The Great New England Road Trip: Days 14-16, Woodstock, VT

Day 14: Swimming Holes and a Rainy 5K 

Thrift shopping while traveling has become something of a family tradition. Some of the kids had been asking for several days if we could find a few thrift stores, and we finally made time for it. Instead of buying expensive souvenirs from tourist shops, we like searching local thrift stores for secondhand treasures to remember our trips by. It's cheaper, much more interesting, and you never quite know what you're going to find. 

We visited several shops around Stowe that morning and came away with some great finds before heading back for lunch. Then it was time to search for another kind of local treasure! 

When we'd asked around the campground about good swimming holes, someone recommended the Bolton Potholes. Caleb has an incredible love for crystal-clear, freezing-cold swimming holes, and most of the kids seem to have inherited that same love. We've sought out quite a few on our travels over the years, but this one quickly climbed toward the top of our favorites list. 

Finding it was part of the adventure. There isn't really a dedicated parking lot, and there are plenty of places where you're specifically not allowed to park. But once we figured out where to leave the car and found the trail, we headed through the woods feeling like we'd discovered a secret Vermont swimming hole. Then we stepped out of the trees and realized it wasn't quite as secret as we'd imagined. 

The Bolton Potholes are clearly a local favorite, and it wasn't hard to understand why. The creek tumbles down through a series of three waterfalls, each of which has carved an enormous "pothole" into the rock below it. The upper pothole is beautiful but considered too dangerous for swimming or jumping, so we admired that one from a safe distance. 

The second was an almost perfectly round pool of clear mountain water surrounded by rock. There was one spot that felt safe enough for Caleb and some of the kids to jump from, although we watched other swimmers leap from heights that made us nervous just looking at them. We happily left those jumps to the locals and enjoyed swimming in the pool below. 

The third waterfall might have been our favorite because it seemed almost designed for a family with kids of different ages. There was a waterfall and deep water for swimming, rocks for jumping, a little pebbly beach, and even a shallow sandy pool beside it. Everyone could find a place to enjoy the water, and we could easily have stayed much longer, but another adventure was waiting. 

Several days earlier, while visiting the Trapp Family Lodge, we'd noticed a sign advertising their weekly 5K. As soon as we saw it, we knew we wanted to come back and run it. Unfortunately, thunderstorms were in the forecast, and we weren't sure the race would happen at all. 

The sun was still shining when we left the potholes, but by the time we arrived at the lodge, the sky was beginning to look questionable. Thankfully, the kind man running the race assured us it was still on unless lightning appeared. We collected our race bibs and had a little time to wander the grounds again, taking in the mountain vistas the von Trapp family has enjoyed for decades. 

Almost exactly as the race began, the first drops of rain started falling. At first it was only a gentle summer rain, so off we went. Running through the woods at the Trapp Family Lodge with rain falling through the trees was one of those experiences we couldn't have planned if we'd tried. Everything around us seemed impossibly green as the forest soaked up the rain. 

The rain grew steadily harder, but by that point we were already wet, so there was nothing to do but keep running. Then, almost perfectly on cue, the last of our crew crossed the finish line-and the rain stopped. 

By the time we returned to the campground, there wasn't a drop of rain falling from the sky. We ended another wonderful day in Stowe with dinner and mugs of our new Jasmine Green from the Heritage Collection.  

Day 15: South to Woodstock 

Our time in Stowe had come to an end, so the morning was spent drinking tea, cleaning the camper, packing everything away, and preparing for the next leg of the adventure. This time we were heading south to Woodstock - not that Woodstock, but a beautiful little village farther south in Vermont. 

Before we could get there, though, we had some bicycle problems to solve. Caleb's bike was still mangled from our ride a few days earlier, and somewhere along the way we'd also realized that several of the boys had become much too big for their bikes. We're not entirely sure how this happened, considering they all fit perfectly well last year. Why do children insist on growing? 

We found a bike shop in Montpelier called Free Ride that sounded promising and decided to stop. It turned out to be a nonprofit where donated bicycles are repaired and then sold on a sliding scale based on what customers are able to pay. The staff was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful, and it ended up being exactly the kind of place we needed. 

They couldn't completely repair Caleb's bike because one of the necessary parts had to be ordered, but they helped diagnose the problem, got him set up with some of the other parts he needed, and helped us sort out the boys' bike situation so everyone ended up with something that fit a little better. Hopefully Caleb's missing part will meet us at a campground somewhere farther down the road. 

While he was working through all of that, Brigette and some of the kids walked around the corner to Red Hen Baking Co. for two things that had become increasingly necessary: maple creemees and a maple latte. We're not quite sure what's going on, but apparently someone forgot to tell Vermont that it's supposed to be cooler than Alabama. 

In retrospect, maybe we should have seen this coming. We watch White Christmas multiple times every year, after all. They went to Vermont looking for snow and found a warm winter, while we went to Vermont looking for relief from the summer heat and found . . . more summer heat. At least the nights are cooler. 

