Today we got to bike around (so glad we brought our bikes). We visited downtown Burlington and found ourselves in a tea shop where we sipped and sat, wrote and talked for a couple hours. Burlington also had a place called Lake Champlain Chocolate and we got some awesome hot chocolate. We saw the rather white collar Occupy Burlington. Eventually we rode along the waterfront bike trail, getting to take in even more of Lake Champlain, and passing a cool sundial and a treehouse. When we got back to the Farm we visited the store. I got an SF car magnet (for Shelburne Farms). Ashley said SF was for San Francisco, and I scoffed, but actually it suits this trip because I want to see San Fran, and that way I would be going from one SF to the other. :) The store also had samples to taste of the ridiculously delicious cheeses made on the Farm. After that, Ashley and David spent the next two hours repacking the van to redistribute weight and hopefully make it a little easier to drive. I went for a walk down to the beach on Lake Champlain. There really are some really interesting rocks down there that some people use to make jewelry.
Oh, I must not forget to add that we started off the day getting up early to watch the sunrise. We went down a road by the house and a spot just beyond a bit of electric fencing looked like ideal to watch it from. So we went under it without incident, and at first it looked like we were still separated from the cows. However as they began to walk towards us I noticed that they could actually go around another section of fencing and come right up to us. So we hurried back out to the safe side of the frencing, and the big mama cow came right over to where we had been standing, and boy, did she moo at us. She was, I thought, quite a beautiful Jersey cow, and also rather perturbed by our presence. After the sun rose, (summoned by Ashley, as she would have us believe), we let the cows be. It was a good, amusing way to start the day. :)
In the evening we got to hear tales like 'Pip the Rooster Turn Pip Pot Pie' and watch the 'Lambies at Shelburne Farms' video on Youtube (a must see, as I can think of few people who could resist videos of lambs racing like mad inside a barn). We finished the night watching 'Death at a Funeral' and chatting with Perri. Woo, it's late and been a long day. Tomorrow morning I'm hoping for croissants. The bakery on this farm, O'Bread, has the best croissant I can remember eating. For those unfamiliar with me, I spent ten months in France, so i like to think I have a good frame of reference...
On that note... Good niiight!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Perseverence pays off
Yesterday we drove through the snowstorm... Or I should say David drove through the snowstorm, and once we got to Shelburne it was rather dark and we kept missing the street. After multiple phone calls to our friend Perri we finally arrived on the farm, and walked into some Halloween shindigs and celebrated and... went to 80s night at a bar? I think we went to sleep at around 3am. Long but exciting day!
Today the sun was shining over the farm. After a fantastic brunch at the house, Perri gave us a tour of this lovely place. Now I am rather fatigued and we are getting ready for dinner so I will have to continue this later. Suffice it to say that we are in a very happy place.
~Alicia
Today the sun was shining over the farm. After a fantastic brunch at the house, Perri gave us a tour of this lovely place. Now I am rather fatigued and we are getting ready for dinner so I will have to continue this later. Suffice it to say that we are in a very happy place.
~Alicia
Friday, October 28, 2011
Day 1 on the road...
Hey folks, we made it out of the City! We're hunkering down for the night at my parents' house upstate, and tomorrow we'll drive up through New York and go to Shelburne Farms near Burlington, Vermont.
Today was spent stuffing our van with the innards of my friends Ashley's and David's Crown Heights apartment. After finally getting it all in a semblance of order, we piled into the leftover space in the van and yelled triumphantly as we drove away from the vacated apartment. We stopped in Greenpoint to say goodbye to a friend, making time to up our blood sugar with Peter Pan donuts.
We still had to make our way up to the Bronx, where we got to have an amazingly prepared dinner at the house one of David's many connections. The family we visited had never in fact met any of us. It was partly because a cousin, who used to work for David's mom, had told them such good things about David and his family that they received us with such warm hugs, good food and good stories. But we could tell that they were a warm, friendly family by nature, and it was incredibly fortunate for us to have them as one of our first stops. David kept saying that he hadn't been treated so well since he was twelve.
Our 82-year old host told us about how she came to New York City from Virginia when she was sixteen and never went back. She's seen the changes, went to bars in Harlem when the men and women went all dressed to the nines. Her husband used to own a bar, where they loved to watch the people and admire their style.
Her husband also had stories, though his were about his time in the Navy. He served from 1940 to 1946, and he was nearly killed once when a kamikaze fighter hit his boat. As I understand it, the boat was steered away so as to save his life and others, but the crew still lost a dozen men. He also remembered seeing bodies in the water, and in reflecting upon it commented on the pointlessness of war.
We ended up spending a few hours with them, just dining and telling stories. As we left we promised to ring them from every state we visit.
It was a lovely time, and I doubt that tomorrow will be any less so.
Good night, everyone!
~Alicia
Today was spent stuffing our van with the innards of my friends Ashley's and David's Crown Heights apartment. After finally getting it all in a semblance of order, we piled into the leftover space in the van and yelled triumphantly as we drove away from the vacated apartment. We stopped in Greenpoint to say goodbye to a friend, making time to up our blood sugar with Peter Pan donuts.
We still had to make our way up to the Bronx, where we got to have an amazingly prepared dinner at the house one of David's many connections. The family we visited had never in fact met any of us. It was partly because a cousin, who used to work for David's mom, had told them such good things about David and his family that they received us with such warm hugs, good food and good stories. But we could tell that they were a warm, friendly family by nature, and it was incredibly fortunate for us to have them as one of our first stops. David kept saying that he hadn't been treated so well since he was twelve.
Our 82-year old host told us about how she came to New York City from Virginia when she was sixteen and never went back. She's seen the changes, went to bars in Harlem when the men and women went all dressed to the nines. Her husband used to own a bar, where they loved to watch the people and admire their style.
Her husband also had stories, though his were about his time in the Navy. He served from 1940 to 1946, and he was nearly killed once when a kamikaze fighter hit his boat. As I understand it, the boat was steered away so as to save his life and others, but the crew still lost a dozen men. He also remembered seeing bodies in the water, and in reflecting upon it commented on the pointlessness of war.
We ended up spending a few hours with them, just dining and telling stories. As we left we promised to ring them from every state we visit.
It was a lovely time, and I doubt that tomorrow will be any less so.
Good night, everyone!
~Alicia
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
And thou shalt see thine own nation... Under God?
This trip is about three years in the making. It starts on Friday, October 28th 2011, and should go about a month... Or more. We are to shrug our vestigial inhibitions, and I hope to talk to a good many Americans, and maybe a few Americans. We shall see if my plans to take notes, question strangers, learn good jokes and strange stories, and write at least one song, all come to fruition. A month is not so very long, but you can accomplish a million things in one day if you set your mind to it... Not to put too much pressure on ourselves or anything, but we are a threesome of youthful overachievers, so I have high hopes. Wish us luck, y'all'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)