tomorrow Bennington to the NEK

[From_the_NEK]

The Waterford area was extremely colorful this afternoon. The reds were amazing!

[MrBumps]

Wow, that's a long drive.

I took I89 from Randolph to Richmond today, and the color in the hillsides from Randolph to Bolton was fantastic. Definitely approaching Peak. I know it's very nice through Northfield also.

[ctyanky]

Carol: Don't forget to go in the burying ground behind the church. The views beyond are very lovely and Robert Frost is buried there down the path to the right. The church inside is gorgeous. You will be able to take photos of the famous white fence line, it's unreal!!!!

You are a hop, skip and jump from the monument and you can take photos from the openings in the monument of the foliage. Makes a nice shot.

If you are hungry stop at the Blue Benn Diner just 10 minutes away! It's a must! You'll love it!!!!

The top of Carpenter Hill offers views of the monument below in the foliage so keep your eyes peeled to the right!!!!

Can't wait to hear of your adventures!!!!! Have a blast!

[pwt54]

Abby, with the late peak this year, just anywhere except possibly the NEK will be great. The Bennington lowlands may still be early. The Woodstock and Ludlow areas should be peaking soon.

[ctyanky]

Sit at the counter at Blue Benn. Parking is tight. The menu is on the blackboard. The food is to die for. Keep that man happy! You can go next door to the gas station and ask if you can park there if the lot is full. He is very nice and might let you park there! Don't give up on the lines, it goes pretty fast! You'll probably get there after the rush!

[deaner1971]

Thank you everybody!!!! Yes, we will hit the Blue Benn. Mr. S will be very happy to get a good breakfast (you know, as he is the long suffering one....he at least needs to be fed well while he suffers) I also need to go back to a post where someone (perhaps it was dean) recommended a bakery....the Russian girls or something? Gotta go find that post. Must keep Mr. S happy by feeding him!
Thanks so much for all of the suggestions!!!
Carol

So glad the wedding went so well!

It is Crazy Russian Girls Bakery. Grab some muffins, cupcakes or other goodies to go and you will have an awesome treat during your long drive.

For anyone with morning plans a bit farther north, I would recommend Up For Breakfast as Manchester's "must eat" breakfast spot (as Blue Benn is to Bennington).

I second the praise of the church and the monument. There are also three covered bridges in very close proximity to each other (i.e. three quick shoots), if you think you might have time for one other stop.

Finally, if you are taking the 7 up, you can stop quickly at Emerald Lake State Park as it is so close to the highway as to be visible from it along the way.

Have a safe and wonderful drive through SW Vermont.

[ixl]

I sent Carol some suggestions by email.. but TBH I have not been out and about much this season.

Color is looking much better this morning... starting to get going nicely despite the oddly warm weather, and actually looks decent for the first time this year.

Crazy Russian Girls is a great bakery and also is to be commended for the leadership role its owner, Natasha, took in post-Irene relief efforts. If you are in there and see some local garlic for sale (for charity), that's mine, so buy some.

[deaner1971]

I sent Carol some suggestions by email.. but TBH I have not been out and about much this season.

Color is looking much better this morning... starting to get going nicely despite the oddly warm weather, and actually looks decent for the first time this year.

Crazy Russian Girls is a great bakery and also is to be commended for the leadership role its owner, Natasha, took in post-Irene relief efforts. If you are in there and see some local garlic for sale (for charity), that's mine, so buy some.

I'll be in there on Thursday so, if it isn't sold out by then, I shall grab some. I am really proud that my friends chose to have them do the wedding cake for this weekend. Love giving business to genuinely good people.

Have you gone to the fish and chip shop in Bennington? Planning to do lunch there on Thursday as I haven't had good fish and chips since I was in the Cotswolds and the owner is an ex-pat so hopes are high!

[ixl]

You mean Vern's?

It's been closed for years. I ate there once -- was not impressed.

You want good fish and chips? Go to Price Chopper. Pick out a cod or tilapia filet, and ask them to cut it up and fry it for you. Excellent stuff. Seriously, do it all the time with my kids, since my wife is allergic to fish. Cheap, too!

