Small Town Wanderings

Colette and Max each had their "must do before winter ends" list, and I've done my best to make them happen.

Last week, I took Max and his friends for one last hurrah of snowboarding/skiing.  Instead of our local mountain, they wanted to try out the big slopes at Mt. Snow in Vermont.  So, I dropped them off for a day of fun.

Two hour drive there, two hour drive back, and the whole day to explore the Vermont countryside for me.  I headed over to Bennington, Vermont, where I browsed through an antique store, discovered the local museum is closed only on Wednesdays (that very day), and drove about looking at the historic homes in town.

Spotted this beautiful, old church.

And I drove down a street lined with wonderful, historic homes to the site of this obelisk that commemorates the Battle of Bennington in the American Revolution.

This week (which technically is spring, although it's still so cold here), Colette and I headed over to Vermont for a bit of antique shopping and a stop at the Cabot Cheese Shop, where Colette proclaimed, "Cheese makes me dance!"  Then we popped back over the border into New Hampshire, did a bit of shopping, and stopped at our favorite gelato shop for one last chance this winter to get their decadent Italian hot chocolate.  I ordered dark chocolate hot chocolate with a scoop of fragola (strawberry) gelato.  Yum!  Tastes just like a chocolate covered strawberry!

The long goodbye to winter is mostly done...I think.  

Snowshoeing Treks

Lately, we've been able to go trekking with our new snowshoes.  I bought them for all of us for Christmas.  It was a little odd adding in a gift for myself, but I knew the store would be sold out if I waited until after Christmas when everyone would insist I had to go get myself a pair too.

So, with great excitement, we set off down a trail in our town one Sunday afternoon.  I took about six steps and one of my snowshoes broke.  A bolt...lost.  Fortunately, the snow on the trail was quite packed, so I just returned the snowshoes to the car and continued on foot.  Here are a few pictures from that first expedition.

Having some experience with the trail now, we knew it would be a great place to bring the dog the next time we went.  The trail was easy walking, and yet the deep snow on the sides would discourage her from bolting off into the woods if she saw something intriguing...squirrel, fox, etc.  At first we kept her on the leash, but there was really no need.  So, we let her off and she was ecstatic.  Just look at that happy face!

She'd race ahead of us, then turn around and run back for loves and pets, then race ahead again.  She must have run the trail three times over!

Fresh air.  Exercise.  Fun with the family.  Fun for the dog.  We love it!