Vermont Weekend Recap

manchester vermont

This weekend we packed our things and headed up to Vermont for a relaxing weekend in Manchester, Vermont.

Long time readers, will know that this our home away from home. My family has a home in Manchester which we spend many weekends at during the Summer and Fall months. Since my family rents out the home for the entire winter, we have discovered a few different spots in Manchester over the years for winter weekend getaways.

Due to work meetings, we didn’t leave NYC until late Thursday evening. We stopped for dinner in Larangeville, a small town about an hour hour and half outside the city, just off the Taconic Parkway.  Thanks to the help of Yelp, we dicovered a small Bronx style pizza restaurant, Sonny’s Ristorante & Pizzeria. We enjoyed a delicious pizza and salad before hitting the road again.

Bronx Style pizza

Thursday night Bo and I stayed at the Equinox Resort, a full-service resort in the heart of Manchester.  The perfect way to begin a long weekend, we slept in and relaxed at the spa on Friday before meeting our friends at noon for lunch at Marsh Tavern. equinox

Following lunch the guys headed to ski while we relaxed with Eloise at the pool and then headed to our house for the weekend.  The small, mountain home provided the perfect home for a relaxing weekend.  Friday evening after the guys skiied, we enjoyed a double date at Ponce Bistro, a BYOB restaurant in town.  An eclectic restaurant which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, the cuisine is influenced by the owner’s Brooklyn and Puerto Rican roots. Since we all enjoy sharing and tasting as much of a menu as possible, we shared three appetizers and three entrees between the four of us. The rice and beans, thai scallops and beef stroganoff were our favorite dishes.

mountain views

Since both Elizabeth and I are pregnant, neither of us could ski this weekend. While the guys skiied at Stratton we shopped around town, entertaining her two year old daughter, Eloise, for hours by making snow angels, exploring town and reading books at the amazing Northshire Bookstore.

bookstore

Saturday afternoon a family friend watched Eloise while we relaxed with prenatal massages at the Equinox Spa and lunch at Cilantro’s.  A fresh, green, local Mexican fast food restaurant, their taco salads were incredible and packed with flavor.

cilantro's manchester

Saturday night we spent the evening playing games with Eloise and watching the Australian Open before cooking an Asian inspired dinner together and heading to bed early.

This morning we woke up and parted ways bright and early, as Bo and I headed back to the spa for a few more moments of rest and relaxation before driving back home.

It was a wonderful weekend in the mountains that has us planning and scheming our next Vermont weekend. I have a feeling Baby Girl Diamond will be enjoying a few Summer weekends up in Vermont, taking in the cooler weather and fresh air, during my maternity leave.

Your turn: What did you do this weekend? If you have children, did you travel for weekend trips while they were quite young? 

 

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Weekend Highlights – November 21st, 2016

vermont-snow

What a wonderful weekend we had up in Vermont! As I mentioned on Friday, we made a last minute decision to head up to Manchester Center, Vermont on Friday night to spend a relaxing weekend with my aunt. It’s hard to believe that we were able to enjoy a weekend away without taking a vacation day. Friday and today were long days, driving up to Vermont from 5-9pm on Friday and returning this morning from 5-9 AM. Luckily, the 48 hours in between were filled with rest and relaxation.

Here are a few highlights from our weekend in Vermont.

Snow – The temperatures dropped forty degrees Saturday night as a strong front moved through the region. Much to our delight, we woke up Sunday morning to a winter wonderland. There were more than six inches of wet, heavy, dense snow covering my the yard and surrounding towns. We spent an hour outside playing fetch with my aunt’s Samoyed, making snow angels and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Ponce Bistro – After a morning of relaxing and shopping, we enjoyed lunch on the front porch of Ponce Bistro. A local favorite, this small bistro serves an eclectic menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner including customer favorites such as the spanish meatloaf sandwich, pumpkin soup, lavender goat cheese salad and an array of refreshing homemade iced teas. Bo ordered the meatloaf sandwich while my aunt and I each shared the pumpkin soup and north country turkey sandwich. I wish we’d saved room for their sweets as the bakery items I saw when I went inside to pay looked delicious – especially their chocolate chip cookies.

Solo Farm & Table – This cozy, farm to table restaurant is tucked on a quiet road in South Londonderry, about 20 minutes from Manchester Center. Within seconds of trying our first bite, we could tell that the numerous James beard nominations their chef has received as well the recognition in Bon Appetit, Food & Wine and the New York Times was beyond justified.  Since my aunt, Bo and I all love to share meals, we ordered two appetizers, a pasta, two entrees, and two desserts to share. This method allowed us to sample far more of the menu than normal, which made for a very tasty and fun evening. Unexpectedly, it was the fresh made bread and smoked butter as well as the homemade potato bisque which stole the show.  After cleaning the bowl with a piece of bread, I requested the recipe from the waitress, in hopes of recreating this rich, yet simple bisque at home.

It’s A Wonderful Life – As soon as the snow started, we found ourselves in the Christmas mood. Our typical rules of saving Christmas movies and music until after Thanksgiving were replaced with an afternoon of Christmas music followed by watching It’s A Wonderful Life that evening. When my aunt discovered that Bo nor I had seen this 1946 classic, she insisted that we watch it over dinner. I can see why this wonderful, touching and emotional film became one of the most acclaimed fils ever made and has received so much recognition over the years from AFI.

With that I’m off to enjoy the evening with Bo as we celebrate our seven year wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe that seven years have passed since we danced the night away with our closest friends and family members in Savannah, Georgia.

dancing-with-bo

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