We started out our trip with the standard trek to Buffalo. A long drive, with heavy skies, but after staying in a lot of crappy hotels around Buffalo over the years we finally found one we liked near the airport. Luckily Ernie and I could go downstairs and be by ourselves for a drink. I adore those children but 10+ hours in the car can get somewhat exhausting. Leo pretty much just sleeps but the other one.....and then they reach a point where they are crabby with one another.... Anyway, we enjoyed the comparative peace of the hotel lobby and a drink...
The next morning we headed off to Montpelier. I decided to drive through the Adirondacks which wasn't the best idea with carsick prone stomachs in the car. And as Ernie said, after awhile you just don't want to see another tree! Halfway there I realized we were going to have to take a ferry to cross from New York into Vermont. This was not a popular announcement but then Leo realized that with this experience he would have traveled by plane, boat, train and car this summer---so he came to terms with it.
The little town with the ferry was gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous and then we crossed over into Vermont and good God....Vermont is ridiculously stunning.
We got ourselves installed in the hotel after pondering the difference uses of the words capital and capitol. We met our friend Lisa for dinner and it really was one of the highlights of the trip. She brought us a wonderful bag of Vermont treats which we spent the whole vacation enjoying, with some still left over. Such kindness. We went across the street from the hotel to a restaurant and shared an order of poutine before dinner. Good God in heaven. Then we ended up chatting with our server Richard. It turns out that he lived here in C-U back in the 80s and worked at Snaks Fifth Avenue, the restaurant on S. Neil that was last a Mexican restaurant before being torn down. We shared memories and updated him....he was a delightful character and just added to the charmed feeling of the evening.
The next morning Lisa sent us to a wonderful place for breakfast and then we wandered around downtown Montpelier, stopping at Bear Pond Books and splurging by letting every one get a book. Well, except Leo. He looked at the books on the solar system and space but thought he knew most of what they were talking about so he passed. God I love that boy. I must admit to being quite smitten with Montpelier....the boys as well. Owen said he wanted to live there. I don't think Ernie disagreed. We took off heading for New Hampshire and were transfixed by how beautiful Vermont was.
When we were kids we would fly to Maine every year....I think it was Northeast Airlines. We would leave Chicago and stop at seemingly a million places before we made it to Maine. I forget now....I wanna say Detroit, Cleveland, Burlington, Boston....and then Portland. I don't remember exactly but it was one of those trips where you were constantly landing and taking off. I remember every time we would make the descent into Burlington however, my mother would say she wanted to get off because she could see her pine trees. I guess you can take a New England girl out of New England but.....
Eventually we'd fly in to Portland....a tiny little airport at that time. Grandma and Grandpa would be waiting.
The Northeast jets were yellow and white....I wish I could find the commerical in which they used Yellowbird....
A different trip this time but just the same....I was happy to see Mom's pine trees. She would have loved it. Thanks and much love to Lisa Savage for making our trip special.