The View from Vermont

Jeremy took Clara and me on a suprise trip to Vermont last weekend--just for fun! (I guess part of the fun was preserving our sanity and whatnot, since these last few months have kicked us until we were down and then kicked us some more.) We left on Thursday when I finished teaching and came back Saturday afternoon. As far as a leaf-peeping trip to Vermont goes, it was ideal. We stayed outside of Middlebury at a small bed and breakfast run by a charming, if eccentric, older couple. The woman, who I believe is originally from Vietnam, was really concerned about running out of copies of the breakfast order form, so she just erased the marks of whoever had it last and gave it to us, then the next day she erased the marks again so we could fill out a "clean" sheet. Her husband seemed extremely old--almost to the point of inducing us to feel extremely guilty that we were staying at their house and making them do work for us! (I got over the guilt by reminding myself how much we were paying them.) We enjoyed our stay, though, even with the "ladybug situation" (aka ladybug infestation). I guess if a person is going to have to deal with insects, the insects might as well be ladybugs.

One of the best moments of the trip was our spur-of-the-moment decision to drive to New Hampshire on Friday. Years ago Jeremy and I set a goal to visit 30 states together by the time he turned 30, and New Hampshire was our thirtieth state--with just under two years to spare! Jeremy is still much more traveled than I. He's been to 49 states (pesky Alaska) and I have now been to 31. But I like seeing them all with him. An interesting sidenote: New Hampshire was Clara's fifteenth state, which is pretty impressive for a not-quite one-year-old, and is perhaps especially impressive given that she spent the first five months of her life in our apartment. Say what you want about us: we really enjoy a good road trip! Our next goal is to hit 40 states by the time we turn 40.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a few photographs:

Clara eating her breakfast in our proprietor's 80-year-old high chair. Lead paint, anyone? (Yes, Mom, only I would worry about something like that.)


Another highlight of the trip was an unintentional stop at the Joseph Smith birthplace visitor's center in Sharon, Vermont. We are really not very good religious pilgrims, and it hadn't even occured to us to stop here. But then there we were, right at the turn off on our way to New Hampshire. I actually think it might be our favorite Church history site. Very peaceful, quiet, and beatuiful.


Jeremy loves this picture. I'm not sure I see what he sees...



Clara took this picture of us at Dartmouth. If we're counting milestones that don't mean anything, this is the fourth Ivy League campus we've visited. (We may not be good religious pilgrims, but we are certainly shameless university tourists!)


Back in New York, we stopped to stretch our legs at a little apple farm, and we bought Clara her first pumpkin! She loved it; she ate the whole stem! (Seriously, doesn't she look thrilled?)



On an interesting final note, Jeremy recently reviewed the book The View from Vermont for the Journal of Cultural Geography. Be sure to pick up your copy when it hits newsstands across America!