I recently spent a relaxing weekend at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont with some good friends of mine. When I say Trapp Family, I mean the real Trapp Family, the ones made famous by the Sound of Music.   Back in the 40’s they settled in Stowe Vermont and eventually opened up their lodge to the public.  You can read about the place here.

This past weekend started off with a drive through the Berkshires with stops at the Barrington Brewery for some great food and microbrews, the Norman Rockwell Museum, and a brief visit to the city of Pittsfield. It ended with a spontaneous drive to Newport, RI, where we stopped for a tour and wine tasting at Greenvale Vineyards, and then enjoyed some food and a traditional Irish music seisiún at the Fastnet Pub.

These two dogs kept trying to knock us over during the tour of the vineyards.  The vineyard also had two massive Scottish Highland steer which they are using to eat away the treeline.  Apparently they can't use machinery due to restrictions of the local preservation society, so they brought the animals in to do the job instead. I missed the opportunity to snap a good photo of them, but you can see what they look like here.

This shot was from our table at the Fastnet Pub just before the musicians started strolling in. You can see a video of that below the cut.  The place has a great atmosphere and the food was halfway decent.  It's definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a relaxing way to end your day in Newport without spending too much.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to travel to Yellowstone National Park for a work. The company I work for had been selected to restore nearly 200 lighting fixtures from the historic Old Faithful Lodge , so my co-worker and I were sent there to photograph the fixtures and then drive them roughly 2,800 miles across America back to Connecticut. (Project details here.)

The trip started in Salt Lake City, where we picked up our 16' rental truck, a bunch of packing supplies and a ton of snacks for the road.  That afternoon we drove nearly non-stop for 600+ miles through Utah and Idaho to West Yellowstone in Montana where we crashed for the night.

Since Yellowstone closes to the public for the month of November, we were one of the very few people within the 3468 square miles of the park when we drove in the next morning.  That meant if something were to go wrong, we' would pretty-much on our own. Fortunately we made it in and out without incident. No flat tires, no angry bison attacks, and no geyser burns. 

Since I was there for work I didn't explore the park as much as I would have liked to, but I did manage to see some cool stuff, including several geysers and a ton of wildlife including some bison and wolves.  The lodge where we were working was literally right along-side the Old
Faithful Geyser, so every 90 minutes or so we'd take a short break to
watch it go. We actually had to hike up to a scenic overlook of the geyser basin to sign the paperwork so we could leave – not exactly the worst way to spend a work-day.

The drive back took us several days, with brief stops at Belgrade in Montana, Mount Rushmore, Sioux Falls in South Dakota, and Chicago.  After a good night's rest in Indiana and a quick meal in Ohio, we pushed straight through back to Connecticut and got home early Saturday.  It wasn't exactly the classic all-American road trip, but it was still a great experience.

The other week I made my second visit to Ireland this year. It was a much shorter trip than the one I took in August, and had a very different feel to it.  This time around I was there primarily to visit some friends of mine, whereas the last time around I was there to tour the country. My friend Rachel and her boyfriend James were kind enough to let me stay in her home in Limerick for the few days I was over, and for the most part we just relaxed. 

The one big plan for the weekend was to visit Inis Mór, one of the Aran Islands located in Galway Bay. The islands are known for their strong Irish culture and loyalty to the Irish language and are only accessible by a small plane or boat.  To get there we had to take about a three hour drive north past Galway and through Connemara to a ferry in Ros a' Mhíl. The ferry ride was about an hour long, and we arrived on the island sometime after dark.

The first thing that struck me was how quiet the island was. Aside from the few cars that were waiting at the pier when we arrived, there wasn't a vehicle in sight.  The sky was perfectly clear and we could see ten times as many stars as I could ever see back home in Derby, and aside from the waves crashing and a few teenagers playing on the steps near our hostel, there wasn't a sound.

At night we walked up the hill to a pub called Joe Watty's.  They had some of the best Guinness I've ever had and the experience was a memorable one.  There were some regulars, some sober, some drunk.. one guy with no teeth and drool all over his face who was stumbling from one table to a next trying to find someone to join him for a dance.  Then there some people visiting from the mainland of Ireland, including a man from Dublin sitting on a stool in front of the musician singing along, who dropped his pint on the floor then made his way towards our table for a sloppy sing-a-long of the Saw Doctor's "N17" – a song I had never heard before until that night.  By the time the night was over we found ourselves acquainted with a number of people, including three other Seans – a first in my life.

In the morning the three of us rented bikes for the day.  Since there aren't many cars this is the primary way to get around the island.  We rode from Killronan, the main town of the island, to a prehistoric fort on the cliffs about four miles away known as Dún Aengus.

With a long weekend in front of me, I was determined to go somewhere new.  After taking in all the suggestions people gave me (Woodstock, Montreal, Stowe, Philadelphia), I decided to take a trip to Portland, Maine with my buddy Kamil. 

Besides discovering that I had a flat tire upon arriving in Portland, it was a smooth drive up.  We hardly encountered any traffic, allowing us to make very good time (about 3 and a half hours from Connecticut).  The hotel, a Travelodge, was very cheap at only $65 a night.  The room wasn't that bad considering the low price, and it was only a few minute's drive from downtown.

We spent most of our time in the Old Port section of town – an area littered with microbreweries, restaurants, shops, and cobblestone roads.  My favorite place was Gritty McDuffs, a brew pub where I tried the "Halloween Ale" and met up with my friend Mindy, who was also in town that night.  Another good spot was Oasis, located right down the street, where they had $3 22oz cans of PBR's, a live reggae band playing mostly Bob Marley, Sublime, and Vampire Weekend songs, and giant versions of Connect Four and Jenga.

Even more impressive than the pubs was the coastline only a few miles away.  Before driving back to Connecticut I took a drive to Cape Elizabeth – home to Two Lights State Park and the Portland Head Light. 

Driving back to Connecticut wasn't as pleasant as the drive up.  We hit miles and miles of stand-still traffic in the area between Portland and Kittery.  I opted to drive US-1 instead of I95, which at least provided some scenery along the way.  A few things I noticed about the southern Maine coast: they love their lobster, mini golf, and amusement parks.  

Once in Kittery we took a break from the traffic and visited Flo's Hot Dogs for some of the famous steamed hot dogs, and then stopped in the Kittery Trading Post, an outdoor megastore packed with guns, bikes, kayaks, fishing equipment, and more.