Highlights of Summertime in Vermont, June 2026

Well firstly it was lovely to be able to visit our son and his family in Vermont in the summertime.  Our last 3 visits have all been at Thanksgiving so it has been very cold and there has been snow!  A lot of snow.

But travelling to them is not for the faint-hearted.  Heathrow offers the best flight options but getting to Heathrow takes time.  Firstly we have to get to our local station.  It's about a 10 minute walk but we usually jump on the bus - our cases were heavy!  The train takes us down to Liverpool Street in central London where we can get the Elizabeth line straight through to Heathrow.  Well apart from the comfort stop for me at Paddington.

Yes we could get a cab but traffic conditions are unpredictable or yes we could drive and park but that's expensive and the flights were already way more expensive this summer.  Who knew about some football tournament taking place?

Anyway that's what we usually do but, because we had a morning flight which would have meant being up really early and catching the first train out from our station, and we had family staying in the house, we opted to travel close to the airport the day before and stay overnight in a hotel which was on a shuttle bus route to the terminal.  This made things so much easier and we'll probably do it again.

Once at Heathrow we sorted out the glitch in the airline system which wouldn't let us check in online.  Despite having entered my new passport details on the booking etc it was still showing my old details so computer kept saying NO!

Our flight to Boston was fine and we arrived about 5 minutes early and we were able to catch an earlier bus than we'd planned which was good.  We use a company called Dartmouth Coach which gets us as far as Lebanon in New Hampshire and takes about 2 1/2 hours, depending on traffic etc.

In Lebanon we were met by our wonderful hosts Paul and Crystal, (our son's in-laws) who drove us on to Barre which takes another hour.

It's a long trek but so worth it to be able to give these two real hugs!

                            

and of course to catch up with our son Michael and DIL Elizabeth.

On our first full day we took a hike up to a place called Owl's Head lookout which is in the Groton State Forest area.

Rather than just park at the look out and walk up to the view we opted to do what was supposed to be a 1 mile hike first.  Well that turned out to be nearer to 2 miles!  But the views were worth it.

Thankfully the boys are good walkers and despite just a few moans from Vinny we made it up to the lookout and then back down and back along the path to the car.  

Of course walking in woodlands does carry it's own risks.  We saw a garter snake and I managed to not have a panic attack.  My DIL reassured me that there are no venomous snakes in Vermont.  

I also acquired this delightful creature:

Hard to tell from the photo but it's actually a tick which Crystal carefully removed for me.  I then spent some time doing a thorough search of the bed and my clothes from the previous day as I didn't notice it until the following morning!  I've also kept a close eye out for any sign of infection but I seem to have escaped with no ongoing effects.

Another walk we did was to the biggest waterfall in Vermont:

This was a much easier walk and on the way back we had time to visit the Ben & Jerry's factory.  It wasn't as exciting as it might have been because the factory was actually closed as it was Juneteenth but we still got the tour and the ice cream tasters.

My DIL is a teacher so she was able to be our driver and tour guide while we were there.  Unfortunately, like most people working in America my son does not get a lot of annual leave which he is saving for when he visits us at Christmas and for when his brother and family visit.  (That's happening now.)  He's also coming over for a wedding in September and will stay for a week to catch up with family and friends here.  But of course we saw him most evenings and at the weekend.  

It was Father's Day while we were there so Paul and Crystal hosted a BBQ at their house so we got to catch up with their other kids and partners.  I also got to see a performance by the choir that Elizabeth has joined.  (She has a lovely singing voice.)

Her grandparents also came to watch so it was nice to have a brief catch up with them.

On the Monday Elizabeth, the boys, her parents took us to the Millstone Trails Hike which is on the site of a former quarry.  There is a lot of granite in Vermont!

The boys enjoyed following a story trail.

We also did a trip to the Shelborne Museum but I'll do a separate post on that as I have lots of photos from that day.

We went out for meals with both my son and DIL and on another evening our hosts.  We had some lazy days too and of course there were some football matches that had to be watched but at least they were at more civilized times than if we'd been at home.

And then all too soon it was time to leave.  We went out for brunch in the morning:

Rory finds it hard to pose for photos while Vinny has no such problem:

And then Elizabeth drove us to Lebanon on the first leg of the long journey home which began on the Friday and ended at lunchtime on Saturday!  We love being able to visit them, I just wish someone could invent a transporter to just get us there a lot more easily!

Friday's Fave Five - 6/12/24

I'm back!  I didn't take my laptop away with me so I've spent the afternoon today catching up on a lot of blog posts!  I didn't stop to make comments or I wouldn't be here to post my gratitude list and I have a lot to be grateful for right now.

