Stowe/Waterbury, Vermont

Our last big trip of the summer was almost a week in Vermont and Montreal.  You know I have been all over the world - yet I have NEVER been to Canada!  Despite living for about 8 years only 5-6 hours from the border, we just never really had the time.  When we lived in Massachusetts from 2009-2015, our kids were entirely too little for such a long ride (or more to the point - we were not willing to deal with toddlers on a big road trip like this!)  Then we were in Germany until 2020, and of course... we came back to a multi-year long pandemic which kept us from doing a bunch of driving trips that we wanted to take.  This was our ACTUAL summer vacation since the other trips that occurred this summer were the result of pandemic postponement!

But it's summer, and COVID still sucks, so let's just take the trip and hope for the best!

Todd and I worked a bit on Wednesday and then took off for Stowe in the late afternoon, just catching one of the most beautiful sunsets I think I have ever seen!

I pulled over on Route 100 between Waterbury and Stowe to take pictures!

It was just so beautiful.

We got to our hotel and had a good night sleep (after watching TV shows about the NY mob!) before waking up for our morning tour of Ben and Jerry's! Milk, cream, sugar!

We got to Ben and Jerry's a bit early so we could visit the infamous Flavor Graveyard, home (sniff sniff) to my all-time favorite flavor, Oatmeal Cookie Chunk.

Let's go, kids!

I will never get over this loss. I asked our tour guide later why my favorite flavor was murdered by headquarters, and she said that the cookies got too expensive, so they had to shut down production.

This is the saddest place in the world!  Notice right up front is Mission to Marzipan.  That was my second favorite flavor!  I'm not kidding when I tell you that if I love a flavor, it will be killed off. You can count on that.

Even Natalie was sad about Oatmeal Cookie Crunch!

I asked Grant what he thought his favorite flavor might be, and he chose Tennessee Mud, which apparently had Jack Daniels in it.

Everyone was in a somber mood in the flavor graveyard (although my kids discovered Schweddy Balls and couldn't stop laughing!)  The craziest thing about this graveyard is that those are ACTUAL granite headstones!

RIP, our dearly depinted.

After our time in mourning, we headed back to the production area for our tour.

How tall am I?  Oh about 15 pints.

Wait.  Grant is ALSO 15 pints. That seems VERY, VERY wrong.

When you check in, there is a little gift shop you can check out before the tour, which strangely has cows and flowers and lights on the ceiling.

Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures on the most exciting part of the tour, where they take you above the production room to watch what flavor they were making that day (Cherry Garcia!) The tour is very good, and not super long - and it ends with a trip to the Flavor Lab. They actually made Broccoli Cheddar Chunk (although it obviously never went into production!) They like to keep this sign out so that they can prank all of the guests!

This is where the flavor testing magic happens!  

They have a fridge showing the newest pints in production so you know what to look for the next time you're at your local grocery store.  We also got to sample the cookie dough bites which were AWESOME.

Today's sample ice cream was Milk and Cookies, which made me VERY happy. I like that one!  So do these guys!

Me: Natalie - go over there and pretend like you're drinking the milk that is spilling! 

Natalie:  Ummm, no. You do it!

So I did!

Natalie: Why are you so weird???

The best part was this pregnant lady standing there looking at me like I was insane. 

Todd gives #1 best seller Half Baked a thumbs up!

Even though we just got a taste of Milk and Cookies, the kids thought we should have MORE ice cream. For lunch.

One world, my two hearts.

Natalie went with vanilla, while Grant had Coffee, Coffee, Buzz, Buzz!

Naturally, after we had ice cream I made my kids do this.

Todd and I didn't want to feel left out though.

We headed over to Moss Glen Falls trail after our Ben and Jerry's adventure because I think Grant was missing all of the waterfalls in Iceland.

No.  Just nope.  I'm not ready for this.

This is a funny little trail. Everyone said it was super easy to get to the falls, and it was close to the parking lot - which it was.  But the trail was crazy overgrown, and I was certain one of us would wind up with poison ivy (we didn't, somehow!)

Some of the trail has a nice wooden walkway.  Most of this would be considered an Einbahnstraße in Germany though (one way road.) 

It is a really close walk from the tiny parking lot at the trailhead up to Moss Glen Brook and the falls.

You can walk around down on the rocks before you go up to the falls (or after!)

There is a small fairly easy climb up to a great view point where you can see Moss Glen Falls in all of it's glory!  While we were up there, a guy proposed to his girlfriend down below!

