The Day Where Calories Didn't Count...I Wish

One of Mr. C and I's good friends is moving down to Virginia next weekend, and we're very sad. To be honest, between getting settled into work, learning to live with Mr. C,  and dealing with my shoulder, I don't know a lot of people here yet. Our friend, Mr. M, used to work with Mr. C, and now found a new job. We are really, really happy for him, but sad at the same time. It is going to be a good place for him, the job will be great, but we're sad he won't be here with us anymore.


To send him off in style, we took a day-long road trip up to Vermont. Mr C, myself, the fabulous Lady A (my crafting and cooking comrade), M, and another of their friends, Mr. J who I don't know as well, but was a fun addition. We started off with Mr. M providing us bagels at his place, which resulted in a severely cut thumb. Sigh. Luckily he was okay, and we headed off to pick up Mr. J. We nearly to Vermont when I suggested a pit stop, and rather than the gas station (and Diet Coke refresh) I expected, we swung into a nearby McDonald's. This would be the first of 3 McDonald's stops. I didn't get anything, but Messrs M and J stocked up on hash browns and breakfast sandwiches.

Back on the road, we discussed the order of events for the day. Turns out the boys thought it was going to be a day of breweries, but I put my foot down and insisted that we also stop at Ben & Jerry's since we were in the neighborhood.

Nobody wanted to cooperate for a photo

I'm really really glad we stopped. I had a small size of their "special batch" peaches and cream, which had a marscapone ice cream as the base. Seriously one of the best ice creams I've ever had in my life, plus then I got to eat a delicious waffle cone. The weather was beautiful, and we got to just sit outside and relax with friends. Awesome, right?

After Ben & Jerry's and a few u-turns, we found our way to the brewery practically next door, the Alchemist. They are a former brew pub turned brewery after Irene took out their restaurant, and they are actually in the process of expanding. They only had one beer, a double IPA, on tap. Now, I'll forewarn you that I'm not a big fan of IPA's, but this one reminded me very strongly of a beer from my past. It had a very bright, grapefruity scent. The only other time I've seen that was with Surly Furious, which I remember very vividly.

We tried to get a photo of Mr. M at every site

From there Lady A took the wheel and we headed back into Burlington towards Magic Hat brewery. This is probably the one of the trip most of you have heard of before, if any. The whole site has a very funky vibe, and the guys loved it. I found my favorite beer for the day, which seemed to fit the general consensus. It was a Dark Belgian Ale, which unfortunately they only sold in growler size and I can't seem to find on their website. It was surprisingly fruity, and not nearly as heavy as I thought it was going to be. Overall, delicious.

By that point we decided it was time for food, so searched around for a local place where the boys could find more beer. We found ourselves at Barkeaters, a local place, at around 3:00 in the afternoon. They only had their bar menu available, but luckily we were all able to find something. I made the decision to order the mussels, which I regretted afterwards. I love mussels, and these were fine, but they were not the right type of food to balance drinking a lot of beer. My stomach felt a little rough the rest of the day, but it was a pretty spot to sit and enjoy good company.

Full of food, we headed to our next stop on the brewery tour; Fiddlehead Brewery. Started by a brewer from Magic Hat, it is a tiny little place with a really fun vibe. The had two beers on tap, a double wit and an IPA. The guys really liked the IPA, I did not at all. Probably a combo of not loving IPA to begin with and the rough stomach, but I did like the wit. Wheat beers are my go-to, and this one wasn't bad. It was very cloudy, but had a nice orange flavor to it. Mr. M didn't like that, said it was too much like drinking orange juice mixed with beer, but it worked for me.

From there we wandered to our next and final stop, Shed Brewery. This, my friends, was where I made a mistake. Most places give you a 2 oz. sample, right? Maybe, MAYBE 4? Mr. C asked if I wanted to try their beers, and I said yes. I also put in a request for their soft pretzels, as I thought the bread might help absorb some of the beer in my stomach. Mr. C comes over with two sets of the 6 beer flights, which was one sample of all 12 of the beers they offered. Big, 4 oz but filled to the brim samples. Basically, two very large beers for each of us. Ugh. I was not happy, my friends, especially when we found out that we were there late enough that the kitchen had closed. At this point, I tried most of the lighter beers, but didn't really find any that I loved. Luckily, between the 3 men they were able to finish all of the samples, but I felt bad.

Eventually we piled back into the car, and started off down the road. I requested a stop for munchies and diet coke. We stopped at a gas station, and right as I was going in a dad and his 8 year old son darted in in front of me and dashed into the only bathroom. And then stayed there for a good ten minutes. Eventually I gave up on my bathroom dreams and we bought our snacks and left...and then stopped at the McDonald's next door and used their bathrooms. Then, continuing on, we stopped at the same McDonald's we'd stopped at early that morning for another pit stop. More McDonald's than I've seen in a year.

All in all, it was a very excellent trip. It was also a very, very long day. I got up for a run at 6, and we were at Mr. M's house by 7:30. We didn't get back home last night until nearly 10:00. The good news is, a trip like that two months ago would have absolutely killed me, and today I'm tired but fine. Yay, progress!