[pwt54]

i took my mother for a foliage tour today. Colors on route 15 and the Pleasant valley Road between Cambridge and Underhill were peaking. They were only hohum last week. Colors in Jericho and Williston were peak also. Below Hineburg the colors were pre-peak, but could peak at any time now. We took route 30 from Middlebury to Castleton. Colors from Middlebury to Hubbarton were earlier, probably the Lake Champlain effect. Below Hubbarton and away from Lake Champlain the colors were popping. Routes 133 and 140 in Middletown Springs and Tinmouth were wonderful and should peak this weekend. Route 103 between East Wallingtonford and Ludlow will not be good this year. The forests are mostly ash and birch with a few maples. The ash lost all of their leaves early this year. After a detour up route 100 for a maple creamee, we drove route 103 to route 10. Colors were much better past Ludlow but still early. Route 10 and the Connecticut River Valley from Springfield to White River was still early. I don't expect this area to peak this weekend. It was getting late so we took I-89 home. In Stowe we hit a big backup, so I took the long shortcut around Stowe. Even at that time, with the sun almost gone, the colors along the back roads were great.

[deaner1971]

You mean Vern's?

It's been closed for years. I ate there once -- was not impressed.

You want good fish and chips? Go to Price Chopper. Pick out a cod or tilapia filet, and ask them to cut it up and fry it for you. Excellent stuff. Seriously, do it all the time with my kids, since my wife is allergic to fish. Cheap, too!

No, Lil' Britain. But I will keep that advice in mind for the future.

[ixl]

Never heard of it. Where is it?

ETA: NVM, found it: http://www.lilbritain.com/

Amazing, I've probably passed the place hundreds of times and never noticed it before. Will be sure to stop in sometime. Thanks!

[deaner1971]

Charles,

I meant to follow-up with this. Lil' Britain was ok. Now I am comparing that to actual chip shops in England but, when you say you are an ex-pat (as the owner does), you are setting that expectation. I did get to pick up some HP sauce. Proper English chips but I found the fish to be a bit bland and non-descript. My friends who got mushy peas (and they were the English style of being reduced to the consistency of thick soup) were happy with them.

I found some new and really great places and met some wonderful people so I would like to post links to the few pictures I got (not that I got many good ones as my wife is a weather jinx [at least in VT]) and some links to great Southern VT places (probably not any that will be news to you but maybe for others).

I am opening a zenfolio account so I plan to link to that as soon as I can get it started. I am getting it really more for allowing family and friends access to photos (with my 16.2 camera, sending e-mails gets tedious as I cannot get many shots on each e-mail) but it does offer me some great features that I am excited to use. Anyone's insights are appreciated.

Dean

[Andy]

Hi Dean. Carol has a Zenfolio site so she probably is the one to chime in here. Mine is Smugmug. when I got the Smug site, I compared Smugmug with Zenfolio. They were pretty similiar. I cannot remember today what made we go one way instead of the other. I do have the "pro" version and though the cost is significan't I want it to be able to do things that only the pro site can do. On the good side, I recently made a sale that paid the cost of the site for a year.

The biggest challenge for me in any site is how to name and organize your Galleries. I will look forward to seeing it when its up and running!

[deaner1971]

Thanks Andy. I use Mpix a lot so Zen was the one I kept looking at but I have also heard good things about Smugmug. And I also went with one of the "pro" options for my account. In my case not because I thought I would sell anything but because there were some options that I needed that only it had.

I have started to look through my photos and some might actually work better than I had originally thought. I have a very bad habit of looking at my photos and if they don't look perfect right out of the camera I go into this "that is all crap and I should sell my camera" type funk. No idea why I do that but it is as regular a post-trip convention as is unpacking.

Anyway, I just picked up LR3 for quite a nice price on Amazon so I am going to get cracking on the photos and my quick rundown of where to put on a few pounds in Southern Vermont. So excited to share Vermont photos with someone other than family! Please give any and all feedback.

Thanks again.