Best laid plans . . .
We had a trip planned to go to Georgia ✈
But our timing was not great
Oh yes Dorian⛈ had other plans for us
We cancelled our trip but thankfully St Simons was spared anyway.
I was heading into work and thought I'd like to go to Vermont instead.
I get home from work and walk in the door and my hubby
says, "Would you like to go to Vermont 🍂?" Great minds . . hah
So new plans and off we go on Monday to Vermont 🚗
🍁🍂🍁
5 hours later we arrived !
⛰ 🍁🍂🍁 ⛰
Our first night was spent in Brattleboro.
So we had to drive west across the state.
On the way we passed Hogback Mountain ⛰
Oh gosh so beautiful
Panoramic 100 mile view! Located at the
Hogback Mountain Scenic Overlook,
the gift shop has been a Vermont fixture since 1936.
The view was amazing
Picked up my Vermont hat !
Arrived in Brattleboro and
checked into our hotel
We were tired from the long drive - about 5 hours from NJ
We ate at Ninety Nine Restaurant near our hotel
Neither Hubby nor I had ever heard of this chain.
Food was very good.
Woke up early and had breakfast ☕🍳 at a little
local place I found on line
The food was great. Homemade and delicious.
I wanted to go see the local Covered Bridge ~ I love those
Off we go !
This brook ran the whole ride to and from Brattleboro to
Bennington just beautiful
Headed off to the Vermont Country Store
The ride there was Heavenly
Pictures don't do it justice.
Mountains ⛰ Mountains everywhere !
You have to watch out for these guys evidently
warning signs all over but we never saw one 😞
We passed this adorable place but it is only
open on weekends 🎅🎄
Finally made it to the store 🎃🎃
We had a great time mulling around the store. 🍎
They had a covered bridge also
Vermont Country Store Kissing Bridge HAH
After shopping it was time to drive back
across Vermont to Bennington our next stop
Checked into our hotel in Bennington
It was a family owned Motel very nice
Knotty Pine
We like to go to one nice place for dinner when we travel
and spend a little more than normal. 💑
The view was amazing - food delicious
They had the best baked potatoes 🍠 I ever ate.
Rutland Vermont potatoes 🍠 I couldn't get over them HAH
The view outside our window as the sunset ☀ by
the mountain. ⛰
Really nice inside lots of large windows
Up early the next day for more exploring.
I had a list of places I wanted to stop hah
First breakfast ☕🍳 at a local diner.
History of diner ~ it is from Patterson New Jersey.
The Blue Benn is an authentic creation of the Paterson Vehicle Co.,
which manufactured the the diner's body in Paterson, N.J.
during the the 1940s.
According to a history inclided in the diner's menu jacket,
"in 1948, [the diner] was shipped and assembled
on its present site here in Bennington.
Tiny diner - had to wait for a booth to open up.
Waitresses were older ladies just lovely
You can tell its a local place.
Everyone knew everyone
So cute right ?
First stop after breakfast was
The Chocolatorium 🍫 off the beaten path but a lot of fun
Once an old wagon shed, our historic building in East Arlington
now houses an array of Vermont specialty foods such as
maple syrup and maple candy; cheddar cheese and crackers;
homemade preserves and jelly; honey; and sugar free candy.
Gift shop, candy shop - my hubby
Worlds largest Chocolate Bear 🐻
Treated myself to this little moose !
Could not resist the PINK flowers 🌺
Then off to Sugar Shack
The best part of this place was the Norman Rockwell area.
I love these
Freedom from WANT
Freedom of SPEECH
Freedom from FEAR
Freedom of WORSHIP
The absolutely neatest thing was they had photos
of all the local VT folks who Rockwell used in
his paintings at the time. It would show the
painting than a photo of how they looked at that
time and how they look now.
Our last stop was to a place called
Christmas Days 🎄🎅☃
It was like being in a winter wonderland.⛄
Trees 🎄 everywhere. Loved it.
Picked up a few ornaments for our tree.
We were done shopping for the day so we headed
to downtown Bennington to walk around
the little town
I like to find all the Moose they have all over Vermont 🌻
Well not all of them are Moose HAH
And I can't miss the PINK guy
For dinner we went back to the Blu Diner.
Returned again for breakfast 🍳 the next morning
before we headed on our drive home.
