Vermont was included on the first Hamill family road trip - I remember picking up some maple syrup. That's about it. Great skiing too.
STOWE - FEBRUARY 2018
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There's no beating Stowe.
It's simply the best ski town on the East Coast. There's no need to ove analyze where to ski. Or where to stay. It's Stowe and the Stowe Mountain Lodge. Avoiding the weekends avoids the crowds, the traffic, and gives a 60% reduction in the nightly stay. There's no beating Stowe. We arrived around seven at night and after a room upgrade return to the lobby lounge. I could have hung out in this lounge all day. There were large windows providing natural light. Comfortable chairs where you could read a book or just people watch. I ordered a beer from The Alchemist, Stowe's nationally acclaimed microbrewery, sat back, and enjoyed the environment. |
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If there's a downside to visiting Stowe during the week on the tail end of skiing season it's that breakfast options at the resort are limited. On the plus side there was no one in line for lift tickets or equipment rentals. Instead of the sticker over the wire hoop lift ticket approach, Stowe uses a Wi-Fi card. You slide up to the gate at the ski lift, a sensor recognizes your card, green light, then through to the chair lift.
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When hitting the slopes, I stuck to the Greens. Having not skied or snowboarded in over five years, I knew my legs would be sore; I had no idea they'd hurt after a few runs. The Greens were still a good run. I thought about stepping up to the Blues but every slope at Stowe is a couple of degrees more difficult than similar colored trails in the Poconos. I opted to play it safe and stick to the Greens. The nice thing about the Greens is that their position on the mountain provide great views of the rest of the resort. Stowe Mountain Lodge sits in a bowl surrounded on three sides by mountains and ski slopes. Coming down the Greens gave the best views of the resort and the surrounding bowl of trails. There's no beating Stowe.
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For even better views we took the gondola to the top of the mountain. We ate lunch at Cliff House which overlooks the valley. It was a decent lunch but the service needs to be quicker considering you are at Stowe for the skiing. While waiting I grabbed a Von Trapp beer. Apparently when the Von Trapp family isn't singing they are running a microbrewery and beer garden in Stowe. We returned to the slopes after lunch for another two hours of skiing. The lifts stop running at four. I was a bit disappointed with the early stop but my legs were shot.
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After skiing my wife rented ice skates and I watched with another Vermont micro-beer in hand.
For dinner we are at Michael's on the Hill. Stowe has a collection of great restaurants and we had a great venison and beef tenderloin meal at Michael's. We did not want to leave the next day. To savor the Stowe experience a little longer we are breakfast at Butler's Pantry. The town of Stowe is quaint.
On the way out of town we made a stop at the Ben and Jerry's Factory. I doubled down on the Vermont theme and ordered a cup of Phish Food. We made one final stop at Green Mountain Coffee's flagship store, located in Waterbury's Amtrak Station. Other than being in an Amtrak Station and providing a background of Green Mountain on a few placards, there wasn't much to the coffee house.
Now the activity I was not looking forward to. The seven hour drive back home. There's still no beating Stowe.
For dinner we are at Michael's on the Hill. Stowe has a collection of great restaurants and we had a great venison and beef tenderloin meal at Michael's. We did not want to leave the next day. To savor the Stowe experience a little longer we are breakfast at Butler's Pantry. The town of Stowe is quaint.
On the way out of town we made a stop at the Ben and Jerry's Factory. I doubled down on the Vermont theme and ordered a cup of Phish Food. We made one final stop at Green Mountain Coffee's flagship store, located in Waterbury's Amtrak Station. Other than being in an Amtrak Station and providing a background of Green Mountain on a few placards, there wasn't much to the coffee house.
Now the activity I was not looking forward to. The seven hour drive back home. There's still no beating Stowe.
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BURLINGTON
Burlington is about an hour west of Stowe on the eastern side of Lake Champlain. We swung through here on the way to Stowe from Lake Placid. It's another quaint town and home to the University of Vermont. We spent most of our time on the Church Street shopping promenade. We stopped at Magic Hat Brewery on the south side of town on the drive in. It's a good place to start the Vermont microbrewery journey. Vermont has more breweries per capita than any other state. The little time that we were here reminded me a lot of Oregon, the another US state renowned for microbreweries. We ate dinner at a flatbread pizza place, that like restaurants in Oregon, doubled as a microbrewery.
Burlington is about an hour west of Stowe on the eastern side of Lake Champlain. We swung through here on the way to Stowe from Lake Placid. It's another quaint town and home to the University of Vermont. We spent most of our time on the Church Street shopping promenade. We stopped at Magic Hat Brewery on the south side of town on the drive in. It's a good place to start the Vermont microbrewery journey. Vermont has more breweries per capita than any other state. The little time that we were here reminded me a lot of Oregon, the another US state renowned for microbreweries. We ate dinner at a flatbread pizza place, that like restaurants in Oregon, doubled as a microbrewery.
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A few more scenes of Burlington including The Vermont Pub and Brewery - Vermont's first microbrewery.
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Joyce Skiing Videos
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