A Day At the Races

 Last weekend we picked Shara up from Aunt Jill's. She had spent the week there and had a great time. Maybe some day she'll post some memories about it. We picked her up Friday and had a leisurely morning getting all Shara's stuff packed up and spending some more time visiting before heading to Saratoga. I grew up in the area, spent lots of time in Saratoga, my dad, Grandpa Bobby, even had a horse that raced at the harness track, but I had never been to the flat track before. It's one thing to read about it and see it on tv but completely different to actually be there. So much to see and smell and hear. Had I gone when I was younger, I would make sure we went every year or so. We happened to go on Traver's day to boot. So what we experienced may not have been the norm, but I'm guessing it was pretty close. Women of all ages in hats of all styles and heals of all heights! We watched a couple of races, bet and lost on one, then made our way toward a very late lunch. We hadn't gotten there until about 1 PM, but our schedules hadn't been regular since before vacation, so who cared if we had lunch at 3 PM? We went searching for the Shake Shack and boy was it worth it! Shara ate a whole cheeseburger and we split fries and a special dusty track shake? I can't remember the name but it was a salted caramel shake topped with ground chocolate. The salt may not have been very noticeable from the salt on the fries. Didn't matter, it was great. As we were heading out, trying to beat any rain from Irene, who did we run into but cousin Howard! Out of all the people we spotted him!

I'm glad we did because it had been a very long time since I'd seen him and he and Shara got to meet. I say this all the time, but we really need to go to the Capitol District for a much longer stay. It's always a whirl-wind. One of the things Shara got to do during her week there was spend some time with Bubbe as well as the Lookers. Bubbe took Shara to Jumpin' Jack's. Crazy that the next week they were under water. This is why it's so important to get out and go place and experience all that's around us. You never know when that chance won't be there. Jumpin' Jack's as well as the strong people of Vermont will rebuild, but to think that the if we had planned our vacation two weeks later, we would have had to cancel or go elsewhere. I feel we've been very fortunate in so many ways.

Stowe Vacation, day 8

Today was pretty sad, but we were brave and kept busy with a really fun event - the Alpine Slide! Shara and Alan were psyched to go but mommy chickened out. Shara said that sometimes we have to do things even if we're scared. She was scared but was still going to go. Right she was, but after I watched a bit of the action, I didn't feel scared and wished I had gotten a ticket. Well the fates took over and Alan and Shara were behind a woman who went really slowly and her husband gave me their third ticket! Pretty cool! Shara was thrilled because she really wanted me to go. We tried to keep the goodbyes quick and no one cried.

A girl with a purpose

Stowe Vacation Day 7 - Day of Vermont Food Tastings

- Dutch pancake cafe (2nd visit) Just as good, if not better than the first. Shara got the dutch chocolate chip pancake with a side of bacon. I had basically the same as the first time, but added strawberries, of which shara shared 1/2. Bubbe got the apple blueberry too. Alan had eggs blackstone, a sort of benedict, papa had a traditional breakfast. All was delicious and I was talking to a desk clerk at the inn side and she have me a copy of the recipe.

- cabot creamery factory tour, cheese and maple candy


- cabot creamery annex store, more cheese, crackers, maple syrup tastings; apple syrup tasted like very good applesauce, ginger syrup was mildly gingered

- green mountain coffee roasters, Had easy to grab, and healthy lunch at the cafe (chili garlic tofu and california roll) and got a couple bags of coffee. Prepared coffee was very good and cold without being watered down. Shara tasted my iced, black coffee and didn't spit it out. Good that she was forewarned though! alan and i also participated in a taste test of ice coffee for the keurig but neither of us thought either of the trials had enough coffee flavor.

- Cold Hollow Cider Mill, cider doughnuts, cider syrup jelly


After filling up, we decided it was a good time to let shara get the t-shirt she was promised the other day if she behaved herself and acted like a happy, human being. She mostly managed to, so bubbe, papa, and daddy waited in the car while shara and I took the long way to the general store with the life is good section. We got a little nervous because the stack of shirts shara wanted were moved, but we found them, and her size. The lady at the counter suggested shara use the changing room to switch shirts because she was going to put it on over the one she had on. So she changed and then we went back to the car, realizing we could go out the back door and be right near the car. Glad we didn't notice before.

We ended our day out by heading back to the condo and packing our stuff, munching on some normal foods, and playing one last game (headbandz), before calling out a night.

Mommy was glad to be busy with packing because it kept her mind off not seeing shara for a whole 5 days! Shara, on the other hand, laughed at mommy for starting to get emotional. She'll be just fine.

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Stowe Vacation, day 6

I have no pictures for today but we took a drive up Mt. Mansfield and checked out Spruce Peak via Smuggler's Notch, "A shorter and easier route to this scenic pond leaves from the parking area at the top of the Notch. The trail is steep and rocky for the first half mile, then flattens as it traverses Spruce Peak. It is another half-mile to Sterling Pond and a round trip total of 2 miles." We only went about 1/2 way. After going up the steep and rocky part, Shara wiped out on a tree root and called it a day. That was fine because Bubbe and Papa made really good time and were basically ready to meet us at the resort. After they settled in, we went to get tickets for the local theater production of Oklahoma. We thought we'd be able to get dinner in the village, but could see that wasn't in the cards, so headed back toward the resort and ate at Piecasso. I didn't think very well and didn't mention to the waitress that we had tickets to the theater, so had to hunt her down to let her know. Then things got speedier.

Shara loved her first experience of musical theater. What she didn't like were the gun shots, but we were warned before the show started. The next day I downloaded the soundtrack from the movie and got it onto her mp3 player. Then I heard she saw the movie at the Lookers!

