2014 - Sugarbush Vermont (Day 2)

Today we go skiing/boarding!

The breakfast that was included was your usual continental breakfast (meat, eggs, toast, coffee, juice).  Nothing special.

We went to Mt. Ellen of Sugarbush today.  For $30, you get an all day lift ticket, live music, and a free appetizer (every Thursday).  The mountain is so large that there is a secondary lift to get you to the peak!  There is also a lodge in the middle as well for people who want to stay or a snack or drink.  Well worth visiting if you can.  The mountain was rated at over 2,000 feet high.  There is no night skiing/boarding here though.  So everything needs to be done during the day (9am - 4pm).

Afterwards we decided to visit the Racquet & Health club which was included with our stay at Sugarbush Inn.  Includes a hot tub, pool, sauna, tennis courts, racquet courts and even a rock wall!  Highly worth a visit if you get it included as well.

Dinner was at Hyde Away which was recommended by the receptionist.  The dinner was great.  We had the ribs and the lamb shank stew.

There is a lot of snowfall tonight, so we may need to reassess what the plan is tomorrow.  We were told that there would be a foot of snow overnight.  Originally we would head to Burlington and have a wander, but that may not be in the cards anymore.  We shall see.

Tomorrow, we head to Quebec City, which is the last stop for this trip.

2014 - Sugarbush Vermont (Day 1)

Today we head to Sugarbush Vermont.

This morning's breakfast included a frittata, a chocolate chip loaf and some fruit.  It was pretty good.

I had decided to visit a few places today before we made it to Sugarbush since we would be going skiing/boarding tomorrow.  While having breakfast, one of the owners there was telling us about a store that we should visit called the Vermont Country Store.  It is a nice little shop to wander and look at their knick-knacks.

Before we made it to the first destination, we found a McDonald's to eat at to see what the $1 McChicken would be like.  Well, it turns out that it is our Jr. McChicken.  That was a bit disappointing.
 
Our first stop was a supposed 'floating bridge'.  It is supposed to be floating since it is a bridge that had collapsed.  Little did we know that the bridge and the small stream itself was actually frozen over.  It was pretty cool to walk on a frozen stream.

We went to the Ben & Jerry's next.  Ben & Jerry's primary location is located in Waterbury Vermont.  For $4, you get a roughly 20 minute tour which includes a 6 minute movie about how they came to be and their history, a walk through the factory and a sample of their daily ice cream (we got to try Ameri-cone which was really good).  We learned that Canada has only ONE factory that provides Ben & Jerry's for everyone in Canada!  There is a small cemetery for some of the flavours which were terminated due to things like lack of sales or increased production costs.

Nearby there are other shops that you can visit such as Cabot Cheese Annex, Lake Champlain Chocolates, Cold Hollow Cidar Mill, Green Mountain Coffee.  All worth a visit if you have some time (all of them include free samples and don't include a tour, you just wander around yourself).

We had dinner at Prohibition Pig based on a recommendation online and the meal was great.  The service was excellent.  Recommended if you are nearby.  Sugarbush was just a short 30 minute drive away from Waterbury.

Tomorrow, we go skiing/boarding!