Mar 19, 2017

This is the main memory I have of Okemo for the day. The lines were crazy at a lot of the lifts. We only took the bubble lift once because the second time we got in the line we bailed and went to get lunch instead. 

It was another beautiful day and the lines forced us to go do trails that we had never done before or didn't remember too well. We had fun once we got on the lifts and we spent the day choosing the trails with the least amount of people on them. The snow was really great here for some reason though so that was nice.

We left Okemo headed for New Hampshire and stopped at Worthy Kitchen for lunch. I got a mac and cheese plate and started sampling beers. They had a few beers from Hill Farmstead which were quite good as well as Lawson's Finest Double IPA which was nice to try after hearing so much about it. My definite favorite was Little Umbrellas by Four Quarters. It was a coconut pineapple sour and it was fantastic. I want more right now.

When we got to The Lodge at Bretton Woods we sat and waited for the customer in front of us before being told that the hotel was closing the next day and we had been moved to the hotel across the street. That hotel is the Mount Washington Hotel and Resort. Quite a huge upgrade. I'm not sure of the price difference, and we would have had access to most of the amenities there anyway, but being able to stay there was definitely nice.

As we arrived the sunset was coloring Mount Washington and the Presidential Range pink. It was an amazingly gorgeous scene from our hotel porch balcony. We spent the night in high spirits enjoying our room and exploring the hotel a bit. I spent a little time in the indoor pool and hot tub before retiring to the room for the rest of the evening. The bed was so comfortable that it was easy to fall asleep.

Mar 18, 2017

We got up and got ready for skiing at Stratton as I took phone calls from photographers in Jacksonville doing the Insane Inflatable 5K. Once that was all taken care of we took the winding roads up to the resort and got to skiing. It was really crowded, but we didn't end up waiting in too many lines. We took the gondola a couple times, but mostly avoided it. The weather was amazingly perfect. Blue skies and not too cold. The snow wasn't perfect, but it was better than Mount Snow. We had a great day of skiing.

We went back to the hotel and relaxed for a while. It felt good to just lie in bed after skiing. We had gotten done early so it was another day with extra time. We went to Hermit Thrush Brewery a little later and did a flight of all of their beers. There were a few new ones, but the Party Guy was my favorite of them. Everything was quite good as always (except the super boozy quad) and the Truthy Cardinal barrel-aged tripel was amazing. I wish it wasn't so pricy to get cans.

We walked down to the outdoor store and I got a new belt. We went next door to Mocha Joe's where I got a green tea ginger maple drink that was amazing. This isn't that. This is Ryan's drink. I'm sure it was good but probably not as good as mine. We went back to our hotel for the night and watched The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror that we always quote with "The Shinning" and the time travel segment. It made me want to go back and watch more of the old episodes.

Mar 17, 2017

Ryan and I got up and ready for skiing at Mount Snow for the first time. The lodge was crazy packed because of the $17 lift ticket St. Patrick's Day extravaganza. The snow was patchy and rough and overall the trails were not super fun. We got used to the iciness and avoiding patches of grass and rocks, but after a few hours of leg-pounding ice trails we decided that we had our $17 worth and headed out early.

It felt a little strange being done skiing so early, but we made use of our time dropping off our skis to get waxed and sharpened then went to Superfresh for lunch. It took a really long time to get our food, enough that I had to go feed the meter. When I came back my kimchi quesadilla was there and it was delicious. I got a vegan twix bar for dessert that was also fantastic.

We went back to the hotel for a little bit before heading back to town to pick up our skis and then went to Whetstone Station Brewery for dinner. I got a flight and Ryan got himself a beer. I told him to get the sour because it's closest to kombucha. He didn't love it, but he drank it. A true beer drinker.

The beers were pretty good, but the bean burger was amazing. I would go back for the food before the drinks. We went back to our hotel for the night and played SnipperClips on his Switch. We got to bed pretty early in preparation for another day of skiing.

Jan 10, 2017

Our last day wasn't as bad packing up as I expected. We had everything in the car and ready to go pretty quickly. I struck out on getting a bagel because we were heading in a different direction to Okemo, but it was a nice drive on different roads. We got to Okemo and put our gear on and headed out for our last day on the trip.

The weather could not have been better for the morning. The sky was blue, it was warm, and we were happy. Besides the $5 fee for our RFID cards and a short issues at the first gate with them, we were having a great time. We went down some of our favorites and found some other that we didn't remember as well. It got a little colder starting in the early afternoon and we went in for a lunch break.

