the great northeast beer and cheese weekend
November 22, 2010 at 4:02 pmFood, nature, travel
Oh yes it’s ladies night weekend! On Thursday night I headed up to Manchester, NH by way of BWI with my good friends from college to visit our other good friends from college at their respective schools, Dartmouth and Vermont Law. Smart friends I have, right?! It was not only great to catch up and retell lots of old stories, but to make plenty of new ones too… mostly over ridiculous amounts of cheese and some fine Vermont craft beers.
The flight up there was pretty uneventful, especially after my anger over the completely unhelpful flight attendant subsided. (Thank YOU, Southwest Airlines lady with the sassy attitude). But anyways, we arrived in the quaint little town of Lebanon, NH late Thursday evening after Lauren picked us up from the Manchester airport, which was decorated with stuffed mooses and other New Englandy type things. There wasn’t much to see in Lebanon at night, and nothing was open late, as we quickly learned was the theme of the trip, so we cozied into Lauren’s apartment, ingeniously blew-up the footpump blowup mattress in less than 45 minutes, reunited with the obesity chair and other blankets/furniture we’ve all missed terribly since college, and then settled into get some sleep.
On Friday morning, we headed out to hike Mount Cardigan, just a short drive from Lauren’s apartment. It was quite chilly and a few flurries fell, but as we got going we warmed up a bit and the sun came out. There were icy patches here and there, and we encountered one fellow hiker about 2/3 of the way up — he was turning around before reaching the top due to the slippery conditions. What a wuss! But as we climbed higher, we eventually reached the treeline and the bare rocks that covers the top of the mountain, and most of the icy patches had disappeared.
We eventually made it back down safely, and I only led us astray once on the return trip. Thank goodness for the red trail markers and Jaime’s keen eye, otherwise I might have caused things to get Blair Witchy really quickly. Overall though, Lauren led us on a great hike and I’m glad we didn’t take the advice of the hiker we encountered to turn around, because the view and the satisfaction was totally worth it.
At this point, we had earned ourselves some cheese. We made a pit stop at heaven the Cabot sampling store, where I proceeded to go down the line of cheese varieties and try each one, deciding in the end to purchase a block of Chipotle-flavored Cabot to take home to Matt. We also tasted several flavors of maple syrup, popcorn, and other delicious spreads while we were there. YUM!
Next, Lauren drove us around the campus of Dartmouth, where we witnessed all sorts of ivy-league things going on.
That evening, we ventured to South Royalton, VT to meet Traci at a Vermont Law knitting fundraiser. We did see some really cute hats and winter gloves for sale, as well as Traci’s, uhhm, “square” of knitting that is still in progress. Anyways, I’ll skip forward to the part of that night when we got to the bar/restaurant in town to enjoy some wine and dinner, because there’s not much more to say about the knitting except that the law students know how to get down on a Friday night. Dinner was excellent, and then we headed to the local hangout called Crossroads, which was a pretty standard bar until suddenly the lights dimmed around 11pm and it turned into a dance party. YEE-HAW!!! Hilarity ensued as various Lupo’s moments were relived and/or recreated, including JJ requesting Nelly several times, while the confused DJ wondered if it was still the year 2000, Traci breaking it down on the dance floor, and Jaime repeatedly proclaiming her love for Ke$ha – “Glitter is my makeup of choice.”
The next morning, I woke up to this amazing homemade breakfast by Lauren:
(I also subsequently solved the mystery of the one, small blue plate I’ve had for years. Lauren apparently owns the other five…)
We spent most of Saturday in Burlington for a brewery tour, starting off at Magic Hat. We spent about 30 minutes wandering around the brewery, sampling some of the new flavors, and checking out all the kitschy Magic-Hat-Alice-in-Wonderland-ish decorations, including a walk up the rickety spiral staircase in the Magic Hat tower:
The remainder of the afternoon, we wandered around Church Street in Burlington, shopping in the boutiques and checking out the fudge/chocolate stores:
And again that evening, we took it upon ourselves to enjoy a dinner at The Alchemist that involved cheese in nearly everything we ordered, including but not limited to cheese curds, goat cheese salad, cheesy pretzel bites, etc. Quite indulgent, but what else is ladies weekend for??
On Sunday, we took one last walk before it was time to leave, this time hiking up one of the skiing hills in Lebanon, up to the star decoration that overlooks the small town.
And for those of you who started reading this post thinking ladies weekend was going to be trips to the salon and martinis, here’s a better picture:
Well, SO LONG, New Hampshire/Vermont!!!
You always laugh the hardest with old, good friends.
7 Responses
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November 23rd, 2010 at 7:46 am
Great post and pictures! Just to tuck into your brain for next time – I love maple syrup.
November 24th, 2010 at 2:13 am
Is that you in the second to last pic? OMG, I almost fell out of my chair laughing!!! Best pic ever period, JJ as cow a far distant second. That pic tells it all, quite a pose, you musta had a real good time in NH. Hunter S. Thompson would be proud. Again great pic. Over and out, from, and it’s official, thanks to Kristy’s genius and too, many, comma’s, I know, Fat Owl Farm.
PS I know I didn’t win no pumpkin contest but I need a copy of that pic! Still LMAO!!!!
November 24th, 2010 at 10:00 am
DIY – I know you love maple syrup, but I brought you the next best thing — maple candies! (Syrup can’t travel in carry-on luggage since it’s apparently considered a liquid)
D Waz – That’s JJ in that picture of course! You should have known from the cig, because I don’t smoke. Glad you love it so much, but way to not even recognize your own sister. Anyways, I was trying to capture a portrait of the spirit of the trip so I’m glad it came out.
November 24th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Well shoot, you and JJ look alike now dontchya? Those look like your sunglasses and the photo is blurry! I know you don’t smoke too, but I thought maybe you were on a cheese high or something. So anyways since it’s just JJ cancel the photo request and send me send maple candies gosh darn it!!!
PS I still think it’s you in the pic all dressed up silly incognito so no one recognizes you puff puff puffing away. You can’t fool me.
November 26th, 2010 at 2:31 am
HILARIOUS post. i laughed out loud on several different occasions. most of all at the last picture of JJ… (and it’s obviously JJ by the way, david..) i also thought to myself “man, her feet line up just perfectly in the back” and then kept reading and laughed again. sounds like you had an awesome time.. very cool!
December 10th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Jumping in WAY LATE here, but glad you enjoyed your trip. I’ll be retiring about an hour-and-change away from that area in a few years.
That Cabot store you stopped at is my usual stock-up spot when I remember to bring my cooler north. My other half also occasionally works at the Danforth Pewter store next door.
If you ever get back into the White River Jct/West Lebanon area, there’s two restaurants I’d recommend: one is Lui Lui’s in West Leb (conveniently right next to the LL Bean store). The other is out in Quechee, a little past the opposite side of the gorge from where you stopped at Cabot…named Fire Stones.
December 14th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Froggie – Thanks for the recommends, I will have to try to find some time to get back up there in the spring or summer.