This was round 2 of traveling around Vermont in less than a month, this time with my friends Mindy and Kamil for a weekend in the Burlington/Lake Champlain area. To be honest, we didn't spend a heck of a lot of time roaming around Burlington itself aside from checking out some of the restaurants and bars/pubs/breweries at night for a few rounds of Switchback as well as some other local brews.

The best part of the trip was leaving Burlington and exploring the area. Saturday morning we went out for breakfast at Magnolia Bistro and then hit the road, driving north through the outskirts of Burlington before merging onto RT. 7.  We reached a small town called Milton and then swung right towards the mountains.  Our first real stop that day was the Boyden Valley Winery.  We had hoped they might have some cheese to snack on but it was just wine, good wine.  My favorite was the Glogg, which is served warm and apparently popular around the holidays.

From there drove to Stowe, stopping at the Stowe Mercantile to sample some food, and then continuing our drive south with stops at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, Cabot Store Annex, and the Ben and Jerry's factory.

On Sunday morning we took the long, scenic route home, sticking to the scenic roads and byways. This gave us the best views of the trip.

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.

I’ve started work on a little time-lapse photography project. It’s all just for fun.  I’m doing most of it in New Haven, and don’t expect to be done until sometime in the spring. To give you an idea of the sort of thing I’m doing, here’s a very, very short clip from a test-run my brother and I did a few weeks ago.

I recently found out my friend Mindy and I made the credits on Paul McCartney’s “Good Evening NYC” DVD! We’re listed as “Flip Cam Operators”.  This isn’t an accomplishment of skill by any means, but it was pretty exciting to show up at a concert, get a front row seat, have our footage mixed in with the DVD and then get included in the credits!

It’s a great DVD by the way. If you haven’t picked it up, you can get it here.