Summer Days Part Two

When the Firefighter and I went on our honeymoon, we went to a little mountain cabin on the side of a hill in Northfield, Vermont. We absolutely loved it and have talked about it frequently since then. We decided that our vacation this summer would be spent back in that cabin. So, we took a long Labor Day weekend and headed over. We did all the "must do" Vermont things: Cabot cheese factory (please do not ever tell me you don't like cheese- I'd rather just be blissfully ignorant that there is anyone who could utter such words), Cold Hollow Cider Mill and had cider donuts, went to Quechee Gorge, where I fell in love with Danforth Pewter, watched a glass blowing demonstration, ate more Cabot cheese, and scoured the gigantic antique mall. We went to Northfield's Labor Day weekend blowout event- which ended up being a bust in our minds. We were expecting a great huge event, but it was several little tents set up selling local people's junk (glorified yard sale), several food booths, and a big yard sale at the local fire department. At least the Firefighter got to see their firetrucks, and just about fell over when he found a Gaithers Homecoming board game. I wanted to end the trip at that point- it had been a pretty slow day, and him finding a boardgame about a Southern Gospel singing group was the final straw. He was ecstatic. I was dumbfounded someone spent the time to make something like that.

We then drove up onto a ridge and watched the sunset. It was so beautiful up there.

One of our very favorite...ahem...new adventures that we've decided to do during our lifetime is visit the gravesite of every US President. I was all for the idea as it meant travel throughout the country. On this trip we hit gravesite #2: Calvin Coolidge. It took us a little while to find it; we had to stop and ask directions at the Calvin Coolidge historical village- and there was no parking space to be found! Who knew it'd be such a popular spot! IT really was a pretty little village, frozen in time. Thankfully we got directions to the cemetery and soon marked this site off our list.

So, we had a good weekend away. We were glad to get home on Monday night, but all in all it was a good end of summer trip.

Summer Days

Summer is almost over. The leaves are quietly changing their colors, daylight is giving in to darkness more easily, there's that specific fall chill in the air most mornings now. I have mixed feelings about this time of year. Fall is my absolute favorite season- I love everything about it. Colors, smells, fairs, apples, baking, sweaters, warm pajamas... but it also means the end of summer- no more swimming, shorts, sunburns, beach days, camping, gardens to tend, long summer evenings spent outdoors.

So, as sort of a last hurrah for summer, I'm posting pictures of the recent ventures of the Firefighter and I. We've had a busy last few weeks of August, soaking up all the summer we could.

Our first adventure was camping, just the two of us, in a tent. Mind you, it's our new tent, and we both love it, so I've come to appreciate tent camping as opposed to camper camping. That's still my favorite, but this tent camping thing is OK too.

We went to a campground in Union that has a separate camping area for tenters. We walked over a bridge over a dribbly little stream, full of big boulders, and continued up a path strewn with tree roots, and finally reached our tentsite, which was right on the edge of the lake. This was the view the first morning there:

Not too bad, huh? We slept until we couldn't sleep any more, then got up and started a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and corned beef hash. All cooked by the Firefighter in our little hibatchi grill. Which, he found out, had one problem:

Yes, that's a hole in the bottom of the grill. But, being the Firefighter Extraordinaire that he is, he found a way to make it work, by piling kindling in the stove and putting the charcoal on top of that. IT was great! He then proceeded to make our bacon- YUM

Then, after we ate, and cleaned up, we got ready for our day, then left to go yard saling- and found out it was only 8:45!! Apparently when you tent, you get up earlier than usual. As a result, this was a needed activity that afternoon:

Pretty good, huh? This came after an arduous late morning kayaking trip into what we dubbed the Everglades of Maine. We had beautiful weather and a very restful time.

Next post: Labor Day Weekend in Vermont! Stay tuned!