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Vermont! 

The antlers and glasses were in readiness for the parade leading up to the lighting of the town Christmas tree and lights which we were able to watch on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

We visited the library.  I was impressed with the size of the children's area and the amount of books available.

The boys helped with juicing oranges for the homemade cranberry sauce.

This was our home for our time there - it's our DIL's parents house and Crystal and Paul were EXCELLENT hosts.  We've met them quite a few times now - they've stayed with us in London so we've become good friends and we get on so well.  Paul is retired but Crystal is still working until the New Year but she did have some days off over the holiday period.  Paul is an excellent cook - we were never hungry!

This is my Son and DIL's house.  It's not huge but it has everything they need and the in-laws worked so hard to get it ready for them before they moved over last summer.

We watched the kids decorate their tree which my son had cut down at a nearby tree farm - a new experience for him.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at the home of our DIL's Aunt and Uncle which involved an hours drive after the first real snowfall in their area.  We were so impressed at how clear the roads were kept.  The amount of snow they had overnight would have brought London to a standstill lol.

We were 17 adults and 5 children there but it was very relaxed and sooo much food.  And the desserts......yum!

We got to visit our DIL's grandparents and Nick went out a couple of time with Paul and gatecrashed his music events - they both love playing guitar.

We took our hosts our for a meal and our kids took us out for a meal.  We spent several evenings just at home playing cards and it was just lovely to spend time with the Grandkids.  We had one day with just Rory at home as he had no school and another day with just Vinny.  I also got to meet Rory from the school bus a couple of times.  The boys seem to have settled well into American life.

But of course all too soon it was time to travel home.  I'm grateful that our travels that involved an hours drive to a coach stop, a 2-3 hour coach ride to Boston airport, an overnight flight and then a train ride home all went smoothly.

All in all I'm grateful for:

Safe travels

Time with the grandkids and our Son and DIL

Wonderful hosts 

The chance to experience Thanksgiving in the US again (we were there 6 years ago)

That our son and his family have settled in Vermont with both of them having found jobs and the kids enjoying Grade 1 and Kindergarten.

Have a good weekend all.

Friday's Fave Five - 21/6/24

Oh goodness.  When people start checking up on you (thanks Terri) you know it's time to get a blog post done.  And Friday is always a good day to do that as it means taking a pause and thinking about the things we have to be thankful for.

Thanks to our host Susanne for reminding us to do this each week and share our posts here.

1)  There is light at the end of the tunnel that is "getting my son's flat ready for renting".

The last few weeks have just blurred together as we've cleared, stored, sold, or thrown out all the things in the flat.  There are still a few bits and pieces to deal with but first we have to finish all the cleaning, decorating and all the other things that are required before it can be handed over to the letting agent to take care of.  There is also a large pile of boxes almost ready for shipping to the US.

Their flight to the US is booked for the 11th July so we are counting down the days.

Some things moved from their house to ours!

Still time to spend with cousins.

2)  My son's work ethic and parenting skills.  It's been a tough time since our DIL and grandson Rory left for Vermont on 22nd May but Michael has risen to the challenge and is doing a great job single parenting Vinny and doing what needs to be done with the flat.  As you can imagine it's been hard.  Vinny misses his Mummy and brother and although being able to talk to them over the internet mostly helps it can also have the opposite effect too.  There have been lots of tears.  

We've revisited skills we haven't used for a while such as painting and also gained new ones - today between us we fitted a new timer switch to their water heater that is much more user friendly than the old one.

3)  Hubby and I reached the milestone of 40 years married a couple of weeks ago.  We had originally planned to go away for the weekend to celebrate together quietly.  Instead we took advantage of a local yard sale to try and get rid of some of our son's "stuff".  We did sell some things but our garden room and garage are now full of things that we still need to dispose of.  I'm not even going to think about that until the flat is sorted, we have our house back to ourselves and we've had a break from all the current stress.

4)  My DIL has secured a teaching job in Vermont.  She will start in August and it has the added bonus of pre-school provision for Vinny.  It's a 30 minute drive from their house but that's about half the time she used to commute here on public transport.  That's a huge weight off their shoulders as you can imagine.

5)  Easy meals, takeaways, dinners from the freezer and a grandson that really isn't too fussy.  The days start early - Vinny is usually up around 6-6.30 am and then we've been at the flat most days until it's time to collect Vinny from nursery and get home for dinner.  And of course a Hubby who cooks.  And chocolate!  Needed a lot of chocolate these last few weeks.

Of course all of this hasn't left much time for blogging and I really haven't had the headspace for it either.  

Have a good weekend all - we'll be taking a breather before getting back to the "to do" list on Monday!