We didn't stay in as long as the other days, and when we went back out it was still quite cold. We spent the rest of the day hitting as many trails as we could before the lifts stopped moving and then bid the mountain farewell. It was a great last day of skiing and then the drive home was fast and without snow, which was a concern. It rained a bit, but overall we were moving quickly. It couldn't have been worse than the drive up. We had fun listening to 80s music and The Beach Boys. It didn't feel like a 6 hour drive, and it was good to be home.

Jan 9, 2017

We had a little slower start in the morning getting ready going to the grocery store so I could get some hummus and then to get a bagel to eat on the way with it. The drive seemed longer, but it was much clearer than the way home last night. We got there and got ready inside since there were so many less people that we could park right next to the lodge.

We got out on the mountain and skied some of the same trails before venturing off to the other side of again to see if we could get anywhere new. We went there for a short time and raced down one of the green routes once or twice before deciding to go back over toward the gondola with everyone else.

We did a few new trails and found a fun double diamond area that was very hilly and ungroomed to ski. We both fell on it once in different places, but I wish we had done that more. We did one glade, but it was mostly open and a little icy so it wasn't something we wanted to do more. We had one group of people in the gondola ask us if they could pop a window to smoke a joint. I politely declined. We finished on a good run and hit the road in clear conditions.

Superfresh Cafe closed really early so we couldn't go there, but we went to another place and I got a good quinoa bowl. I made another stop at the brewery for another small tasting of the delicious sours before we came back to the hotel for the night. We played some Nintendo games and finally finished the annoying Ninja Turtles 3 that we started a while ago. We played Blades of Steel and a couple other games to cleanse our palate after that. It was a good way to kill time before bed. Last night here!

Jan 8, 2017

Ryan and I got up and, after briefly considering taking a lazy day after our long drive, we got on the road to Stratton. The roads were fine in the morning and I think we were both ready to get on the slopes. After the usual fun of putting our boots on at the car we caught the lift bus up to the resort to get our tickets.

The weather was perfect. The sun was out and it was cold but not windy. Our first runs were fun and then we headed to the other side of the mountain where things turned very cold, especially on the lift. The snow-making didn't help matters there. We took a couple of short breaks and decided to head back to the other side to get food.

The trees at the top of the mountain were so beautiful covered in ice and snow. I couldn't capture them all the way I wanted to, but I'm going to try tomorrow. Some of them were just icy and others had these thick layers of snow hanging from each branch making them look heavy and wise. I love the imagery, but I hate that the environment is so inhospitable.

We had a good lunch of soup in bread bowls for a steep price before I went out to get my other face mask and hit the trails again. The other mask made all the difference. Also taking the gondola and not the open-air lift probably helped. We spent the rest of the day on that side of the mountain exploring trails until it was almost time to go. We found a diamond we liked a lot called Upper/Lower Spruce and decided to do it twice to end the day on that good note.

The Thai place we went to for dinner was right next door to Hermit Thrush Brewery so I stopped in to try their sours. Everything I had was really good. It was great to have a flight of only sours that exceeded my expectations. Some of the non-aged beers weren't as amazing, but it's not fair after trying my favorite style to judge those ones. They seemed really good too. I left with a mixed 4-pack of cans and a desire to go back again very soon.

We went next door to Thai Bamboo and each got curry that we had been thinking about all day. It was a little pricy, but the food was really good. We also had a pretty view of this outside the window by our table as it snowed lightly. The drive to the hotel was careful and slow on the snowy roads, but we made it after navigating around some steep hills. It's early bedtimes and drying out facemasks now.

Feb 10, 2014

Our final day we headed back to Killington, both a little less than excited about it. How can you follow up the day we had yesterday? Plus today was cold, snowy, and gray. There was fresh powder and that was a new experience where I was skiing and couldn't see my skis or boots at times. It also made turning a little more difficult. We did sections of the mountain we had not even been to on the first day. There were no crowds and few moguls this time around, but it still felt a little less fun. We did some good trails but ultimately ended up heading out early.

It was freezing! My hands were so cold when I got back to the car to take my boots off. We got some coffee at our first opportunity and then began the drive home. I had this delicious bean and veggie salad.

The drive home always seems longer. But this time it didn't seem so bad. Maybe because I wasn't driving this time. Either way we had a good drive home and I had to take my stuff out of Ryan's car and put it in mine. Obviously when I got home I only brought in the stuff that needed to come inside. The rest could stay in there for a while.

Feb 9, 2014

Day two we went to Okemo in the morning. We got a much earlier start this time, but it didn't help too much as we realized right about when we got to the resort that we had forgotten our passes at the hotel. We got them as part of a promotion and needed them to get our lift tickets soooo we made a round trip before we even started skiing.

We still had a pretty early start on the mountain and the place was amazingly less crowded. It was a gorgeous day and the conditions were completely perfect. We had gone up and down probably 4 trails in the time it took us to do one at Killington yesterday. Maybe slightly exaggerated but not much. The trails were great too.

