Wandering in Vermont

The weather on Saturday was beautiful, so I decided to go out and about. I drove the hour and a half to Woodstock, Vermont, a place I had visited a few years before when I came up this way to run a half marathon. It's the last race of any distance that I did, and it was a beautiful one.

On my way, I stopped at Queechee Gorge, just before reaching Woodstock. When I was here before, I was with others and we had stopped to look out over the gorge, but didn't have time to hike down into it. I decided to fuel up at a nearby snack bar and then hike that gorge.

The snack bar was like what I would expect at the beach, with any manner of "fresh fried" seafood. I enjoyed a ridiculously huge portion of fried clams and french fries. I ordered a small. It was a portion of food essentially the size of my head.

While sitting at a picnic table in the shade enjoying my massive portion of fresh/fried food, a trio of English tourists came by and asked if they might share my table and the shade it offered. I said of course. We struck up a conversation. This was their second great American vacation. In the first, last year, they flew into DC, rented a car, and drove around for a week. They had loved Annapolis (my hometown). This time, they flew into Boston and did the same. What a cool idea. They had spent the last week exploring New England and were enjoying things like the friendly people (people really are notably friendly up here), and the massive portions of ice cream. "I really will miss the ice cream at home," said the lady of the group. "It's rubbish."

They had never eaten clams before, so I shared mine. I think they were too polite to say that they didn't really care for them.

I moved on to go for my hike, and ran into an interpreter hired by the park service. She gave me some tips, and off I went. Hiking down into the gorge was all of .4 mile. Calling it a hike is a stretch. It was more like a nice downhill stroll. When I got there, I found lots of people laying about on the rocks, sunbathing, swimming, jumping into the water. It was really delightful.

Then back up to the top I went, and I wandered the other side, which took me to a dam and a meadow. 

I got in my car and was going to head to downtown Woodstock, when I saw a sign for a nature center that had raptors. They were open until 5. I had an hour. I went in. 

The place was small but beautiful. A raptor presentation was going on, and there nature trails to explore. It was fun to randomly stumble upon a zoo-like place.

I was pretty happy to find that, once I made it to Woodstock proper, shops were still open despite it being after 5pm on a Saturday. I have learned not to expect things to be open after 4 or 5pm on weekends in small town New England. 

I enjoyed wandering a bit, going into a few shops, and enjoying a thin crust pizza all for me. 

My last stop was at Simon Pearce. This is a retail shop but it's also an artisanal glassblowing factory. Every single piece they make is hand made by craftsmen. The shop is incredible, especially all lit up at night, with electricity powered by the waterfall just outside. I enjoyed watching a craftsman make rocks glasses - he turned one out about every 8-10 minutes, talking to us the whole time.