Travel

Visiting Vermont: A Getaway from NYC

July 18, 2018

One night two weeks ago, Jordan casually mentioned that he had a slower work week coming up and wanted to get out of the city. This, my friends, is not the thing to say to a travel addict like myself. While my response was, “Ok, cool,” my actions were anything but chill. I spent the next three hours scouring AirBnB for available rental homes we could afford and drive to (and yes, this absolutely added to my sleep deprivation. But yes, who cares, because — travel).

And so, this is how we found ourselves in southern Vermont for two nights. We found this AirBnB that was beautifully, yet minimally decorated near Mount Snow, which is a 3.5-hour drive from NYC. And we convinced our friends Heather and Aswan to come along with us and bring their two young sons.

While I often make lots of plans for our trips, the main thing on our to-do list for Vermont was to take it easy. And so we figured it out as we went along — cooking meals at the house, drinking coffee on the deck, having good conversations about marriage, watching videos of the Shiggy dance, and seeing the boys explore the outdoors.

On our first full day, we had breakfast at a local diner called Dot’s.

Thank goodness for daddies who hold babies so you can eat no frills, classic diner french toast. And thank goodness for jelly packets that serve as building blocks and “train cars” to keep kids occupied.

A quick side note about these two: Axel and Jameson. They are best buds (they had no choice in this, but thankfully, they actually like each other), and when I told them we were taking a trip together to Vermont, they immediately burst into unified chants of “Yay, yay, yay!” And then I told them they’d share a room at the house in Vermont, and Jameson proceeded to give Axel a hug and exclaim, “This is amazing!” I laughed so hard.

Outside of the diner, there was an oversized Adirondack chair that the kids couldn’t wait to climb on. And they offered up a mix of happy faces, mad faces — with some Wakanda flair, and plain ole crazy.

Then the moms wanted in on the action, but we’re laughing because Jordan and Aswan were actively trying to keep the kids away from us as we took these pics — almost like they were playing full contact football. Which kind of summarizes mothering little kids in general: it’s hard to get a moment to yourself.

And this was the best we could do of the whole crew…

Our server at the diner suggested we take the kids to Adams Farm, because she loved going there as a kid and feeding the animals. So that became our next stop.

We purchased a basket of food and fed a variety of animals — chickens, emus, llamas, rabbits, pigs, ponies, goats, and sheep.

With the exception of dogs, I tend to appreciate animals “from a distance” (ha!), but Heather loves animals, which I totally admire. I would have legit dropped this rabbit the moment it flinched, but she makes it look so peaceful and lovely.

And Jameson must be my child, because he was pretty skeptical of the animals too. He was much more interested in looking at the animals than actually feeding them.

And for most of the time we were on the farm, Josiah looked like this:

This next picture cracks me up, because I feel like it captures us “city folk” enthralled as we watched one of the farm hands give food and water to a horse. Just a tad bit different from Harlem.

On our final day in Vermont, we took the ski lift to the top of Mount Snow. The ride was a ton of fun for the kids, and the views were gorgeous.

We hiked around the top of the mountain, taking in different views as well as wild flowers and butterflies.

And with that, we packed up and headed back to the city feeling refreshed and with grateful hearts. As much as I love city living, it was so nice to have a few days surrounded by mountains, trees, quiet (meaning no street noise, because these kids of ours are loud for no reason), and fresh air. And it was really nice to experience all of it on somewhat of a whim.

Here’s to more last-minute getaways that rejuvenate the soul.

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