Stowe Vacation, day 5

Today we went bike riding on the recreation path and then had dinner at the Alchemist. Shara rode on a trail-a-bike attached to Alan's bike, which was a good thing because I wiped out. I have great balance, but not on a bike and certainly not the confidence or skill needed to support another person. Shara was scared at first, but we took it slow and she ended up loving it.

The way into town was downriver, but back to the rental place was all up and she really helped peddle. Alan said she was a huge help. The path was really neat and the woman at the bike place gave Shara a list of things to look out for on the ride. We saw most of the things, including tall cairns, sculptures, and a man galloping on a horse (that wasn't on her list, but very cool!). We also made a stop to search for a geocache near one of the bridges. Alan found this one and Shara traded her fairy doll for a couple of sillybandz.

We stopped when we got to the start of the trail, which is in the village of Stowe. We walked up to Main St. Alan and I got a sandwich to split and Shara got a lemon soda in place of an ice cream. After the sandwich we got ice cream. More maple - a creamy for me and a maple walnut hard ice cream for Alan. Don't worry, Shara had several tastes of each and again wished she had gotten what I had. But all was good and we forced her to eat some peanut butter pretzels. Before getting back on the bikes, Alan checked and found a geocache nearby. Shara had the sharp eyes and found this one, even though it was really small. We signed the log and got back on the path. We seemed to make less stops going back but it was uphill so there were more short stops for water and to walk the bikes up a hill or two. The shifting was difficult and there were several sharp turns that came right before hills, so it was harder to get the speed up enough to make it up the hill.

When we finished the path, we went back to the resort so we could get ready for dinner. We needed to get there early so we could miss the two hour wait. We were successful! Shara had root beer and pizza and some of my rice & beans. I had beer and rice & beans, and Alan had beer and a burger & fries. We skipped dessert but on the way back to the resort, made a pit-stop at Ben & Jerry's. Shara couldn't believe I made this suggestion. She kept asking, "really? now? we can really go?" Well it was open and we got in to the 7 PM tour. There were a few others there. The tour leader reminded Alan of Samantha. She was about the same age, enthusiastic, cute, and very personable. She also had fun making silly cow jokes. Here was another tour where they weren't actually packaging anything, for some reason, but we still saw the movie, the equipment, and had a sample. They were making  chubby hubby, but the sample was Americone - the Stephen Colbert flavor.

Mooo!

Stowe Vacation, day 4

Mornings were great. We all slept LATE and then lazed around until brunch time when we made our way to The Dutch Pancake Cafe. Yum! Shara had traditional chocolate chip pancakes & bacon. Alan had a bacon & cheese pancake and I had the apple/blueberry pancake. Shara ate all of her pancakes, except for the couple of bites that daddy had to taste, and all her bacon. She didn't bother with the egg and who could blame her?

The chocolate fest continued when we drove to Lake Champlain Chocolates for their factory tour and tasting. It was pretty interesting. We heard about the process of their chocolate making and learned where the chocolate comes from and how the cocoa beans go from the pod to edible chocolate. We then had a taste of white cocoa butter (white chocolate), milk chocolate and then the dark. We weren't able to see much in the way of chocolate making, but we saw the equipment and then had another chocolate sample - milk chocolate peanut butter pumpkins.

After some more samples, and being assured that Shara wasn't hungry, we headed back to the resort. Shara had no interest in going to Shelburn Farms and wanted to go swimming instead. Alan agreed to swim with her while I went for a walk on the recreation path.

For dinner we tried to get into the Alchemist, but there was an almost 2 hour wait so we took a walk down the street and ended up at Ocha Thai restaurant instead. Shara and Alan had some pot stickers to start and I ordered the eggplant salad. Even with all of us sharing, there was still some leftover. For dinner Alan got his usual chicken basil. It was harder to find something for Shara but I thought she'd like the sweet & sour chicken. She sort of liked it but preferred my Garlic Crab, which I was happy to share. There were three huge soft shell crabs and the sauce was very savory, but also rather salty. This did get her to eat a lot of spinach, since it was slathered in the garlicky sauce. It was a fun meal and the atmosphere was very relaxing, unlike it would have been at the Alchemist. After dinner we took a little walk down the street and since it was getting late, thought it best to head back.

Stowe Vacation, day 3

It rained all day! But that didn't stop us because we had rain coats and hats. We went swimming in the morning, inside, and then into town to check out the village of Stowe. It was pretty busy there and we went to a beautiful craft store and Shara found a shirt she really liked and was told she could get at the end of the vacation if she did a good job behaving and having fun. She did!

We had dinner at Frieda's Taquaria, in the village.

Vacation Day 2

We decided to go to Burlington to check out the Maritime Festival. It was sort of a bummer because there wasn't much happening at 11 AM or even when we left the area at around 1 or so. We did get some Phish Food from Ben & Jerry's. They really give away a lot of ice cream! We also had a bit of lunch. Shara mostly had french fries and the ice cream. We found out that Shara (and mommy) need good food regularly or crankiness occurs. I know, we knew that already, but somehow being on vacation the good rules seem to go out the window. So after some food we walked around the waterfront some more. That was really nice. We also took a walk around the downtown and that was less nice since there was some street construction going on. It wasn't the type of town I was expecting, or else we were in the wrong area. There weren't a lot of interesting shops or even too many people. Maybe it was too early, or Sunday? Not sure.

I think this was the day we went to the glass blowing studio. Shara was completely uninterested, until we got there and saw the glass blowing in action. It was very cool and mesmerizing.

We went back to the apartment and checked out the pool. It was actually quite enjoyable once you got over the chill. We swam around for a while and then headed in to think about dinner. By that time Shara was done so we had a quick meal of leftovers and called it a night.