Hi everyone! How was your week? We just got back from a little post-wedding getaway in Vermont. Let me tell you all about it.
Lately, I’ve been reconsidering the recipes-only nature of Baked Greens. Since its still relatively new, and I don’t have thousands of readers each day, I’m kind of operating under the assumption that I should write a food blog I want to read. I follow a lot of blogs, and especially love when they post the occasional “day in the life” type of post. You know, things they ate, places they visited, what their life is like other than just cranking out recipes like a lunatic. So, here’s mine:
After the dust settled from our wedding (and by “dust settled” I mean we washed a million dishes and took out all the trash and recycling) we decided we needed to get out of the house and away from the relentless 90-degree heat. We didn’t want to go anywhere far, and knew we wanted to be home within a few days since there was a fridge full of food that would spoil otherwise. 
Have you ever seen that shirt/Instagram quote/mug/whatever that says “the mountains are calling”? Well, they were. We ended up going to Ludlow, Vermont, and stayed at the Okemo Mountain Resort, which is absolutely gorgeous, btw. Staying at a ski resort in the middle of summer is actually pretty great, because there’s almost no one there, and the prices are discounted.
Check-in was at 5:00pm, so we ended up walking around all evening to get a feel for the resort and plan out the next two days. Then we grabbed dinner in town and came back to the resort to soak in the outdoor hot tub for a bit. The temperature outside had dropped to only about 70, and the hot tub felt great. The sun was starting to go down, so we quickly changed and went out for a walk to watch the sunset. We ended up seeing a deer and finding a little pond full of croaking frogs, too. 
The next day we wanted to try out the aerial challenge course at the resort, which ended up being a lot of fun. Kevin isn’t afraid of the height or physical/mental challenge of these types of adventure courses, so he was excited to try all three levels. I’m a much more careful, cautious person, so I wasn’t sure I would make it through all three. I knew I could do it, since we’ve done other similar courses before, but I wasn’t sure I would want to. I don’t always like being nervous and uncomfortable while strapped in a harness and balancing 20 feet in the air. I did it though, and was mentally and physically satisfied by the end. 
We went back into town for lunch at The Hatchery, which was probably the best meal of the whole trip. They’re a member of the Vermont Fresh Network, which is a group dedicated to sourcing fresh, Vermont-grown/made products. They serve breakfast and lunch, but we both got breakfast foods. Kevin had a bacon, cheddar, & apple omelet, and I had the tofu scramble with avocado and pico de gallo. Both plates had a big scoop of breakfast potatoes and toast from bread made at a bakery in town. 
The Hatchery also makes a different flavor of pop-tart every day, and we got a cinnamon brown sugar one to-go for later. I ended up working some hotel room coffee pot magic to heat up the pop tart a few hours later, which was a good idea. Warm, flaky pastry filled with a thick cinnamon sugar center is definitely the way to go. After our pop-tart feast, we went out for a late afternoon walk, following the paved road up the mountain about a mile. At that point we started hearing some loud rustling in the woods and ran into a few people who were also stopped, listening to the sound. I already suspected it was a bear, but the man who we ran into seemed to be more experienced in bare-lore, and said it was definitely a big bear given the sounds it was making rummaging through the undergrowth. At that point we decided to turn around and walk back to the resort since it was nearly dinner time and we didn’t want to startle this loud bear, especially since we smelled like homemade pop tarts.
Instead of going straight to dinner, we went to the pool for an hour. We swam around competing to see who could sink to the bottom the fastest (Kevin), who could make it across the water the fastest without swimming (me), and otherwise acted like lovedrunk teenagers. It was great.
Dinner was mediocre, but we stopped for an ice cream on the way back, which was pretty great. We also stopped to grab a few yogurts, fruit, and granola to make breakfast in bed the next morning.
On our last day, we hiked the Healdville Trail to the top of Okemo Mountain. The trail guide says it’s a 2.5 hour hike to the summit, and a 1.5 hour hike back down, so we packed sandwiches, snacks, and water to have along the way. I knew Kevin wouldn’t be down for a 4-hour hike, so we agreed to walk an hour up, eat lunch, and come back down. We stopped about every 10 minutes for a sip of water, then sat on a big rock and ate lunch after an hour of hiking. At that point we were past the 2 mile marker, and decided to just keep going all the way to the top. Even with all our stops, it only took just over 1.5 hours for us to make it to the summit, and Kevin thinks I could have hiked it in an hour if it weren’t for him slowing me down and stopping so frequently. Needless to say, we left the mountain feeling strong and capable. 
On our way out of town we stopped at a bakery and split a blueberry turnover, then stopped once more at the Vermont Country Store. If you’ve been to central Vermont in the past 70 years, you’ve probably stopped at the country store, as it’s a famous landmark. We ate a million samples, bought a few food-gifts to bring home, then drove the remaining hour back home. Much like our wedding, this trip was pretty simple, but so very soul-satisfying; there’s just something about the mountain air that leaves you feeling rejuvenated.
Let me know if you want more of these “weekend adventures” posts and I’ll gladly keep writing them! Or, if you’ve been dying for a particular recipe, leave me a comment and I’ll see what I can do for you!