The falls is about 85 feet high (so, not quite like the ones in Iceland) but it IS the tallest waterfall in Vermont!  Superlative, check!

These two smooched for a while under the waterfall.  Meanwhile, we were clapping and cheering for them!

I imagine in a summer where there isn't a massive drought in New England that this waterfall is even MORE beautiful!

After we climbed to the viewpoint, Todd and Grant decided that they wanted to go to the actual waterfall, which wasn't super easy to get to.  Natalie and I decided to stay behind, but I watched as they climbed the rocks and tried not to fall in the brook and break their skulls.

Todd took some awesome photos up by the falls!

There were little rock pools that caught some of the water cascading down from the falls.

I can't even tell what is going on from this vantage point, except that Grant looks like he's about to tumble down the side of the mountain and he definitely wanted to feel the temperature of the water!

Meanwhile, long arms has no problem reaching the falls.

Waterfalls and moss at Moss Glen Falls.

Ah, a great pic of the waterfalls from Todd!

And another!

Back down on semi-dry land, I was checking out all of the rocks in Moss Glen Brook.  Is this even a mapped floodplain?  (Note: Not a mapped floodplain.  That stops just downstream near the trailhead.)  On one of these rocks, I saw one of the biggest spiders I have ever seen! EW!

I snapped this picture of Grant and Todd trying to ease their way back to the trail.

Meanwhile, Nat was downstream, probably listening to music!

A good (although VERY easy) hike deserves a little treat afterwards.  We went into Stowe and stopped at the Stowe Public House for a beverage!

Hello there, family!  Everyone enjoyed some cold beverages and snacks out on the lawn while watching the traffic go by on Route 100.

Nope.

Better. (Ok, you know I secretly think this is hilarious!)

Things started to get a bit dark so I checked the radar.  Time to head back to the hotel soon!

When Todd went into the Stowe Public House to pay, I ran next door to the Bottle Shop and found THIS!  Not only is there Weihenstephaner, but there is also TUCHER!  Remember we would always see the Tucher signs on our way to the Nürnberg airport?  We would always laugh because someone once called it "Touch her" and we used to laugh at that inappropriateness all the time!

The Stowe Community Church is so lovely with pink park benches and an ominous sky background.

Not long after we got back to the hotel, the skies opened up and the rain came down.  The kids ran around in the rain down by the pond behind our room.

Grant standing in the rain, which he declared was very cold. Look at those ribs!

After the rain stopped, we headed up to the von Trapp Brewery where we had dinner reservations.  We wanted to check out the grounds first, before heading to dinner.

This resort is beautiful, but well beyond the Bailey Planet annual budget. I like how we strolled up and there was some kind of cross country meet going on?  A fun run? A 5k?

When the Von Trapp family fled Austria in 1938, they moved to Italy and toured as the Trapp Family Singers for a bit before doing a three month tour in America.  From here, they moved to Merion, Pennsylvania before purchasing this great farm in Stowe, Vermont in 1942.  Baron von Trapp passed away only 5 years later.  You can see how they might have been enamored with this area since it really feels like the Alps!

The Sound of Music movie premiered in 1965, and Maria lived here with the family until her death in 1987.  As of today, there is only one surviving child, Johannes, who is in his 80s.  They all said that the movie was really nothing like their life!

But the hills are certainly, INDEED alive...

... with the SOUND OF GRISWOLD! Where are our berets!?

Grant decided it was limbo time at the von Trapps.

Although we were in Vermont, the von Trapp lodge had a very German (or Austrian) feel to it, although the rocks and plants made me think we were in Iceland!

Ahhh, I love these pretty flowers!

Grant checked out the lodge - notice all of the hanging flower baskets, just like in Germany!

He's just cute, so I wanted to include another picture of him!

We snuck into the lobby of the lodge, which I don't think we were allowed to do, but the entry way says, "Grüß Gott" on one wall and "Auf Wiedersehen" on the other! Where am I??? Vermont or Bavaria??

We eventually drove over to the Bierhall for a little dinner.  It definitely has a Bavarian feel (and yes, I know they were Austrian and not Bavarian!) with the animals, flags and the wooden ceiling!

Time for some schnitzel and bier!

It was a lovely evening visiting the Von Trapp's - maybe someday I'll win the lottery and will be able to afford to stay here because it's very beautiful and you can totally see why the family felt comfortable here, as it looks very much like parts of Bavaria and Austria! BUT... do those cows have bells around their necks??

Until next time, Stowe and Waterbury!