!