Cairo romps in Colchester's Bayside Park.
Cairo was just so excited to be going on another 251 Club trip! Come play with us as we visit Colchester, Waitsfield and Stowe (Moscow, too)...
After several busy weeks and our famous appearance in the Burlington Free Press, we've gotten out for a day trip. First stop: the town of Colchester (history, demographics). Now, you have to understand something about Colchester: it's where I (NTodd) allegedly work. Of course during the legendary Summer of NTodd I haven't been sighted in the office, but even before I took my sabbatical thingy I wasn't usually around--either on the road teaching or telecommuting from home. When my coworkers saw that Stef and I were touring the entire state, they supposedly started a betting pool on when we might get to Colchester. This part of the trip is dedicated to everybody who works for Hill Associates. I'll be back soon...
After consulting MapQuest, I plugged Colchester's coordinates into my Garmin eMap GPS and we were able to successfully navigate to our first stop.
Mmm...cattails. As Stef and my late godfather, Euell Gibbons, have noted, you can eat cattails. There are apparently three ways to enjoy them.
By Mallet's Bay.
As much as Cairo wanted to go swimming, the beach was closed today. Apparently the water exceeded state-accepted levels of, well...something.
By the Hill Associates office building, where NTodd ostensibly works.
But where's NTodd? Still no evidence he actually has been to the office...
Okay, so NTodd still is AWOL from work. Anywayz, next on our trip was Waitsfield (history, demographics). This is quintessential Vermont, or maybe stereotypical, and we've been here many times before. In fact we considered having our wedding at the Round Barn Inn, which is a wonderful venue but in the end it just didn't quite meet our needs. I'd actually stayed at Round Barn before, and seen a benefit concert there in years past--today there was an art exhibit in the barn (it's a big barn).
At the HQ of Waitsfield Telecom, one of the independent phone companies that provide service to places where Verizon dare not tread.
Stef got tired of official town signs, and this one certainly seemed appropriate given my career. I actually taught a one-day DSL course for Waitsfield Telecom several years ago (that's when I stayed at the Round Barn). That was cool because I taught the class in their central office in the heart of town, and half the company (all of 30 people) attended. BTW, you can see the town sign in the background on the left.
Village Bridge in the middle of Waitsfield.
This is Vermont's second oldest covered bridge, built in 1833, and one of the few with a walkway. 105 feet multiple kingpost truss with burr arch.
Blowing glass at a Waitsfield studio.
Sorry, I don't recall the name of the glass studio right now. Neat to watch the artist work, and the pieces for sale were quite nice. Quite different than I remember the process when I saw a demo in Sturbridge Village many years ago. I guess the art and science has evolved since the colonial days!
And finally to lovely Stowe (history, demographics). The Von Trapp Family (yes, "The Sound of Music" people) came here because it reminded them of Austria. Stef and I had our wedding at the Trapp Lodge in 2002.
The covered footbridge on a rainy day in Stowe.
Once we crossed Smuggler's Notch on our way home, we found blue sky. I shouldn't be at this point, but I am still always amazed by the drastic difference between Vermont's various microclimates.
The village of Moscow's General Store and Post Office in the middle of Stowe.
While Stef has spent the most time in the former USSR (1989-90), she only spent a few days in Soviet Moscow. NTodd visited there for a week in 1986 and studied Russian at the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys for 3 months in 1990. Uh, this isn't the same place:
The village of Moscow is said to be so named because of a large circular saw blade hung in 1839, struck with a hammer to call men to work (alternately to call a school meeting). The sound was likened to the Great Bell of Moscow, the largest in the world, then in the news as having only recently been unearthed after lying buried for more than a hundred years (the 220 ton mammoth had fallen to the ground while being hung in 1734).
Well, what do you know: a rainbow at the end of our journey.
A great day.
ntodd
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