Eventually we were back on the road and headed toward our campsite at Quechee State Park, a beautiful campground sitting alongside another of Vermont's impressive gorges. Once the camper was set up, we headed out to see what we could find. 

We first drove past Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, hoping to return when it was open the next day, and then continued into the village of Woodstock. Woodstock feels almost toopicturesque to be real. Beautiful historic buildings line the streets, and the whole village reminded us a little of Williamsburg or Boston. It was the kind of place where you half expect to discover you're actually walking through the set of a Hallmark movie. 

As we crossed a creek downtown, one of the kids suddenly started yelling that there was an otter in the water. Everyone stopped to watch the little animal darting along the creek, but something didn't seem quite right. It looked much too small to be an otter, so out came the phones, and after a little research we had our answer: it was a mink! 

Apparently mink are quite common in Vermont, but we'd never seen one in the wild before. It was another one of those unexpected discoveries that somehow become some of the most memorable parts of a trip. 

Woodstock also delivered something we'd been hoping to see throughout New England: covered bridges. We found three in the area that evening alone. One sits right in downtown Woodstock, so we walked across it before later driving through two others on our way back toward camp. They're beautiful, practical, and remarkable examples of craftsmanship that make driving Vermont's back roads even more fun. 

After a travel day full of bike repairs, maple treats, historic streets, covered bridges, and one surprise mink, Woodstock was already off to a pretty good start. 

Day 16: Farmers Markets, Maple Syrup, and a Bear 

Day 16 began with a story none of us particularly expected to hear over breakfast. Two of the kids had decided to sleep outside the night before, one in a tent and the other in a hammock tent. Sometime after two in the morning, the child in the hammock woke to the sound of scuffling and munching nearby. 

Looking around in the darkness, they found themselves staring at a very large, very well-fed black bear. Unsure what to do in the moment, they stayed completely still, which became considerably more difficult when the bear walked directly toward them, passed underneath the hammock, strolled beside the other child's tent, and then disappeared back into the woods. Thankfully, the encounter ended without incident, but needless to say, it made for a rather exciting story over breakfast. 

We'd planned to pack quite a bit into our one full day around Woodstock, but six-week road trips have a way of reminding you that plans are only plans. One of the kids wasn't feeling well, so we adjusted the day, slowed things down a little, and still managed to fit in quite a few adventures. 

One of our first stops was King Arthur Baking Company's headquarters and café. Visiting places like this reminds of our own Piper & Leaf headquarters in Lacey’s Spring, AL. King Arthur's campus was beautifully done, but a better surprise was waiting just around the corner: a farmers market that turned out to be exactly what we think a farmers market should be. 

Booth after booth overflowed with gorgeous vegetables, enormous bunches of herbs, fresh eggs, bread, cheeses, milk, artisan goods, pastries, and all kinds of prepared foods. And these weren't just ordinary pastries and prepared foods. They were the kind that look as though they belong in the pages of a book or on a television show. We eventually walked away with our arms full of brown paper bags, which, we decided, are almost as good as brown paper packages tied up with string. 

Afterward, we split ranks. Some stayed back at the camper with our under-the-weather traveler while others headed to Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. We'd hoped to tour the mansion, but tours were offered only at certain times and didn't work with our schedule. Thankfully, there was still plenty to explore around the beautiful grounds and plenty to learn about the history of this remarkable Vermont property. 

Then we headed from one farm to another. Sugarbush Farm has been operated by a local family for decades and is home to more than 10,000 maple trees. We were visiting during entirely the wrong season to see maple syrup being made, but we could still walk through the sugarhouse and see where all that sap is boiled down into one of Vermont's most famous products. The farm also has a history of dairy farming and cheese making, giving us another little glimpse into the agricultural traditions of the state. 

Dinner that evening became an experiment. While traveling with our cousins the week before, they'd introduced us to chimichurri, and it was delicious. After seeing all those enormous bunches of fresh herbs at the farmers market, we naturally decided we should recreate it ourselves. 

What we made was not quite what our cousins had made. It was good. It was herby. It was green. But chimichurri might be a generous description, so we decided we'd invented something entirely new and christened it chim-chim-cherr-oo. 

After dinner, some of us headed down the trail directly from our campground toward Quechee Gorge. Darkness was already beginning to settle in, so we couldn't explore as far as we'd hoped, but we made it to the bridge and finally got a look at just how deep the gorge really is. One of the wonderful things about staying at Quechee State Park is knowing that something so impressive is quite literally within walking distance of your campsite. 

After a day involving a black bear, armloads of farmers market treasures, maple syrup, historic farms, and a questionable interpretation of chimichurri, we were ready to call it a night and hope that tomorrow everyone would wake up feeling tip-top and ready to see what was waiting at the bottom of the gorge.