road trip: wacky wednesdays on the I-91

It was kismet coming and going. On the way to Vermont we needed dinner and distraction, and we found the Thornes Market on Main Street in Northampton, MA, with great shops and food, including a purveyor of chocolates that was as serious about chocolate as I am. On the way back, we had two kids who needed a little diversion to break up the drive, and what did we find but the Dr. Seuss Memorial Sculpture Garden (catinthehat.org) in Springfield, MA, which absolutely blew the minds of our two little bookworms.

road trip: cornish, new hampshire

I can't help being overtaken by daydreams in a place like this, dreams of having my own vast lawns and gardens filled with art and perfect little nooks for sitting with a book, and a screened-porch where I and my friends (all artists and intellectuals, of course) could while away the afternoon in spirited conversation or casually enjoying one anothers talents. This particular place was the home of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the prolific American sculptor whose early years in Paris figure heavily in David McCullough's The Greater Journey: American's In Paris (which I had just finished). The estate is now a national historic site (nps.gov/saga). Just a short drive over a covered bridge from Windsor County, Vermont and there we were. 

Many of Saint Gauden's original works are there--large, breathtaking memorials and smaller bas-relief portraits, as well as the kind of small cameos upon which he cut his artistic teeth, so to speak. We toured the house and then wandered on our own through the studio, styled after his favorite places in Italy. Ah, Someday, I think, but really, I was happy just to pretend it was mine for a day.

road trip: woodstock, vermont cont'd

Of course, we couldn't stay in Woodstock all the time. We had to go exploring. We had to make a return visit to the Vermont Country Store, where we had stocked up on weird and wonderful sundries last year. And there was no way I was spending time in Vermont without getting my fill of hot, crispy apple cider doughnuts. So we went north to Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Woodbury, with a scenic stop at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in Sharon (above) along the way.  We drove through the beautiful town of Stowe, then had dinner in up-and-coming food mecca (and state capitol) Montpelier, where we had delicious savory crepes at The Skinny Pancake. Next year we will be back to try NECI (New England Culinary Institute) and Salt, which are both farm-to-table and have impressive reputations.

  

In Quechee, next to Woodstock, we hiked along the gorge and ate at The Mill at Simon Pearce, though we had to drive to their alternate factory in Windsor to watch glass-blowing, as The Mill's factory had been completely decimated by Hurricane Irene. And while this part of Vermont seemed to have fewer mom-and-pop antique shops than up north, we did spend a couple of happy afternoons in the local antique malls. There were more country stores and cheese shops, yummy snacks at King Arthur Flour's culinary school, and a visit to Scotland-by-the-Yard, where we nabbed imported goods in honor of my husband's Scottish ancestry. We drove alongside low stone fences past pretty New England churches and through hills and valleys of well-kept old houses and farms. It was exactly what we came for.

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.

 

halloween scrapbook

She was bouncing with excitement by the time I picked her up from school, even before we put the costume on and the festivities began.  Halloween is made for soon-to-be-four-year-olds like mine, full of imagination and an affinity for dress-up play. I bought the dress from Etsy by chance last fall, before she gave a hoot about princesses or dressing up.  My rationale at the time was that it would be an easy thing to pile that curly blonde hair of hers up on top of her head, and the dress was hand-made and very reasonably priced.  Little did I know that, very shortly, princesses and brides were to become obsessions, or that while I was reviewing Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette for design ideas Violet would wander through, glance at the screen, and say in a dreamy voice, Who is that?  I want to be her.  Ever since, she has told anyone who would listen that she was going to be Marie Antoinette for Halloween. I am biased, but I think our miniature version may have surpassed the actual grande dame in both beauty and charm.  It is hard to imagine she would have lost her head otherwise.

vamping on the way out

with astronaut cleo and supergirl elsa at ballet

her ballet teacher 

the chaos of trick-or treating in the city (one of the few times i wish for the suburbs)

trick-or-treating with callie, madeline, and elsa in carnegie hill

a weary princess on her way home from trick-or-treating