June 8 - Birthday in Vermont

For my birthday, I wanted to stay in my favorite Vermont B&B, the Blueberry Hill Inn, just up in the mountains from Middlebury. Adam and I hadn't been back for 10 years, since we were still in college, but the setting, beautiful 19th century farmhouse, and gourmet breakfasts and dinners were just as good as I remembered. We spent our last 2 nights of the trip here - precious family time after a whirlwind of fun but quick visits.

What I wanted most was to hike, something we do surprisingly little of these days. The inn is surrounded by trails right out the front door - for hiking in summer, and kept up by their cross-country ski center in the winter. We ended up driving to the blueberry management area just minutes away, a beautiful hillside trail through a meadow full of wild blueberry bushes. As you can see from the picture above, it wasn't a very long hike...the "carry me"s started pretty immediately. But look below, what a gorgeous state Vermont is.




We brought Isaac's blue ball and kicked it around a little but mainly just hung out on this beautiful hilltop with sweeping views of the Green Mountains and even the Adirondacks in the distance to the west.




Below, already headed back...Isaac tired, Adam bug-bitten. I felt great and would have hiked for hours, but we decided to go into the beautiful village of Middlebury and get something for Isaac to wear. Then maybe lunch. That sounded good too.


We found a hat for Isaac and then explored our old favorite places. He loved the Otter Creek waterfall.

Going somewhere, not looking back...

Examing the mechanics of...something...

New hat.


Isaac did not want to be in this picture.

Otter Creek


We found the new Middlebury location of Farmers Diner in the old Marbleworks building. Diner food that comes as much as possible from local farms and dairies - very good stuff. Isaac had a great time and was ready to spend the whole afternoon in this booth, drinking his yummy fresh milk and munching on grilled cheese and fries (yes, a meal with no fruits or veggies, but this was a special occasion).







Eventually, the food had come, Adam and I had finished, and we began to wonder when Isaac would ever be done with his lunch. The question "All done?" was always answered "No! Still eating!"


But we'll sit forever for hugs like this.


Playing with new camera...

No, still eating!



Rest break...but still eating!


Maybe...thinking about leaving...

Time to go home and nap before dinner. What a great birthday.

Below, our cabin.

And our view from the cabin as we packed up to leave on Tuesday.

June 5 - Day 2 on our own

After a great meal at our bed & breakfast in Shelburne, VT, Isaac and I packed up the car and headed to a place I'd been wanting to visit ever since I was at Middlebury about 10 years before: Shelburne Farms.
It's an enormous (1400-acre!) working farm that was originally built by the Vanderbilt family. The gorgeous buildings and Frederick Law Olmstead-designed grounds remain, but the farm is now run by a non-profit and used as an environmental education center. The family's house is now an inn with a restaurant that I'd like to try sometime. But best of all is the location - woods, hills and fields with views of forested mountains, set right along the shore of beautiful Lake Champlain. It's a pretty spectacular place, and now that I'm so interested in sustainable farming, I was really excited to go see it with Isaac.
I was looking forward to showing him all the animals up close, but of course the main attraction for him was the farm equipment...

Below - first up-close encounter with a (baby) cow...not that interested really. He said he was hungry, so we headed across the barnyard to the farmstand cafe, which has a small menu based on the fresh meat and produce from this farm and others nearby.

I think the chickens were the other hit of the day. Isaac forgot all about his hunger in an effort to catch a chicken...who really didn't want to be caught. I finally noticed that the ground under these picnic tables was covered in chicken poop, so we headed to the hand-washing station next to the cafe. But this is why farm kids are so healthy, right?

Still trying to catch that chicken...

Almost got it now...

Still in the courtyard of the beautiful old barn. I couldn't get Isaac inside yet to see the animals because of the table below...

Eventually I convinced him to go inside, where we found chickens (in a coop that birds and humans could enter and exit freely, so we went in to see their beds!), goats, sheep and lambs, rabbits, one cow in a pen for up-close viewing, and 2 rooms full of farm-related, educational toys for toddlers on up. Every half hour, there were events that kids could attend like milk a goat, make a bracelet from sheep wool, meet the donkey, etc...This was really one of the coolest places for kids I've ever seen.
Somehow I didn't get any pictures inside the barn, but here is Isaac out back with a new set of cool old tractors to play with. This was really all he wanted to do.

After tearing Isaac away from his tractor, I put him in the stroller hoping he could nap. The countryside is so gorgeous here, I decided to just walk these beautiful roads for as long as I could. We were out of our B&B and wouldn't check in at Midd reunion until late afternoon, so this option seemed as good as any. Isaac was tired, and he slept over an hour - which, on this sleep-deprived trip, was not bad.