VERMONT/MASSACHUSETTS TRIP

We had a great trip to vermont and massachusetts (hereafter refered to only as "mass").

In Vermont I did get to do a miniature version of my Gastronomic Tour of Vermont. I will first list where we ate in order:

SATURDAY

Al's French Fries - Pizzaburger, Fried Clams, French Fries, and a Coke.

VT Pub & Brewery - Reuben, Chips and something they called "Grand Slam Baseball Beer"

SUNDAY

Breakfast at Joe & Tammy's

Apple Turnovers at Sam Mazza's Farm Stand

Lunch and Dinner barbeque at Tim & Nicole's

MONDAY

Breakfast at Joe and Tammy's

Snacks at Ben & Jerry's, Cabot Cheese, and the Cold Hollow Cider Mill (donuts and cider)

Patrick has his first taste of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. The free sample was Mint Chocolate Chip (or as I call it, Chocolate Chip Mint) which you may or may not know is my favorite flavor of ice cream. I had never had Ben & Jerry's Mint Chocolate Chip, and I will tell you this - it was pretty darn tasty.

Fiona took this picture of a German tourist.

"Guten Tag!" Wohen geht diese Youth Hostel? Ich bin sehr hungrig. Haben sie zwei oder drei Dollar fur eine Ben und Jerry's Eis Sahne, bitte? UBER!!!Veile Dank!! Tschuss!!"

Family Photo in front of the Ben & Jerry's bus. (The little girl on the left is Marnie Russo.)

Fiona having a sample of cider at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. She said it was good, but not nearly as good as the cider we press out up at Uncle Larry's house.

Me, Nona and Patrick at Cold Hollow Cider Mill.

Me and Nona two years ago.

This apple thing was the highlight of the day for the kids. Several kids in our group went into hysterics when some other kid wanted to play with it. An Ice Cream factory, mountains and mountains of free cheese at Cabot, and literally thousands of gallons of fresh apple cider were trumped by this thing. Bizarre.

Fiona and Owen



Fiona and Ava

Marnie, Patrick, Fiona, Owen and Ava.

The Shed - Shed Burger, french fries, and a Mountain Ale. Sweet merciful Crap that is a good beer! (at this point in the tour, I started photographing my meals)

My Shed Burger, Fries and beer.

My burger was good, but not as good as I have had in the past. The mountain ale, however, was so good that it made up for the sub-par burger.

NOTE: Joe bought a beer that had an 8% alcohol content, so they said they could not serve him a 22-oz glass. They did, however, have no problem giving him a second pint serving of it when he finished the first.

Pizza Dinner at Joe and Tammy's with a Mazza's Apple Pie and Vanilla Ice Cream Desert.

TUESDAY

Breakfast at Libby's Blue Line Diner - I had eggs. potatoes, toast & coffee. Amy had buttermilk pancakes with real maple syrup, cornbeef hash and coffee.

My Breakfast at Libby's.

Amy's fan-freaking-tastic breakfast.

Due to a bad Maple harvest this year, Maple syrup is over $40 per gallon. So quit complaining about gas.

Family portrait at Libby's Blue Line Diner.

Lunch at Al's French Fries - Pizzaburger, fried clams, french fries, and a Coke

MMMMM.... Al's French Fries.

Beer Snack at Magic Hat - not nearly as good as it used to be. I had samples of Lucky Kat, Circus Boy and something else that was forgettable. I hate to sound like a crazy old man, when clearly I am just a crazy early-middle-aged man, but Magic Hat isn't as neat as it used to be. When we lived up there and I'd go there to get samples and fill up a growler, it was a really inviting place where they were happy to give you 4 or 5 decent samples in a glass glass. Now it is served in tiny paper cups, the kind mental hospitals put medicine in. Also, when I asked for a second sample of Circus Boy, the girl looked at me as if I had just asked her if I could borrow a couple pints of her blood. AND, if all that wasn't enough.... they stopped brewing Fat Angel - one of my top-five favorite beers. Yeah, well... Yuengling is still brewing Lager, Sam Adams is still brewing Boston Lager, Summer Ale, Old Fezziwig's Ale, Winter Ale. (Wow, I guess I really like Sam Adams.) And Makers Mark is still making outstanding Whisky, so I guess I will survive.

Komrads in the back seat.

Fiona and Patrick getting a little sick of sitting in the car for hours and hours and hours.

Dinner - Trattoria Delia - Spaghetti alla Pescatora. (AKA Spaghetti with clams, calamari, scallops, shrimp.) Fiona tried the calamari but did not care much for it.

Wednesday morning we woke up early and hit the road for Mass. Breakfast was Dunkin Donuts in New Hampshire some where.

In Mass, Amy painted a picture of Peter Rabbit on the wall of Andrew's new room. Amy is wicked wicked talented. She went in there, sketched it on the wall, and then painted it. And it looks really good. She amazes me. And she does it with such confidence - no dilly dallying - she gets the idea and executes - she takes no prisioners.

You look at that and you know it is Peter Rabbit

It's not like you look at it and Amy sez: "It's supposed to be Peter Rabbit"and you say "Oh yeah, I can see that. Yeah, that looks like Peter Rabbit."

.

Bumble Bees.

Andrew meets his new rabbit friend.





I suggested a painting of Pop-Pop in his hunting gear aiming his 12-guage at Peter Rabbit. It was vetoed.

I also suggested a couple of B-12 Bombers, you know, just for fun.

On Friday, we went to Fenway to tour the stadium. It was a lot of fun. Even though I don't care much for the Red Sox, it was neat to be inside that stadium. It is such a huge part of Baseball History. Every great player the game has ever seen has played on that field. All the way back to before Babe Ruth. I don't want to make more of it than it is, but those truly are hallowed grounds when it comes to baseball.

Fiona at the Fisk Pole.

Really cool mural inside the stadium.

Patrick and I inside the press box. This wasn't as exciting for me as sitting in Harry Kalas' chair in the Phillies Press Box, but it was still pretty cool.

Patrick really is a cute kid, isn't he?

This is the same photo before I manually removed that lady in the background.

Seriously, I don't mean to brag about my kids and all, but Fiona is just so cute.

Andrew noshing on some breakfast.

Dinner at the Lobster Trap. Again - Pretty darn tasty.

Fiona standing next to a gigantic wooden fish.

Reen Makes dinner on the grill.

About an hour away from home Fiona started asking "are we home yet? are we home yet? are we home yet? are we home yet?" At that time we called in the re-enforcements - the Muppets DVD's on the portable DVD player.

After we did get home, Dad, Chris, Samantha, Sara, Fiona and I went to the Reading Phillies. Fiona at a hot dog, cotton candy, french fries, dippin' dots ice cream, a soft pretzel and a sodey pop. By the time we went back to Mom & Dad's house, picked up Cisco and got home, it was 11:15. With the exception of a few cat-naps in the car, Fiona had been up since 4:30.






Check it out!!! Behind us at the Reading Phillies was Amy Winehouse!!!

No! Wait, it is Jane's Addiction singer, Perry Farrell!

Peace

MPH