Road Tripping to Manchester, VT

The old days...living in LA (Middle School pictures are too cruel to post)

A few weekends ago I hit the road with a friend that I've known since I was ten years old. We were classmates in middle school, roommates in college, lived together in Los Angeles, and then went our separate ways - she to Colorado and me to San Diego and now New York. Distance brought it's challenges along with life changes as she got married (I was a bridesmaid) and our social lives kept us from catching up consistently, let alone spending quality one on one time together. So our road trip to Manchester, VT from NYC for our other roommate from college's wedding was such a cathartic re-grouping, almost a salvage of 22 years of friendship that had been covered in a layer of dust obscuring the plethora of adventures, disasters, tears, laughter, amazingly awful hair and braces, all the things only your very closest and longest friends can know about you. And sometimes your friendships need that reprieve - they need the breathing room - so you can find just you and then reintroduce that person to the ones that are closest. I've now experienced this with both of my best friends and I'm certain our friendships are stronger for that reprieve.

NOT Grave Digger

The impetus for the road trip led us to the charming town of Manchester, Vermont. It's about a four hour drive from New York and quite a picturesque jaunt through darling little towns like Husick ("You sick?!" was our joke) and Buskirk ("What a buskirk" the other); maybe we'd been in the car too long but these had us in hysterics. That and the maroon Volvo station wagon that was lifted on what appeared to be monster truck wheels dragging a trailer. I mean, I'm sorry your mom handed you the grocery grabber but thinking it will now compete with Grave Digger is a whole other plight you have certainly not accomplished. But thank you whomever you are for the entertainment. Tears were shed.

Arriving in Manchester was such a treat - a charming town with beautiful buildings, the renowned Equinox Resort and Spa, Historic Hildene - a picturesque Lincoln family property where the wedding took place, beautiful back drop of mountains with hiking and fly fishing, and the gamut of outlet stores. If only I'd had time to shop! The rehearsal dinner was chock full of laughs at the expense of the groom and heartfelt stories about the bride (we all knew better than to poke fun or share secrets - karma is not pleasant) followed by a welcome cocktail party with tons of old and new friends. Many of us were staying at the Inn at Willow Pond where our gracious hosts had the bar opened and ready for us to party it up during the wedding weekend. It couldn't have been a better venue - low key with an indoor bar and an outdoor bonfire - options appealing to everyone.

From Freshman Besties to Grown Ladies

Rain had plagued us all weekend and we were all prepared with the back up plan should it pour before the ceremony. As luck would have it the rain and clouds in the morning cleared and sun shone down upon us while we did pictures and even still as the guests arrived. The procession began and we all took our places at the end of the lawn overlooking the gorgeous valley. It was beautiful. The bride entered with her father - she looked ravishing, he looked dapper (his first time in a tux to boot!) And the ceremony began....as the darkest, most ominous clouds rolled in our direction. Calm was retained and Brad, the officiant, continued. And then the drops started to fall. Our trusty driver who escorted us to Hildene ran back and forth from the main house toting umbrellas for the pivotal characters (bride and groom, mother of the bride, bridesmaids, etc.)

A beautiful start to the ceremony

And the rain became a deluge soaking the less fortunate guests including the beautiful mother of the groom. The groomsmen were like sentinels, remaining at their perch while being hammered by the pelting rain. It certainly showed dedication to their friend the groom - I was quite impressed as I huddled with the 5 bridesmaids under one umbrella. You couldn't have wrenched that umbrella from my dead hands - there was no way I was getting soaked! The ceremony was curtailed but vows were accomplished (albeit in a shortened version) and everyone ran to the cocktail tent. Towels, fans and hair dryers were summoned and everyone collected themselves and passed the champagne. Through it all, the bride and groom remained calm and focused on one another, enjoying the moment and appreciating the experience. Rain is, after all, good luck for a marriage. And in that quantity, they are going to be SUPER lucky!

Champagne seemed to get everyone warmed up and in the spirit to party. Once we descended upon the reception tent for dinner, speeches and dancing, Brad decided an impromptu re-do of the vows was appropriate. This time under the protection of a tent, all of us watched while C & C exchanged their vows, this time much more calmly and carefully, and were pronounced husband and wife.

The vows revisited

Hours of non-stop dancing, photo booth visits, hamming it up for the camera man, and Long Trail Pale Ales later, we retired back to Willow Pond, continuing the party and enjoyment with the guests. Honestly I haven't had that much fun at a wedding in a long time. And certainly a huge component was getting to spend the weekend with such dear friends, reliving moments from college - particularly from freshman year with TTT/B and KZB/F (and Donna's blondies), and making new friends and memories along the way.

The weekend ended back in NYC just me and TTB exploring some of my favorite haunts and enjoying our last few hours together on our own. Who knows the next time it will just be us - no husbands or kids or dogs. Just two friends who share more than could ever be articulated in this blog. Here's to those special people in all of our lives and the perpetual impression they have on who we were, who we are, and who we become.

Holiday Hulabaloo from coast to coast!

On December 22nd, I headed off to San Diego for a quick four day celebration of Christmas with my family. The travails of holiday travel did not evade me....45 minute security line, hour an a half chilling on the tarmac and bumpy descent into San Diego, but I arrived! Not the same could be said for the return but I'll get to that story. Despite San Diego's recent torrential rains, I arrived to the sun peaking through the sky and one of my favorite people in the world picking me up at the airport! Christmas was filled with great meals with family and close friends, visits to old haunts (Fidel's, Pizza Port, The Brig for fish tacos), walks on the beach, lots of hot yoga, and just pure relaxation!

