New England Summer 2018: Day 8 - Stowe Vermont

[Melbatb]

Both J and I were awake early at 6am! Have to say it us lovely hearing the horses neighing in the morning!

The kids were a bit more reasonable - about 8am.

We all had our usual breakfasts. Since we had woken up, it had been raining. Today's morning plans were to go back to the swimming hole as it had been such a success the first time around. I decided we should just push on with the plans as we would be getting wet anyway!

I made a picnic - sandwiches, crisps. Nothing complicated!

We set off at about 9.30am stopping off at the Artisan Coffee and Tea Company for a coffee (well hot chocolate for F and a green tea for O). For 4 drinks it was $12 which I thought was reasonable.

By the time we got there the sun was out! There were still spots left in the car park - we chose a shady place!

However with the rain the water was visibly higher in the pool and the ricer was running much quicker.

The kids and J really enjoyed jumping in again! O particularly loved it. He had been disappointed to see the rain this morning and was really appreciative that we still went ahead with the trip.

We ate our picnic - hungry work all this jumping and climbing up.

Things came to a halt about 1.30pm when F's bikini bottoms developed a hole in the backside! Wear and tear! Her modesty was definitely compromised! Funnily, when we got back we found O's shorts were going in the same direction. He at least has another set! F did not as we have been looking for a new bikini for her for a while!

The plan for the afternoon was wandering around Stowe. Stowe is a ski resort that seems to be fairly high end.

On the drive there we spotted a Patagonia shop. We decided to stop to see if they had anything suitable for F as we are off to Lake Champlain tomorrow to see friends. They had some surf type shorts which F really liked so that solved a problem. J also got a cap!

Next to this shop was a Lake Champlain chocolate shop which did ice creams. We usually find that 3 ice creams between the 4 of us is more than enough. Today was my turn to sit out - which meant I got to try everyone's! Best one was O's chocolate sorbet - and generally I don't like chocolate ice cream.

By the time we got to Stowe (literally only 15 minutes) the skies had darkened and there was thunder and lightening.

First stop was a bike store for J. He saw a bike he really liked... F found a bikini she liked too. Thankfully we only hot the bikini!

The rain put paid to us wandering about but we did drive to the Country Store. Vermont magnets were bought as well as a Vermont t-shirt for J.

When we hot back to Morrisville the rain had stopped but it was still cloudy.

We went in here - a Vermont equivalent of Canadian Tire which is one of J's favourite stores ever!

I liked the boots but the common view was that they were too functional for my type of use! J did promise that if we found more girly boots they would be mine! The right decision I think!

There were also baby chicks for sale.

We also hit CSV - creams, beard stuff and cards were bought.

Back home I made pizzas for dinner. However the base of the bottom one on the shelf got a bit overdone. It was still edible but could gave been better.

After dinner we headed out as we had seen a signpost for done falls just past Johnston - the next town along. The sun had cone out again.

We didn't find any falls but we did find a suspension bridge with a good view of the sun setting!

Back at the farm, the kids are online (the wifi is cooperating do far tonight!) and J has nodded off on front of the baseball!