My boyfriend and I recently traveled to Vermont for a friends wedding.  I remember traveling to Burlington as a high-schooler and loving it. Since then, I have had friends go to Vermont for skiing and snowboarding, as have I, but never really as a summer escape or weekend away. After being there last weekend, I couldn’t imagine a better time or place to go!

Our friend’s wedding was absolutely gorgeous. She held it at The Quechee Inn at Marshland Farms. The ceremony was picturesque and held in the front yard. Cocktail hour was held on the front porch, and the reception was set up in the back under a gorgeous tent. At one point during the reception, hot air balloons were flying overhead. The bride and groom picked a beautiful spot to begin the next chapter of their lives together.

One of the many cute ideas that the bride and groom had was to enclose a list of local activities for guests to do and try out while they were in town. The list of ideas was a whole page long and had suggestions ranging from shopping to hiking, eating to brew tours. That list was a big catalyst for Andrew and I extending our weekend a few extra days. The morning after the wedding we worked off our wedding calories by hiking Quechee Gorge, a small but beautiful section of Quechee State Park. The views from the top were incredible and the walk down and back up gave us the slight boost we needed to not feel guilty about the indulgences that were going to find us that afternoon!

As the slight beer snobs that we are, my boyfriend and I couldn’t come across a more fun state for taste testing and brewery tours. Our first brewery that we stopped at was Long Trail Brewing Company (this was one of the first suggestions on the Bride and Groom’s list of things to do in Vermont). Located in Bridgewater Corners, VT, it’s a very short drive from Woodstock, Vermont, which might actually be the cutest town in America. Long Trail has a fantastic outdoor seating section overlooking a small creek. They have a small pub menu with items that were both vegetarian friendly and/or traditional bar food. The nachos were probably some of the best I have had. I was also excited to see the use of local ingredients mentioned throughout the menu as well.

Outside seating at Long Trail Brewery

For those of you that are beer enthusiasts, the summer seasonal brown bag brew was a lemon pepper kolsch. It was absolutely delicious (Andrew’s favorite was the Double Bag IPA, and mine is still a little girly with the Blackberry Wheat!) Regardless, we enjoyed the brewery so much that we ended up stopping by the following day before returning home to New York.

Door to the cannery at the Alchemist Brewery

The back of this can reminds people to not be “a D-bag, recycle this can”.

We also had a mission during this weekend excursion. Andrew was on the hunt for Heady Topper, the number one rated beer in the world according to the Beer Advocate Website.  We stopped at several different locations in and around Quechee, Vermont, and no one carried it. After speaking to a reliable source at Long Trail, we decided to extend our trip an extra day so that we could go to the Alchemist Cannery directly, located in Waterbury, VT, in order to purchase the freshly canned Heady Topper. Alchemist was a really interesting experience for me. I have never seen beer being canned, nor heard of a beer for which there was a line out the door an hour before opening, in order to purchase it. We were second in line, and purchased the maximum 2 case per person limit. They had a small self guided viewing station that described the canning process, and a small little shop to buy souvenirs from as well.

My beer tastes have not evolved enough yet to the appreciation of IPAs, so the Heady Topper to me was not all that amazing. To my boyfriend and all of his friends who cheered him on for successfully completing his mission, they thought it was outstanding and well worth the extension in our trip!

In addition to beer, we also went to the Vermont Spirits Distillery Co.. This was also located in Quechee, Vermont at the end of a small plaza that had great shops selling handmade jewelry, soaps, cleaning products, a blacksmith, and a TOY MUSEUM! Vermont Spirits was small, but great. We ended up purchasing the Vermont Gold Vodka, that is made with Maple syrup sap. We also purchased bourbon barrel aged maple syrup as well (which I used on pancakes this morning!). The Toy Museum, which definitely was the highlight of my boyfriend’s weekend away (in addition to the Heady Topper) was a surprise find. It’s located on top of a few of the stores in the plaza, and have thousands of toys probably dated back at least 150 years. They had collections of toys by genre, item, decade, a Star Wars collection, lunch boxes, board games, Pez dispensers…you get the idea. It was a really fun find, and an antique toy hunters dream.

Some of the Pez collection from the Toy Museum at Quechee Village.

Entrance to Vermont Spirits Distillery Co.

Despite our alcohol motivated stay, we did get the chance to enjoy quite a few other awesome finds in northern Vermont. In Waterbury we ate at an outrageous gastro-pub called the Prohibition Pig. The mac and cheese was pretty ridiculous. They also sold Heady Topper to their patrons there. We also did the Ben and Jerry’s Factory Tour which was a lot of fun. While in Waterbury for the night, we stayed at the Old Stage Coach Inn. It was by far one the the nicest, quaintest places I have stayed. The rooms were large and air conditioned in an old farmhouse. Breakfast was included with the cost of our night stay, and it was in walking distance to several bars and restuarants. I would give it 5 stars!

Our last stop of the weekend was at the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historic Park. For me, as the self proclaimed Hudson Valley Eco Chic, it could not have been a better stop! The whole park is dedicated to environmental stewardship, and how to live with the land and on the land without depleting it of it’s natural resources and beauty. There are a few different sections to the park. We did many of the different aspects, but to be clear…in the 4 hours we were there, we still didn’t see everything! The Marsh Mansion tour was incredible. We learned a great deal about the history of the property, Vermont, as well as the three families associated with the land. The most striking fact that I learned was that in the early 1800s, over 80% of Vermont was deforrested. I don’t think I would have believed it until seeing the pictures. Now, in 2013, it is almost back to 80% re-forrested. This was important information for me, and gave me hope that it is not to late for us in other areas of the world as well! The Billings Family Farm was an amazing experience as well. They have a fun museum to walk about, and then throughout the day they have different activities scheduled such as learning to milk a cow, churn butter, or make colonial play toys. I left the grounds completely inspired again to keep searching for and promoting ways to advocate for environmental causes.

Shocked at the size of Joe, the work horse, towering over me at the Billings Farm in Woodstock Vermont.