We took a break at the summit lodge at one point after we got separated on a glades trail that I decided not to do because of the uncovered rocks and myriad other things that could kill or break me. We took a little break at the lodge and got some water before being offered a free hot beverage for taking a survey! I sipped on my delicious hot chocolate for a while and then we headed back out.

I didn't want to leave really, so we kept skiing for a while longer. I wanted to take advantage of all the trails we could. I would honestly have liked to spend the whole weekend there. I can't describe any more how perfect everything was.

After the ideal ski day we had to go to Applebee's for our usual dinner to cap things off. I tried a couple of beers they had on tap from local places that I'd never had before. Magic Hat's Chair Lift IPA and Long Trail Limbo IPA. Both were fantastic. Another nice night back in the sauna for a short time and then we hung out playing some games before retiring to bed.

Feb 8, 2014

Ryan and I started the day with breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Killington for day one of Vermont skiing. The conditions were pretty good, but the place was packed. We waited an average of 15 minutes at each lift line on the big ones. It was really not fun. Dodging all the people on the mountain wasn't fun either.

The view from the top was absolutely beautiful. You can't beat that. It seemed like almost every trail had moguls on it though. Whether in the middle or at the end, they showed up. Between not being too good at them and the tons of people on every trail it became really frustrating.

One nice thing about the overcrowding was we parked on the road and we could ski directly back to the car when we were done. That was fun. We went back to the hotel to relax for a bit and, after checking out the pool area, we got in the sauna for a little while instead. We went to the grocery store to get stuff for the next couple of days and then went to get dinner at a restaurant next to the store. The rest of the night was relaxing and uneventful before bed.

Jun 19, 2012

We were up a little early for the Ben & Jerry's tour so we did some of our own touring of the area. We stopped at Cabot and tried way too many cheeses for any time of the day, but even worse because it was morning. So many good ones. We went to the chocolatier next door and had some small samples. They aren't stupid; they don't give away so many. Then we went to the little general store market where they have mustards and jams. We got a sample of freshly pressed apple cider as we watched the press at work.

Not a bad morning already, but then we went over to the Ben & Jerry's factory tour. It's always interesting even if I know what they do. We got our tasty sample at the end of the tour and then went out to the Scoop Shop to get some more samples before heading out.

Since The Alchemist doesn't exist as a brew pub anymore we went to their brewery/cannery where they brew one beer: Heady Topper. This is constantly trading places with Pliny the Elder as the number one IPA in the world. It's pretty good. I'm not sure why I didn't get a six pack.

Our next stop was Magic Hat's silly, circus brewery. We did the self-tour and then went down to the bar for a few samples of things we hadn't had. For lunch, it was to the Vermont Pub for a beer and a sandwich before heading to Zero Gravity brewing. There are so many on the passport that it gets hard to follow them all.

One of my favorite little places we stopped was Fiddlehead Brewery. It was off the beaten path-ish, and they were really friendly. While we sampled, the bartender offered to let me try a pickled fiddlehead. I accepted, of course, and it was really good. Most pickled things are, but it was nice little quirky thing.

We took a break from beer and hit a couple of wineries since there were a few in the area. We got plenty of small samples, being sure to keep our BAL up while we were off the beer trail, I guess.

Our last Vermont brew stop was Otter Creek. This place has a huge selection of amazing beers. It's probably good we finished here. We got a bunch of samples and some more food to soak it up. We hung out here for a while before heading out.

On our way home we stopped at Willow Park DGC before we left the state. It was mostly open with a few wooded holes. Only 9 holes and none of them too extraordinary, but it was nice getting out of the car and enjoying the weather for a while before sitting in the car for several more hours.

We drove through Albany on the way back, and we couldn't pass up the Albany Pump Station Brewery for dinner and another flight. We were almost burnt out on beer, but they had a good flight and some good food as well.

The rest of the drive home was long and a little sleepy, but we made it back.

Jun 18, 2012

Kate and I got our stuff together and headed north for our trip in the morning. We stopped at the Pez factory in Connecticut, but they charge quite a bit for a tour so we skipped it.

It took us a while, but we made it to Vermont! And then we still had quite a while to go through the state.

Since it's right off the highway we stopped at Harpoon Brewery for a few samples of things like the Leviathan Quad and their small batch Saison. We looked around the store for a while and then got back on the road.

When we got to our campground we put up our tent, started a nice fire, and then got to drinking.

We ended up drinking quite a bit and had the fire going really well for a while.

It was a fun and slightly drunk night. We retired to the tent after the fire was totally out and we couldn't drink anymore.