2008 June 18 archive at RunawayJim.org

On the third day of our honeymoon, we decided it would be a good day to spend in Burlington, the largest city in VT. There were a few things we wanted to do there, so we headed in. Upon arrival, we decided to walk around downtown for a little while. Little did we know there was an outdoor shopping area, Church Street Marketplace, that was full of people on a random Wednesday morning. It was full of shops that were open and little restaurants and cafes that were putting out their outdoor dining for the day. It was clean and beautiful. It’s what Westminster Street in Providence should be, but doesn’t even come close to (there are still signs for the Westminster Mall, which doesn’t exist anymore).

After wandering around for a little while, we wanted lunch. There were a couple places recommended to me for beer - American Flatbread, Three Needs, and Vermont Pub & Brewery. We wanted pizza for dinner, so we skipped American Flatbread. Three Needs wasn’t open, so we ended up at VT Pub & Brewery. I ordered their Flemish Sour Red. I was immediately impressed. It was perfect. Susan got their Smoked Stout, which was both on cask and regular draft. She got a sample of each to do a little side by side comparison. That was also an awesome beer. For lunch I had the Ploughman’s Lunch, a small loaf of fresh bread, a hunk of VT cheddar and a hunk of smoked cheddar, an apple chutney and a honey mustard. The food was amazing.

Following lunch, we headed to Lake Champlain Chocolates to get a little tour and some chocolate. The chocolate was amazing. We ended up buying a ton of it, but mostly their “seconds” - chocolate not perfect enough to be called “Lake Champlain Chocolate” (mainly because it doesn’t look right, but the quality is the same). The cool thing about the company is it was started by a restaurant owner. Basically, the story is that he had a very popular Sunday brunch, but the cooks were bored with the chocolates he served. He told them to make something better. The cook made a truffle that everyone absolutely loved. People started coming only for the truffles. Lake Champlain Chocolates was born.

After leaving there, we headed to Magic Hat, which supposedly still had self-guided tours. Unfortunately, that wasn’t true. They had a small store area open with a tasting bar. I tried most of their stuff, but was impressed only by their Odd Notion wild ale brewed with grapefruit and Lucky Kat, an IPA with Amarillo hops. Their other beers were pretty mediocre (Hocus Pocus, Circus Boy, #9). They also had their organic Orlio Common Ale, a steam beer, which was pretty good, but nothing special. I wish they had a touring area, but with all the construction, I could understand why they didn’t.

We then wanted to make a boat tour of the lake and headed to the waterfront. The lake is absolutely beautiful. On one side are the Adirondack Mountains of New York. On the other side are the Green Mountains of Vermont. There was a nice history of the lake and the area playing as we cruised around. The views were just fantastic.

After the cruise we wandered around the Church Street shops and their mall, which actually opens up to the Church Street Marketplace, to build up our appetite. Once hungry, we headed to American Flatbread. After a brief wait when one of the employees brought me over a copy of Beer Advocate magazine because I was wearing my BA shirt, we were seated. We ordered a couple samples and then I got their IPA (which was awesome). The samples I tried were their Gruit and a Bock, which was not what I expected. It was strong and very pale, but still tasty. The Gruit was also very tasty.

After dinner we decided to take a little walk on the waterfront. Along the boardwalk, they have a series of porch-style swings. It’s really cute and we just sat there and watched the sunset. It was absolutely beautiful. It was a perfect end to a perfect day in a perfect city. After that day, we both said to each other, “I could live here”. If we ever move out of Providence, it’ll likely be Burlington. It’s close to all the stuff we love… good beer, an awesome lake, and great skiing. To top it all off, the city is full of awesome people who are friendly and know how to drive (there’s nothing like seeing a 4 way stop move like clockwork). The city is one of the cleanest I have seen in the Northeast. There’s a pretty extensive bus system and a free shuttle that runs up and down College Street (the central artery between the waterfront and the University of Vermont, going through downtown).

That concluded the third day of our honeymoon. I’ll continue with Day 4 tomorrow.

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The second day of our honeymoon was another hot one, though it would be the last super hot one. We decided it would be best to go for a long drive in the air conditioned car. So we headed towards Cabot, though we took the long route through Smuggler’s Notch (the mountain pass, not the ski resort). We made a stop just after going through the notch, which was an awesome road (one which I wish we had gone through again). There’s a little state park info area there. It was awesome because on either side was a wall of mountain, though coming off the rocks was a cold air that felt like air conditioning. It was pretty sweet and definitely nice on such a hot day. We were going to do some hiking in there, but ended up running out of time during the week in VT.

We finally made it to Cabot, which was a cute little town. I learned something new about Cabot Cheese - it’s a cooperative, not a corporation. The shareholders are each farm that contributes. The cool thing is, one farm equals one vote, regardless of how big or small the farm (meaning how much milk they contribute). Cabot was fun. It was pretty neat to see how they made the cheese and they had lots of samples (if you’re feeling masochistic, try the Habañero Cheddar). One of the most interesting things was to learn that Cabot cheddar is lactose free (made my lactose intolerant wife happy). We also learned how to keep cheese tasting its best for longer (wrap it up air tight in new plastic wrap after each use, though once it’s opened the first time, it’ll never be the same, but it’ll keep for a long time if it’s in the original packaging).

Naturally, we bought a bunch of cheese at Cabot (their top-of-the-line Vintage Cheddar, their 3 Year Old Cheddar, a Smoked Cheddar, a thing of Cheddar Shake (similar to parmesan, but cheddar and no need to refrigerate, great on popcorn), and a block of whey butter). Then we were on our way back to Stowe, after learning from the woman at Cabot that there were tornado warnings for the entire state of VT (we thought they were crazy… tornadoes in the mountains?!?!).

After putting the cheese in the fridge, we needed lunch and headed up the street to The Shed. I ordered their ski of beer and the waitress was nice enough to throw in a 7th sample so I could try everything they had on tap. Susan got a stout or porter or something like that. I wrote a review on Beer Advocate if you’re interested in what I had, but I can’t remember right now other than that the beer was pretty mediocre. Anyway, as we were sitting there, in their “greenhouse” room with glass ceilings, the wind really started to pick up to the point of blowing trees sideways. It was actually quite scary. Then it started to rain. Shortly after the waitress brought over our food, the music stopped playing. The power had gone out in the whole town (but good thing we got our food and had cash to pay). The sky was really dark, the wind was nasty, and the rain was huge. Luckily, when it came time to head back to the hotel, the storm had passed and it was barely a drizzle. Upon arrival at the hotel, the power was out and we got a lantern from the front desk. We ended up passing out and when we woke up, the sun was out and the power back. We then decided to take a little walk into town, though after 5, everything was closed. We went to a Thai place for dinner and learned that aside from The Shed, most of Stowe was pretty pricey. I’ll write about the bar/restaurant in the hotel in another post.

That was the second day of our honeymoon. I’ll pick up on day 3 tomorrow or later tonight. Day 3 was a good day.