May 29th (Tues) on Grand Isle, VT…

We journeyed quite a ways the past few days, starting with a mid-morning departure from Carrboro on Friday morning just as the weather was getting steamy there. Our purpose for the day was to make it to Philadelphia for my sister’s 30th birthday party, organized by our brother-in-law Chris. We arrived there at 6 pm, just in time to help Chris and Christine finish some patio cleaning. We happily swept leaves off the deck after our long day cooped up in the car.

The party was wonderful; Chris made galettes ahead of time so that people could assemble their own during the party, and other food was plentiful as well. We had a good time, and stayed up with Eric and Jane into the night, finally retiring with full bellies around 2 am. That was late for us old folks!

After Marc and Shu Wen’s mid-morning runs and a late breakfast, we got on the road for New York City, where Chris had booked Part 2 of the birthday celebration: a show on Broadway and dinner, followed by a lazy Sunday taking in the city. We checked into our hotel in the Financial District and then walked over to the Seaport to have a pre-show snack and walk along the docks.

Then we went to see Avenue Q, which is an adult version of Sesame Street’s Muppets; Chris says that they are muppets with a small “m”. The show was fabulous and really funny, although rather racy in parts, and we thought that people outside our generation (the Sesame Street generation, after all) might not be able to fully appreciate some of the parallels. An older gentleman sitting next to us clearly did not find some of the messages so appropriate. Our post-show dinner was at a vegetarian restaurant called “Counter” in the East Village, which is one of the more alternative neighborhoods in Manhattan. The food was good, but I think we all agreed the drinks were better.

On Sunday, Marc went for a run along the West Side Highway, making his way up to about 30th Street and then back down to the Financial District. He really enjoys discovering new places while running along. Then we all (minus Eric and Jane who had church duties in New Haven Sunday morning) headed to Chinatown for Dim Sum. We ate at the Golden Unicorn, where the lunch was good and surprisingly affordable by Manhattan standards. Chris bravely tried the braised chicken feet. The food did pass Shu Wen’s test, although it does not come close to matching the Crystal Jade Dim Sum in Singapore. After that, we had high hopes of going to the Bronx Zoo, but were forced to return to Manhattan by a power outage that made public transportation that way rather difficult. We instead settled for a pleasant afternoon stroll and ice cream in Central Park.

Once Chris and Christine had departed, we moved our car to near where Edna lives and then went to the Upper East Side to have dinner at Sarah Jay and Ian Huntington’s (both Swatties in Marc’s class) apartment. We had a fabulous meal of bread and goat cheese accompanied with quince jam, a bison tajine served with couscous, salad, and a raspberry-rhubarb crumble desert (along with the chocolate raspberry torte we brought them).

On Monday, we left with Mark Ee and Edna Chia on our New England roadtrip. Our first stop was in the Berkshires. Along the way we drove by a few interesting looking towns like Great Barrington (we should stop by there the next time we are in the area). In the end we had lunch in a cute little town named West Stockbridge, where nearly everything was closed (Memorial Day), but where we did manage to find a great little restaurant. Marc’s choice of penne with pesto, pine nuts and fiddleheads was a terrific pick. Fiddleheads are the spiraling spring-time buds that emerge from ferns this time of year. We did not know they were edible, and could not have imagined they would be so delicious! After lunch, we drove on to the Hancock Shaker Village, which was one of the larger Shaker colonies in the Northeast at the time those were growing. It was fascinating to learn how the Shakers embraced simplicity, hard work and technological advances all at the same time. When the automobile became affordable, for instance, they were quick to purchase a few for the village, and each year would trade their old models in for the latest, believing firmly in the need to get the best model available at the time. Another aspect of the village that fascinated Marc in particular was how they dug a reservoir up on Mt. Sinai to capture the water of a nearby river, so that they could divert it for a year-round supply of water as well as a source of energy to power their machines and generate heat for the village.

