"When so I ponder, here apart, what shallow boons suffice my heart, what dust-bound trivia capture me,
I marvel at my normalcy."--Dorothy Parker

Thursday, November 3, 2011

road trip: woodstock, vermont

Last year we took in the fall colors up north near Burlington, on Lake Champlain. This year it was Woodstock and Quechee in Windsor County. Is there anywhere quite as autumnal as Vermont?

In Woodstock, besides wandering the picturesque main street with its resort-town shops, we explored the Billings Farm and Museum (billingsfarm.org), where dad and the kids took a wagon ride, fed sheep, saw cows being milked, petted newborn calves, and made butter, while Jane and I snuck off to the adjoining Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park for an estate tour. Later, we loaded up on locally-made cheeses and maple treats at nearby Sugarbush Farm. We came and went on winding country roads past red barns and tidy farmhouses, and in the evening it was a pleasure to go back to a renovated farmhouse of our own and cozy up in front of a fire while we watched Arsenic and Old Lace. I love vacation.