Vermont is a gorgeous state. I love our drives up there! Like I told Lauren, it's like driving through a fairy land. Even upstate New York is all rambling old farmhouses, cows grazing in impossibly green fields, rushing rivers, and old timber ski resorts. It was a wonderful day for a drive, too. It remains sunny and blue, but it's also windy and much colder, in the lower 60's. Lauren played an eclectic mix of music, everything from Randy Travis and Waylon Jennings to The Monkees, No Doubt, and the Gin Blossoms.
Lauren pulled into the Vermont Country Store's gravel parking lot around quarter of 12. This charming old red farmhouse is jam-packed with shelves and shelves of vintage toys, penny candy, Vermont cheese and maple syrup, retro-style Halloween and fall decorations, recreations of shampoos and conditioners from the 60's and 70's, old-fashioned tonics, fancy pastel milled soaps, fireworks, flannel shirts, and lacy pajamas.
Trouble is, practical and hard-to-find these items may be, they also tend to be expensive above the norm. Good thing I almost literally stumbled onto the stairs leading to the second floor sales room. I made my best find of the day among the racks of last year's clothes and discontinued toys. I dug a beautiful maroon, purple, and brown plaid flannel nightgown out of the the pajama rack. It was listed as $36; it came up as $24. Got my favorite maple leaf sandwich cookies on sale for a smaller box, too. Fruit slices in a plastic container weren't on sale, but I couldn't resist. I probably won't have those again until next summer. Found a tiny bottle of "Northern Comfort" maple syrup as well.
After we put our purchases away, we had lunch at Mildred's Grill in the Victorian house next-door. It's been through a couple of names and owners in the past few years (it was Leyla's last year), but it seems to be back in the Orton family now. Lauren had a grilled cheese with "pub fries," thick, dry fries. I had an individual chicken pot pie. Oh yum! The pie came in a little square crock, and it was so delicious! The crust was perfectly flaky. The sauce was savory, probably made with fresh Vermont cream, and it had big chicken chunks and sliced vegetables. Lauren said her sandwich was really good too, and she even let me have some of her fries.
We walked around for another half-hour in the Vermont Country Store after that, but when neither of us found anything else we wanted, we headed across the street. The Vermont Country Store isn't the only shop in Weston. There's a Christmas ornament shop directly across from the Vermont Country Store. While not nearly as big as Winterwood in Rio Grande, it's equally packed with every kind of Christmas ornament, figure, house, light, and garland in existence. Lauren bought ornaments for her parents and for Rico. I know my tree is pretty full, but I could't resist a cute Strawberry Shortcake ornament that was heavy enough to survive the ride home.
The Weston Village Store is pretty similar to the Vermont Country Store, only with a greater emphasis on Vermont-labeled and locally made products. I looked around, but didn't find anything here. Lauren bought a Vermont pullover.
We started back through Southern Vermont around 4:30. Stopped at two Goodwills on the way home, starting with one in Bennington in Vermont. This was the larger of the two, situated in a shopping center next to a TrustCo bank. Lauren got blouses. I found two CDs;
True Value Happy Holidays Vol. 38 (For my Happy Holidays collection.)
Music from the New York Stage - 1896 - 1920: Vol. III 1913-1917 (A collection of rare recordings taken from old records and wax cylinders of the original cast members of popular shows of the time. Almost none of these shows are revived today at all, let alone in their original forms, making this a real find.)
The other Goodwill we checked out was in North Adams, near where Lauren used to live when I first met her. This time, she got some t-shirts and pants. Alas, though they had a far larger collection of media in a smaller store, I didn't see anything I wanted.
It was almost 7 by this point. Lauren's original idea for dinner was Bob's Country Kitchen in Lanesborough, but they recently reduced their hours and were just closing when we pulled up in their driveway. We ended up at Geno's Pizza in Pittsfield instead. Lauren said she'd passed this tiny hole-in-the-wall pizzeria many times but had never tried it. We picked up a small mushroom pizza and ended up eating it in Lauren's room. Oooh, not bad. Lots of cheese, nice soft crust. I hit the shower while she finished up dinner.
Tomorrow, we're going in the opposite direction to the Holyoke Mall near Springfield for our second of three mall days.
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