The round stone barn was a late addition in the village and stood out for two reasons. First, it was round, which was counter to the Shaker’s belief that everything should be ‘straight and right’ – all the other buildings in the village were rectangular and ran either north-south or east-west. In fact, the village elders had to get special permission for the building to be built because of its shape. The circular shape had a critical function though. Its shape allowed for horse carriages hulling hay to enter the second storey of the barn and walk around while the hay was being transferred to the center part of the barn, and hence solved the problem of having to figure out how to turn the horses around once they entered. Also, it meant that the job of feeding the 70+ cows on the first storey could be done single-handedly since all that brother would have to do was pull the hay from the central section of the round barn while he walked around in a circle. The second reason the building stood out was that its exterior was built of stone as opposed to all the other buildings in the village which were either built of wood or brick. In addition, we learned that the Shakers built with floating floors whenever possible (i.e., no nails used in placing the floor boards down) so that they could easily remove them if and when they needed to recycle the wood for other purposes.

We ended the day by checking into our hotel/resort (compliments of Nana’s donation of her timeshare points) and retired fairly early that evening, exhausted from travels and the unusual schedule we kept in New York City.

Tuesday morning, we all got up around 7am for our respective activities. Edna & Mark went to play tennis while Marc & Shu Wen drove to Mount Greylock where Marc ran for about 50 mins along a trail while Shu Wen simply walked along it. It was a pleasant way to spend a beautiful crisp morning, listening to the nearby brook and birds twitting along. The trail we were on was named after the Bradley family who had their farm on that section of the mountain and used it for orchards and pastures. Many of the stone walls build to separate the various functions of the land still exist and were along the trail.

After checking out of the resort, we headed off north towards Bennington, VT, which was one of Vermont’s earliest settlements. The cute old lady at the Visitor’s Center gave Marc a huge piled of brochures which he stealthily lessened by putting them back whenever she wasn’t paying attention. We visited the Bennington’s Potter Yard which had a small self guided tour of their pottery process. Unlike typical potter’s wheel type of pottery, they used a technique more like casting, using carved wooden molds to shape the pieces first before they are each hand trimmed, smoothed and glazed. Still, it is a pretty time consuming process and even though they are one of the largest potteries in the area, they only make less than 800 pieces a day. We picked up 3 huge mugs while were there – one will be a gift :)

Next, we drove by the Bennington Battle Monument, a 300+ feet tall obelisk (why are monuments always obelisks??) that supposedly provide a spectacular view of the Taconic area into New York, Massachusetts and on good days into Canada. We had our lunch in a small, locally owned diner (although both Shu Wen & Marc ordered breakfast type dishes). It was cheap and yummy.

We continued north towards Burlington. Along the drive, Marc pointed out why Vermont’s called ‘Vert-Mont’ – Green Mountains – ahhh!!! Enlightenment (for the rest of us)!

We also took a detour along Route 7’s more scenic partner, 7A, which took us by the Mt. Equinox Skyline drive. Mt. Equinox is one of the taller peaks in Vermont, and we felt it as we drove our little Civic up the side of the mountain. As we ascended the mountain, we passed some Carthusian (?) monks who supposedly have a monastery nestled somewhere in the hillside. They were standing by the side of the road doing we do not know what. We kept climbing, and reached the summit, where all we could see was an abandoned hotel of sorts and a number of scenic vistas. The visibility was terrific. On a lesser day, though, I would not recommend this drive, which requires a not so inexpensive toll, similar to two other car tolls in Vermont and New Hampshire to see mountaintops. In some sense I can understand the need to charge money to maintain roads and lookout points, but I found it disappointing at the top of Mt. Equinox that there was no description of the landscape we were looking at. The tallest peak in North Carolina, for instance, which has free access, also displays some maps that label clearly other peaks in the vista surrounding it.

We were driving through Manchester, VT, when we decided to get some gas (it was cheap at $ 2.98/gallon) and the girls were drawn to the Nine West outlet store. Edna ended up buying 2 pairs of shoes and a purse and Shu Wen also got herself a pair of loafers. The boys just rolled their eyes and went to get coffee.

We continued on north and made a stop in Middlebury, VT, which is home to Middlebury College, a small liberal arts school with a beautiful and expansive campus. We walked around a little bit and took in the fresh Vermont air, before popping into the car again. School is out, so the town was pretty quiet, but there were still some pretty strange traffic patterns.

We drove past Burlington and headed towards the Champlain Islands. Tonight and tomorrow night we will stay at the Grand Isles State Park in cabin (that has electricity much to our surprise). The cabin is right by the lake and should provide a wonderful view of the sunrise (if we manage to get up early enough – we think the sun rises between 5:30 & 6am).