We recently completed a one week, two weekend road trip to Vermont as our summer getaway for 2016.
The basic premise was this, drive on weekends, utilize the family discount at Starwood Hotels, see some friends while traveling.
Around Vermont we’d researched some must see sites and some activities that were well suited for our personalities and travel habits. The map below is just Burlington, VT which served as our base of operations. For more on our sites around the state zoom in on the above map. We didn’t hit all these locations, having to defer some stops till our next visit, but it ought to give you an idea of what we did around the state.
We had long planned on getting to the NYC area Saturday night, seeing friends there and then finishing our drive to Vermont the next day. As our planning evolved, we decided we’d get a few hours of driving out of the way Friday after work, getting to Roanoke VA. As we pulled out of our condo parking lot, we decided we’d add 20 minutes to the trip and avoid Charlotte, traveling through Asheville on the I-26 west mountain pass instead.
Not only did this allow us a to stop for dinner at Asheville’s White Duck Taco…
But it also treated us to a beautiful mountain drive on I-26 north of Asheville before hooking up with I-81.
We made it to our stopover in Roanoke and were back on the road relatively early the next morning. Overall, I-81 offered few issues and we made it to Hoboken NJ by late afternoon. After dogging hipsters looking for Pokemon not looking both ways before crossing the street we met up with friends, Annie and Eric, and headed into NYC for an Italian dinner in SoHo at Osteria Morini.
My friend, Annie, wasn’t quite used to the timing on my phone’s camera, which led to this confusion…
We were dealing with lots of shadows, so focus on the background.
We were very satisfied with our meal.
The next morning we enjoyed brunch at Anthony David’s in Hoboken which specializes in Eggs Benedict. I had the French Toast Benedict, which was good, but the Gorgonzolla Fries were the highlight of this meal.
By mid day we were back on the road. I was cursing the GPS on our Nissan Rogue that brought us through the Holland Tunnel and into NYC and cost us a $15 toll, but was quite happy once we were out of downtown as we were zipping around the parkways of Westchester County avoiding all the 18-wheelers on the interstate. We cut through Connecticut and Massachusetts without issue and by early evening had reached our base of operations in Burlington.
Our first day in Burlington was centered around a trip on the Burlington Bike Path, aka, the Island Line Trail. The bike path runs along the coast of Lake Champlain.
About seven miles into the ride the path transitions to a built up causeway connecting to Lake Champlain’s Grand Isle.
After finishing our 20 mile ride we headed to the south side of Burlington and a tour of Lake Champlain Chocolates. Afterwards I had to call in to a conference call for work, fortunately there was a craft brewery across the street.
My Peace Corps buddy, Drew, met up with us that night for dinner and showed us around downtown Burlington. I had looked up a ridiculous, quirky, tourist attraction in Burlington that I thought would be make for a perfect photo op. To Drew’s credit, despite his going to college at UVM in Burlington, he did not know that it was the home to the world’s tallest filling cabinet.
Yep, it was really tall.
Coming up in future installments of The Venture to Vermont, Museums, Mountains, Cheese, & Washington DC.