Vermont Travelogue Part I: Run for the Hills (or Green Mountains)

With the 4th falling on a Wednesday this year I made plans to go out of town for a long weekend. Other than for the Boston Marathon, I haven't been away from the city for more than 48 hours since Christmas so I was definitely ready for a vacation. As I said in my last post, my Aunt and Uncle repatriated to Stowe, Vermont earlier this summer which gave me the perfect excuse to go visit them.

The only covered bridge I saw on a run.

After 28 hours of travel (thank you U.S. Airways and your 3 cancelled flights!!!) I finally landed at BTV just in time to make our second dinner reservation at L'Amante, an Italian restaurant in downtown Burlington. The food was excellent and so was the service--the owner even stopped by out table to tell me how happy she was I had finally made it! I can't imagine that happening at too many places in New York.

So cool to see the clouds down below

Although it was an extremely relaxing visit, I didn't do much sitting still. Each morning I got in a beautiful run around Stowe and I manged to avoid the doing the same route twice. The village is extremely proud of it's 5.5 mile paved Rec Path but I pretty much stuck to the winding country roads. Of course, my runs tended to be on the slow side because of the steep hills. I think I had an average 600 ft elevation gain per run. To put things in perspective: the highest natural point in Manhattan is only 265 ft! The scenery was absolutely amazing. Some mornings it would be cloudy in the village and I would literally climb out of the clouds during my run. I didn't see any moose, but I ran past plenty of cows and even spotted a beaver.

More Vermont scenery from a run.

After my runs we would go for coffee and baked goods at one of the local bakeries, coffee shops, or markets.Most days I met my Aunt post-run and we would walk her 3-year-old Belgian shepherd Gracie. We spent the afternoons exploring, touring Middlebury where my Aunt went to college, shopping at the local farmers market, visiting several great breweries, taking scenic drives, and enjoying some local ice cream.*

Of course, if I'm visiting someplace and there's a race going on I have to run it so Tuesday night we headed to the state capital for Montpelier Mile. Stay tuned for Part II of my Vermont Travelogue, my race report.
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* We drove by the Ben & Jerry's factory but it looked WAY TOO MUCH like Disneyland for our taste.