Thanks for the tips!

[Susan2004]

What a great trip we had this weekend. Decided to take the shorter Essex to Charlotte ferry ride over from NY (instead of Port Kent to Burlington) on Friday because it was so hazy I didn't think we'd have a very good view of the mountains anyway. We checked out the menu at the Starry Night Cafe BM and it looked fabulous, but they don't serve lunch and we didn't venture back towards Ferrisburgh again so we missed out on that unfortunately.

However, lunch at Gillians in Shelburne was excellent. I had the best fried clams of my life and my husband is in love with their maple almond pie - I have to find the recipe!

We took some pictures at Shelburne Farms but decided not to pay to go in as we really didn't have enough time to explore. The leaves were beautiful around Lake Iroquois where we were renting a cottage - couldn't have asked for better! And we found a wonderful little restaurant called the Good Times Cafe in Hinesburg - I would highly recommend it - great food and friendly people.

Yesterday was perfect. Of all of our travels Rt. 17 East from Rt. 116 (around Starksboro I think) to Rt. 100 in Waitsfield was breathtaking. We actually ended up there by mistake and it was the best mistake I've ever made! We also found Waitsfield to be beautiful and caught the tale end of the market they have there on the green which was nice. Rt. 100 North to Stowe was highly traveled - I wanted that hot fudge sundae at Ben and Jerry's PWT, but we decided to skip it - there were so many people they had a cop directing traffic! The cider mill looked about the same so we bypassed both. We took a quick drive up to the Trapp Family Lodge just to see it and I have to say they have some spectacular views from their property!

After Stowe we continued on 100 to Morrisville and did the loop south to Montpelier as recommended, but unfortunately I think we were too late. There was some good color, but a lot of bare trees - it was awfully windy Friday night. Montpelier was nice - didn't see too awfully much color, but we enjoyed the town and had another wonderful meal at Sarducci's - again - we would highly recommend! We had a beautiful table overlooking the Winooski River (I don't think I spelled that right.)

Today was fairly uneventful - we had a horrible brunch at Tully and Marie's in Middlebury. We'd eaten there before and loved it so today was quite disappointing. Apparently they're under new ownership - don't know if that was the problem or not, but we spent TWO hours there to get an awful brunch. We didn't do much else (other than visit with a friend in Rutland) because the weather was fairly overcast and drizzly. We opted against driving through the Brandon Gap on the way to Rutland thinking we wouldn't see much and also skipped the gondola at Killington for the same reason. We did get home two hours earlier than planned because of that which was nice! The color in Rutland was very pretty though - our friend lives in the town of Rutland, North of the city up on a hill with a great view of the mountains and what a view it was! I'd kill to have that to look at every morning from my breakfast table!

Thanks again everyone for your great suggestions and advice. We really enjoyed ourselves. Sorry this was so long but I was hoping some info. would help others in their plans and I wanted PWT and BM to know how much I appreciated the tips!

[pwt54]

Glad you enjoyed your trip. I went by Ben and Jerry's last evening about 15 minutes before closing time and the parking lot was still full.