Wed 12 Sept

Good way to get a little morning cardio - take the stairs down from your sixth floor room to gather some breakfast items from the car and back up again. Heading to Vermont today. We have 3 nights booked at a B&B in Morrisville so we will do the Stowe/Waterbury area and hopefully get some hiking in as well. We will mostly be traversing familiar ground today, and we have a much shorter driving day which will be appreciated. We have been far too sedentary as we're usually too tired from driving for more than a short half hour walk which doesn't burn all the calories from restaurant meals. We try to order things not too heavy, but sometimes desserts call like yesterday's treacle tart. The Adirondacks and Vermont are as beautiful as we remember, and the weather was once again gorgeous to enjoy them. We came into Vermont to Waterbury and stopped at the Cabot Creamery store where we sampled several little pieces of cheese. We popped in to the Lake Champlain chocolate store and just bought a bag of Green Mountain coffee and two small squares of dark chocolate which I munched in the car. We then drove up to Stowe and to the Trapp Family Lodge where we lunched on the terrace in the perfect sunshine. We may return tomorrow to hike on their trails for an $11 fee, but the trails are extensive and in a gorgeous place. It will also put us closer to Waterbury so we can do Ben N Jerry's and Cold Hollow Cider at some point in the day. The B&B is also very nice, run by a working science teacher. She served us wine and chevre with a homemade fig and hot pepper jam before dinner. We then went out for a walk along the rail trail by the river just below the inn, checking out the tiny Farmer's Market along the way. We were not particularly hungry, but we drove to Johnson to see if the Plum on Main was still in business. Sadly it is now a Wicked Wings place. The Ben N Jerry's store in town is also gone. We drove to Jeffersonville and just stopped at the deli/bakery where we bought a couple of wraps to take along hiking tomorrow and a chicken salad sandwich to share tonight. I also bought a delicious raspberry bar. Food: 7:45 am 1 c raspberries, prune ponczka, med banana, coffee 12:15 pm Samples of cheese at Cabot Creamery store, 2 small squares dark chocolate 1:30 pm Truffled grilled cheese w/bacon sandwich, 4-5 French fries, 12 oz wheat beer 4:45 pm 5 oz white wine, several thin crackers w/herbed chevre, fig hot pepper jam 6:15 pm 1" piece of brownie 7:45 pm 1/2 chicken salad sandwich on multigrain, 1/2 raspberry bar, small banana Exercise: 7:45 am 6 flights of stairs up and down 5:10-6:05 pm Walk on path (brief stop at Farmer's Market)