There is no place like home

There is no place like home

Every May we step away from Killington for a few weeks to try to catch up on life in the real world. What are people wearing... what are the trends in food... what are people drinking... What are the trends in free time activities... Sometimes it's to exotic destinations. Sometimes it includes some business activity thrown in. It usually includes trips to see our respective Moms and Dads. This year we stayed a little closer to home, wandering around New England.

We started our journey with a visit to Burlington Vermont to attend a wine show being held at the Burlington Country Club. I tasted some nice wine that will probably find it's way onto our restaurants wine list. But while we were in Burlington, we did a little around town ourselves. We walked the shops on Church Street. We did not know that Burlington was quite a fashion plate.. but we did not realize it at the time. We ate dinner at a little Italian Bistro L'Amante on College Street. Really nice. I finished my night with a snifter of WhistlePig whiskey from Shoreham Vermont. (Need to add that to our selections at the bar).

On our trip through Vermont up and down to Burlington, we were impressed with all the work we saw being done as Vermont continues to recover from last years Hurricane Irene. All across the state roads and bridges have been repaired. Lots of work is still being done in a lot of local communities, but the hard work of recovering from such a huge natural disaster is clearly in evidence.

From Burlington, we headed to Boston for a few days, staying near the waterfront in the Harborside Inn. Its a nice property, sitting in the shadows of the Boston Customs House, just a block from the Aquarium and Quincy Market. While in Boston, we made a deliberate attempt to walk the city and be tourists; taking advantage of our smart phones to find things to do, places to go, restaurants... etc. We obviously don't need to do that while in Killington, but we wanted to see how our guests use technology. Quite impressive.

Using YELP, we found a really great restaurant in Charlestown.. I asked Yelp to find a restaurant less than a couple of miles from our hotel (so we could walk), and it pointed us to the "Navy Yard Bistro and Wine Bar" in Charlestown. We never would have found this place if we relied on traditional sources. It was literally in a building in the Old Charlestown Navy Yard with no sign. We got there at 7 on a Saturday night (very tourist). The place was packed. After a few drinks at the bar and over an hour wait, we sat down to a very nice meal. Maybe there is something to all this technology in our pocket.

Random pictures from our spring 2012 vacation. Click image to stop rotation. Click again to resume rotation.

In another walk about Boston, we visited the Museum of Fine Arts in the Back Bay to view their "Art in Bloom" exhibit. It was a really nice exhibit, with flower arrangements smartly spread out all over the MFA. While in the Back Bay, we also walked through the "Victory Gardens" in the Fenway, reportedly one of the oldest remaining Victory Gardens set up during WWII. We also strolled down the Charles River through the Esplanade. Boston is one of the worlds great walking cities.

On our Boston walk abouts, there were a few things we noticed. In the clothing department, with the exception of Asian Women who appeared to be visiting the city, everyone, and I mean everyone, seemed to be wearing blue jeans. The typical daytime attire for people walking around town looked like blue jeans and a tee shirt with sneakers (or trainers if you prefer) or sensible soft soled shoes. At night, there was little change. Men went from tee shirts to "Collared" shirts, some with a sport jacket. Women when to pretty (some times very low cut) blouses with painful looking shoes. I only saw men over 45 years of age in "Polo" shirts(so much for my wardrobe!!!). Khaki pants, or the black pants of years ago, were totally gone, replaced by the ubiquitous blue jean. It was an interesting trend to see, and it must have clothing designers/retailers shaking their heads.

The blue jean trend in Boston (and on Cape Cod) was not evident in Burlington Vermont. Does that mean that Burlington is ahead or behind a trend...who knows... but the contrast in what people were wearing between the two cities was very surprising.

From Boston, we made our way to Cape Cod, staying with innkeepers John and Kris at their inn, "The Liberty Hill Inn" in Yarmouth. We have stayed there many times, and I highly recommend Liberty Hill if you are visiting the Cape. We played a couple of nice rounds of golf along the way. Had another nice dinner at the Lyric restaurant on Route 6A in Yarmouth, run by a former Killington resident, Anne Austin.

We finished our trip in Foxboro MA, staying at Patriots Place, to visit with my son who lives in eastern Mass. Patriots Place is beautiful, but shockingly empty; being designed to support the hundreds of thousands of people who go there during Patriot Football games. But it was a nice, uncluttered, place to anchor for a few days while visiting with my son.

All in all, it was good to be away from home for a few days, but on the ride back it was clear that the mountains of Vermont were calling us home. It's nice to be back in Killington. There's no place like home!