As the East Coast was gearing up for a blizzard at the same time we were to fly back to NYC our first flight was canceled and we were re-booked for the following day. Amazingly you couldn't contact Continental Airlines to find out further information; their recording simply said "We are too busy to take your call at this time. Feel free to check our website for further information. Good bye." Seriously? By chance I tried to check in again with my confirmation number and it told me I'd been re-booked for the next morning. No e-mail notification, text message, nothing. Imagine all the people that didn't do that and were waiting to speak with a live person! So, my best friend and I had another full night to spend in San Diego - no complaints! We arose at 5 AM and headed to the airport...at curbside check in the man asked me simply, "Newark?". I nodded...he replied, "Canceled." It was so nonchalant we thought he was joking. He wasn't. We headed upstairs to join our fellow travelers in figuring out when we'd be getting back to NYC. An hour an a half later (with a LOT of confusion on the part of Continental), the woman told us (reticently) that the earliest we could get out was Thursday morning. To her surprise, we were both ecstatic! Four more days in Sunny San Diego with our families! So we headed home and went directly to the beach for brunch and a long walk along the ocean. It was phenomenal! While our friends were inundated with snow, no snow plows, mounting garbage and limited transportation, we were getting our dose of Vitamin D, extra time with friends and family and extra R&R.

Our return to NYC that Thursday was thankfully rather uneventful. The streets were still covered in snow and we could only imagine what it had looked like four days earlier. Thanks to Facebook we'd been kept apprised of New York's "Snowmageddon of 2010". They hadn't exaggerated. Today, over a week later, there are still 10 foot high piles of garbage spanning entire blocks that have yet to be collected. Limited garbage collection resumed yesterday and recyclable collection is suspended until further notice. For people in the Midwest who experienced 15 feet of snow over the past two months, we are a joke. New York City had 22 inches at the MOST and apparently can't deal. It's almost laughable....unless you were the people stuck in a subway car for 9 hours without heat or the family that lost their newborn because they were unable to get to the hospital as their streets weren't plowed. For one of the largest cities in the world, there was a major failure in action.

Despite NYC being off its game, I wasn't! After a 'grueling' half day of work on Friday (the only "work" of the entire week), I was off for my next adventure: New Years Eve in Vermont! Two girlfriends and I had planned a two day adventure in Grafton, Vermont. We had found an amazing place to stay: The Old Tavern at Grafton. The three of us hit the road and were so excited when, several hours later, we pulled into the cutest town ever. It was dark upon our arrival and the homes in town were decorated for the holidays with ribbons on the porch pillars, wreaths on the doors, Christmas trees lit and a candle in each window! It was as if we'd driven into a Norman Rockwell town. We checked into the Old Tavern and were delighted at how nice everyone was and how darling the property was. Our room was perfectly appointed and even had a cheese plate with Grafton Cheddar awaiting us in our room. We took a quick tour of the property before relaxing pre-dinner in our room with our cheese and some wine.

We had reserved a table for three for dinner and were pleasantly surprised at our delicious meal. One of the inn keepers stopped by our table to welcome us and share her story of how she'd come to be part of the whole Old Tavern experience. She was just as fabulous as the rest of our experience thus far and made our night even better. Post dinner we retired to the "Barn" where a Celtic Band was scheduled to ring in the New Year! We were mildly surprised (in retrospect I don't know why given the demographic at dinner) that we were about 40 years younger than most of the other NYE "party goers". Regardless, we sidled up to the bar, ordered a Brattleboro local brew, McNeill's, and headed up to the balcony to play a mean game of Scrabble while being entertained by the somewhat somber band. The Old Tavern provided noise makers, hats, horns, and leis to get us in the mood and the band kicked it up a notch with some great jigs and fabulous rendition of Auld Lang Syne to ring in 2011!

New Year's Eve can be such a painful experience; I was fortunate to be with two fabulous ladies who shared similar interests and were just fantastic travel companions! Despite slight headaches from the bottle of Veuve Clicquot that had been gifted to us anonymously the night before, we arose on 01.01.11 and started the day out with another amazing meal at Old Tavern before heading out to Grafton Ponds. Grafton Ponds is a year round recreation center offering tubing, snow shoeing, Nordic skiing, mountain biking, swimming, etc. located half a mile from our hotel. We trudged down the road in our snow gear amped up to hit the tubing hill and sign up for the wine and cheese snow shoe. We accomplished both and had a blast! On the tubing hill we felt like little boys trying to figure out how to make our ride faster and "funner"! Outside of a singular body slam into the wall incident, we succeeded! The follow up wine and cheese snowshoe was just as vigorous of a work out and with an equal pay off at the end: wine, cheese (Grafton Cheddar of course!) and a toasty fire at the top of the mountain. We hiked back down just in time for the sunset and a quick nap in our room prior to dinner. Back to the Barn we went for great nibbles (Mac & Cheese, local beef sliders, & chili), McNeill's brews, and a re-match Scrabble game (I won). It was the perfect way to end the first day of 2011!

We were early to bed that night and headed out post breakfast towards home. Our important pit stop was at the Grafton Village Cheese shop (at the 2nd location in Brattleboro, VT) where we stocked up on our weekend favorites: Maple Smoked, Four Year Aged and Goat Cheese! We did a quick walk through the charming town as well....I'd been there a number of times as my college roommate is a native and then road tripped it back to NYC. The holidays were a spectacular end to an interesting 2010 and an energetic kick off to 2011. I've got my goals set and my attitude ready to tackle the exciting adventures of the year to come.

Happy New Year!