We're Ba-ack!

Song: Up up and Away by 5th demention (again)

We arrived home yesterday lunch time from our vacation to New England. It was fabulous! Just what I needed. To recap... Russell went up to Peabody, Mass last Sunday for work, and I flew up Wed night to join him. Thanks to the gabillion business trips he takes a year we had enough miles to get my ticket for free, woohoo! And thanks to Russell's work for paying for Wednesday night's hotel stay, phew.

We met up with Russell's BU college friend Gideon in Boston late Wednesday, straight from the airport. I am crossing my fingers for this guy... he is looking for a gorgeous, Jewish, highly intelligent, red head to call his own, so if you know anybody, let me know! ;)

Thurs we headed up to Vermont. We stopped by the little picturesque town of Quechee, where we had lunch at Simon Pearce. Simon Pearce is a glassblower who moved to VT from Ireland in the 70's, and opened a studio at this gorgeous mill. It is his original location, but now has like 12 across the US. His restaurant uses all his hand blown glasses and pottery, very cool. Good creme brulee too!! You'll see the pics below.

We came back to Quechee for our balloon ride before sunset. Russ promised me a hot air balloon ride as a wedding gift, but we never had a chance to do it. When I saw that they did balloon rides near where we were staying I jumped all over it! I love the fall, it is my FAVORITE season. So seeing the changing leaves from above sounded like a dream to me. It was everything I had hoped it would be, and more. The people from Balloons Over New England were wonderful. Russ and I shared the balloon with two lovely ladies from Bellingham, WA and the pilot. We flew over the hills and dense forests for a bit over an hour. The landing was adventurous and bumpy, but made for an exciting end. We landed in a privately owned pasture which was at about a 30% or more angle. The balloon basket hopped and tipped over about 5 times before coming to a stop. I loved seeing the changing trees from this perspective, they looked like coral. As we pulled away from the landing spot in the truck, the pilot got out and gave the land owners a bottle of champagne as a thank you. I guess its a 200 year tradition to do that. How sweet is that?

Anyway.. the rest of the weekend was fab as well, we went to a working farm where they make their own cheese and maple syrup. I have a new respect for those who still produce this sweet sticky yumminess the old fashioned way. In the snow with buckets collecting sap and boiling it down on a wood fired evaporator. 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup, pretty cool.

We also went to a fine woodcarving festival in nearby Woodstock, VT. Our Bed and Breakfast owner did the PR for this event, so she encouraged us to go. I am glad we did, really cool stuff! Someday I will own furniture that my kids will not destroy. For now... Goodwill is good for us! :)

Glad to be back, the kids look different, but had a smashingly good time with Grandma! Enjoy the pics!