A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

We decided to take a summer time long weekend with friends. On the way of course we stopped at my favorite farm, Cobb Hill. I love this photo. I went to take a picture of the hen house and all the hens came running!

We stayed again at the Stowe Mountain Lodge.

The lobby is so charming. There are ample places to sit and enjoy the view from the two story glass window.

Love the birch trees inside.

The lobby is kept in great condition and it is very clean.

Love this little nook for hanging out with friends.

We decided to stay in a three bedroom suite this time. It was a studio room with an adjoining door to a two bedroom suite. The balcony we had went on for what seemed like miles. It would have been great if there were a light on the porch.

A formal dining table, that we never had a chance to use.

TV in the living room that swiveled.

Lots of places to sit in the living room.

The kitchen with gas stove, full size refrigerator and dishwasher.

Clearly you can see our priorities 😉 There was also a large freezer below to hold all of our ice!

There was a washer and dryer in unit, but you have to go to the gift shop to buy detergent, unless you brought your own. If you need something from the gift shop and they are closed, all you have to do is ask the front desk and they will let you in to buy what you need.

The master bedroom in the two bed suite had it’s own bathroom.

The bathroom for the second bedroom was a little smaller (see above) and it was across the hall from the second bedroom (not attached).

A view of the studio room, which ironically we stayed in the same exact room the last time we were up here.

The hot air balloon festival is a weekend long event. Friday and Saturday night they have launches, but there is an admission fee. They have food and music there so it is a fun way to spend the night. They also have two morning launches. We decided to wake up super early and go to this event, there is no charge for the morning launches.

You drive up to the Stoweflake and park in an open field. You have a short walk to the back area where all the balloons are setting up. There are a fair amount of people here taking in the amazing site. Make sure to bring your camera!

Watching the balloons!

The balloons are so serene.

Some balloons have baskets but a few just have a harness seat – which to me, seems super scary!

More balloons. It’s pretty amazing how they manage to coordinate this many balloons to take off at the same time and no one gets bumped – although two did go a little off course.

Here are the pilots with their balloons:

After spending about an hour at the field we come back to the hotel. The boys go play golf and the ladies hit the spa.

With the fireplace burning and the summertime weather, you don’t need the blankets, but love them anyway.

A lot of natural light is let in and you can see the pool below as well as the beautiful green scenery in the background.

The spa is so relaxing, and there isn’t anyone else here but us (in the waiting room). The spa books up quickly when there are weddings etc. so make your appointment early.

We head out on Sunday into town to do some shopping and come across this great farmer’s market across the street from the Stoweflake. The market is in a grassy area, so people have brought their families and their pets to hang out for the day. They have someone at the smoker making pulled pork sandwiches, there is a pizza stall that makes gourmet pizza and a live band! We stop to sample some goods at Gizmo’s Pickles. Verne and Judy are at the booth and super nice. They encourage you to try everything they have there. The best part was that I loved the green tomatoes but had no idea how I would eat them at home. Verne fired off 5 different ways I could eat them, including my favorite, throwing them into a blender and making a tomato sauce out of them and serving over pasta!

Check out these AMAZING pickled fiddleheads! I brought some back for a few co-workers that I knew would appreciate them. Fun fact, Verne said they go through somewhere around 25,000 jars a year! For $20 they will ship anywhere in the US!

We stop over at the Lake Champlain Chocolate store to pick up some chocolate seconds – they’re cheaper and hey – they don’t need to look nice, they’re going straight into my belly!

And as a pleasant surprise, we find Wally’s bagel chips at the Cabot Annex store. See my previous review of them here.

And a must try when at Stowe Mountain Resort is the Alpine Slide. $18 per ride for an adult but you can get a discount if you put the charge on your room. You can also buy an all day pass for $80 (adult) and get unlimited rides. You head up the mountain on a ski lift.

Nice to see the green field and the wildflowers.

You hop in these sled like vehicles that have a lever in the front. Pull up to slow down and push down to go faster. It was pretty fun! (no cameras aloud when riding down the slide)

After dinner we came back to the hotel and spent some time by the pool and the fire pit. Surprisingly there were a lot of people out at 10pm with their kids. The pool closes at 10pm but the fire pit stayed on longer.

Tags: festival, spa, vermont