From rural northern New Hampshire, the border of Vermont is connected by I-93 at the Moore Reservoir. This part of New England has mountains and hilly grassy terrain with gorgeous Autumn trees in fall. We were coming from Mount Washington and going to Waterbury, Vermont.
The quickest way from the route we were on was to cut through inner Vermont on VT-2. This part had to be the most idyllic and picturesque part of our trip with stunning green rolling hills, with rural cities, lakes, barns and farms. We went through the cities of Danville, Plainfield, and Montpelier, each one tucked into a major hill or mountain. Montpelier is Vermont’s capital and probably the most underwhelming capital city I’ve ever been to.
While coming up on Montpelier we tried to look up local restaurants to eat at and it was almost nonexistent. Montpelier has the distinction as serving the smallest population for a state capital in the US and really the only thing that needs to be seen is the capital building. We proceeded to take a picture of the capital building from the car and then jumped on I-89 and almost hit a deer. It was stressful times in Montpelier.
From Montpelier I-89 took us to Waterbury, Vermont, which is home to Ben & Jerry’s Ice-cream. Thinking that not many tourists would want to visit an ice-cream shop, we did not expect the exit to be jam-packed with tourists. If I lived in Waterbury, I would be pissed with how much tourists inundate the city. There was no parking when we got to the actual building but we ended up getting lucky with a front row parking.
We walked up to the entrance and saw the outside packed with tourists all waiting in line to get some ice-cream. And then we saw tourist inside waiting in a line to actually tour the factory. None of these options seemed appealing so we went to the bathroom, got back in our car and kept going towards Burlington which was only about 30 minutes away. And besides, there were 4 Ben & Jerry’s in Burlington that were probably not packed like the original one.
Entering Burlington was kind of nightmarish. Both starving we expected to whisk right in the city but found backlog, both directions, on the main street. Burlington is a very unique city and the first thing you notice is how liberal the people are and how hilly the city is. We went to the waterfront that overlooks Burlington’s best asset, Lake Champlain.
We ate at Burlington Bay Market & Cafe, located near where the ferries leave for New York State. We had made it across New England and now had views of New York which official border is in the middle of Lake Champlain. The Burlington Bay Market & Cafe was exactly what the name implied. Half of the store was like a market/grocery store while the other half was a proper café that sold really good burgers, wraps and salads as well as beers and wines. After a 3 hour drive through New Hampshire and Vermont, this was perfect and exactly what we needed to relax. Plus the day was sunny and exceptionally warm for this time of year.
After boozing and enjoying the sunshine we now had to find Ben & Jerry’s for dessert. I’m not a huge ice-cream fan but because we were in Vermont I figured I could eat some ice-cream. I think I went with the Cherry Garcia and Milk and Cookies scoops which was pretty good. After eating hamburgers, wraps and fries and now ice-cream, I just felt a little bad for eating all of this unhealthy food. So for our exercise we decided to walk their shopping area on Church Street. If I lived in Burlington and wanted to have a night out this would be the street do it with high-end stores and restaurants. It was a nice atmosphere and reminded me a lot of Austin, Texas.
Burlington has such a laid-back attitude and the people are genuinely nice. Living in Austin, a very liberal city, it was very easy to ease into Burlington and understand that extreme liberal mentality that I’ve grown accustomed too. There isn’t much to do in Burlington but if we had more time we would have probably done something on the lake or entered New York and Québec. The region is filled with endless outdoor activities and truly is a hiking, skiing, climbing, boating and rural-loving paradise.
Done with Burlington we then headed back to our base in Manchester, New Hampshire on I-89. I’m glad we left during daylight because at night the highways in Vermont and New Hampshire are very dark. And I almost hit a deer on the drive up to Burlington, so I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to see them at night. Even on the ride back Vermont truly was beautiful and the Autumn leaves were more in full swing than further to the east or further down south. We hit Concord just after sunset and decided on another restaurant, this time pizza in Manchester. After 9 hours of driving close to 500 miles, we were ready to relax and get ready for our next mini-excursion to Maine.
images by: shawnvoyage
