New England Vacation

I found a new route to Philly last Wednesday that got me from work to Spruce Street in 2 hours! No more Baltimore Pike (which is in Philly) - bring me the Cobbs Creek Parkway!

Anyway, then our vacation started, and we drove up to a small town in Western Mass to meet some of Joshua's relatives. They were exceedingly nice, with a multitude of Indonesian blue fabric, and handknit sweaters. Dinner was delicious and a good time was had by all, and I suspect I scored some points by ordering the spicy ginger tea.

In the morning we gathered cross country ski equipment (utilizing the Honda's ski pass through!) and drove up to Prospect, a place where people go skiing. They used to go downhill, there, and now they just go across the hills. It was BEAUTIFUL, about 40 degrees, with fresh snow, and sun, and soon I was falling on my butt learning to skate ski. Which is just like skating, except your skates are nine miles long and flopping around all over the place, especially underneath each other. And these ones in particular are 90 years old and were subjected to multiple seasons of ski jumping and other things they were not designed for.

Of course, then Joshua puts them and skate-skis away and declares them perfectly fine. I know, however, that my left one is NOT edging as well as it should. But I carry on. And fall some more. By the time we get to the Beaver Pond, however, I have it mostly figured out, and I am allowed to use the poles, and but oops you have to make sure while you are figuring out (by yourself) how to plant them both at the same time that you place them OUTSIDE your skis and not inside of your knee, as this causes Failure.

So we skiied around a little more and go back to the Lodge for lunch, which consists of the pulled pork sandwich we picked up at the Vermont Country Deli hours earlier, and the black bean/bread bowl soup that Steve makes, and then it's time to learn Classic! Which is the sort of jogging, parallel type of skiing that is not at all like skating but which you do with your NordicTrack. This is ok but I am pretty beat and having a hard time not sliding back down the hills. Apparently I was not 'stomping' hard enough. Fine! I mosey back to the lodge and read Watchmen as Williams College and some high school teams come in for practice.

Round about 4pm Mr J gets beat as well so we head back to the Bennington Motor Inn, which is quite nice and very modestly priced, and figure out dinner at the Madison Brewery, which has mediocre beer and a bartender whose father (the owner), thinks Joshua is an Arab. Now before you go all 'those Vermonters are racist rabid pro American anti-terrorist fascists!', let me say that the bartender points up to a picture of the family above the bar, and they are wearing little fezzes, and they are from Lebanon, so it's actually more of a problem that he is NOT an Arab. So the bartender is half Lebanese and also loves to Giant Slalom on the halfpipe. Which, you know, is maybe what the cool Vermonters do? I wouldn't know, as I am from a place without topography.

So then zzzzzzzz. And soreness. And why are going back to ski some more? But we do, and I rent actual skate-skis and the post-1995 skate-ski-boots, which have ankle support like lightweight rollerblades, and it's like a whole different ballgame, boy howdy. I am zooming all over the place, except that oh shoot, I am TOTALLY EXHAUSTED. But that left edge it is working, lemme tell ya. Also it is warmer and the snow is 'slower' so my little wool shirt is too hot and I've got my sleeves pushed up and am panting, but still I beat J back to baselodge, ha ha! I notice that there are lots of little gnomes and ceramic animals hidden along the trails. This is adorable.

Friday night we eat at Allegro, where they make the BEST spinach salad ever. Here's the recipe, as we understood it:

Take an entire bag of spinach.
Make a dressing with gorgonzola and butter, involving a food processor.
Poach some pears in red wine
Roast some cipollini onions until soft and brownish
Dice some grilled chicken
Heat your dressing and reduce the red wine pear liquid that the pears were poaching in
Dump entire bag of spinach on a plate, cover with warm dressing, artfully tuck small pieces of chicken in amongst the leaves, and place pears and onions on the side. Drizzle pear-wine reduction around on top and on the sides of the plate.

Then we went to see Watchmen at the local Cineplex. It was really long, and just like the book. And really violent. And with a gratuitous campy sex scene that was silly in a bad way and went on for far too long. And did I mention violent? I stopped watching after a while. I agree with ThursdayNightSmackdown's assessment and I will probably finish the graphic novel to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

Saturday we were supposed to go skating on Lake Morey but it was 60 degrees and everyone at Lake Morey (east-central VT) was going up to Lake Willoughby (in the Northeast Kingdom, where Hobbits and Gnomes aren't just lawn ornaments) to see if the ice there was any good. So, eh, next time, let's just go to Brattleboro and EAT EVERYTHING. Which we did. We ate the mozzarella-red pepper pesto panini at Amy's Cafe, who also make some serious apple cider, and we drank 8 types of Trappist Ales at this little wine store with cool pendant lamps over the tables, with a tapering/widening checkerboard pattern on them, where I won a Goblet for Rochefort Ale (all the Abbeys have their own shapes of glass goblets for their own ales, see, even the monks know how to merchandise their products!). We tried to go to Fireworks, the new pizza place, which looked awesome, but it was kind of a wait, and we had to go see the Sweetback Sisters, who are four dudes and two ladies who sing old honky tonk from Roger Miller and Hank Williams and Willy Nelson and Hazel Dickens and the Louvin Brothers, etc etc. They were fantastic. And the little theatre we were in was great too - an alleyway that they had covered and walled in, with the old stone side of the building next door exposed.

Lots of art in Brattleboro. Our hotel was an art deco movie theatre (still operating!) and every other store was an antique store or gallery of local art of some sort. We went to the Coop where I spent about 90 minutes trying to figure out what the hell maple syrup to buy.

Sunday we headed back to Joshua's relatives' house in Western Mass, for lunch and a walk to Antonio's Pizza. J, unable to locate the poppyseed kuchen purveyor on our way into town, was pleased to discover his relative read his mind and had prepared one earlier that morning.

And then back in Philly we got to meet Zora F G, who is two weeks old, and also see West Philly's Premiere Compost Bin (and Rain Barrel), which was also a highlight.

A really Good Vacation! Sorry there are no pics. We are super lame.