Today Allison and I ended up waking up early, however we slept for about 10 hours. The air up here made us tired as my mom would say. We puttered around the house a little bit and then headed over to Stuart and John’s Sugar Shack for some pancakes and waffles. The place is very rustic and down home. They only serve Pancakes, French toast and Waffles, no egg dishes. However they do serve bacon and sausage. I would steer clear of the bacon, it is sub-par, but the sausage is fantastic and it is homemade. The sausages are thick patties that are lightly seasoned and full of flavor. The syrup is served warm and the waffles have real strawberries.

After that we drove by a farm and stopped to take some cow pictures. We then turned the corner and two of the cutest goats ever were by the side of the road. Allison isn’t a huge fan of goats because of the square pupils. But these were very cute. I gave Allison the camera and she got a couple of shots.

(Photo by Allison)

We headed to Alyson’s Orchard to get some apples for the Thanksgiving apple pie that Allison is making. Alyson’s Orchard is a really nice place; we are here during the off-season because all of the trees were empty of fruit. However they did have large containers of apples under a tarp, about a dozen different varieties. We paid for a peck and mixed and matched apples. The picking of a peck and paying for said peck was on the honor system as no one was there manning the store. We walked around and looked at the metal animal sculptures around the property. We found the Giraffe, Teddy McIntosh the bear, an owl and a blue heron by Lily’s pond.

Then we drove through the town of Walpole but didn’t find any place in particular that we wanted to stop at so we kept driving. We drove up Route 5 North for a bit, didn’t find what we were looking for and so turned around and headed up 103. We stopped at the Vermont Country Store and picked up a Habanero Pineapple Jelly/Sauce that we will put over cream cheese for a snack some night. We also tried a variety of sauces and jellys and cheeses and decided on picking up a couple of small 8oz wheels of an extra sharp cheddar made by the Grafton Village Cheese Company. One we will keep and one we are leaving at the house for Thanksgiving.

We headed back through Bellows Falls going Route 5 South and we found the place we were looking for, Harlow Farms and Café Loco. It was still a bit early for lunch so we made a loop and went back to the house to put the cheese in the refrigerator. We regrouped and got some water then headed back out. We went over to Café Loco, for lunch. Tara gave us lunch at Café Loco for our Anniversary. Café Loco is a cute little pace with an alligator theme. It is attached to the farm stand and it is very laid back. The owner Michael Lennox created the mood as well as the menu, which is influenced by his native South Florida.

We ordered from the Specials board. I had a delicious pulled pork sandwich. The roll was a nice firm, but not tough or hard, crusty roll, and it was served with a pickle. Allison got the citrus chicken salad, grilled chicken served on a bed of greens with dried cranberries, nuts and coconut tossed with a cranberry vinagrette. She also got a Half and Half to drink, half Iced Tea and half organic homemade Lemonade. We sat out on the porch because the day was so beautiful. When we were done we brought in our dishes and Michael wrote us up a slip for the meal and we were free to walk around the farm stand and make other purchases. We picked up a small baguette as well as some 4-year-old aged sharp cheddar cheese. We saw some 4 year old sharp cheddar at the Vermont Country store but it was very expensive, it was much more reasonable at Harlow Farms. So we got that some bread and butter pickles for Allison and some salsa that we are leaving at the house for Thanksgiving as well.

After that we walked around Bellows Falls and browsed the bookstore. They were having a local author read from her book of poetry but we really weren’t that interested so we continued on and popped into a few more shops. We went over to the Vermont Pretzel and Cookie for a snack. I got their cowboy cookie, a hearty chocolate chip and Allison got a hot pretzel. The pretzels are delicious and they make sandwiches on the pretzels as well, so we will have to come back another time.

So after that we went back to the house, Allison laid down for a nap and I took my camera over to the bridge to take a few more pictures. I didn’t get many I liked so I came back read a little, napped a little and did a little work on the Marketing Day videos. I went out and picked up a bottle of wine for another night of Wine and cheese for dinner. But this time we have a small baguette to share as well. So it will probably be another early night for us. And we have really been enjoying the opportunity to sleep without interruption from the cats.

Today Allison and I headed to New Hampshire to visit with Dan and Marcia. We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and picked up some Kettle Corn to take with us on our trip. We are spending the weekend at Tara and Erik’s place in New Hampshire. It is a beautiful little two family that they have fixed up with the help of my Dad. He installed 35 new windows including a very unique one on the third floor. I hadn’t been here since I went to demonstrate up in Northern New York. That was shortly after the house was purchased. The windows were delivered but not all installed at that point. I helped Dad bring a bunch upstairs. The windows and all the paint and the decorations have made quite the difference. The place looks great.

Before we got to the house we stopped to visit with Dan and Marcia We picked up some of the wedding gifts that we had in their cellar. We had to pick them up to take them home because Dan got a job with Citrix. Citrix is what I use all the time to connect back to work for my demonstrations. Citrix is also located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A move is coming so we must move out any of our stuff. It is very exciting as well as hard on everyone, but exciting as well. We are very happy for Dan and Marcia and look forward to visiting them down in Florida. But that doesn’t mean that we aren’t sad that they are going to be moving away either.

So we picked up our Longaberger dishware that was in the basement along with a few other things. Then the four of us went to the Santa Fe Smokehouse in Manchester to have lunch. Dan and I had BBQ Steak and Cheese sandwiches. They used beef brisket and BBQ sauce with melted cheese on a sub roll to make the sandwich. It was very tasty.

After lunch we headed out to Walpole NH. We found the house no problem and we saw a few places that we want to go to tomorrow. Like Alyson’s Orchard as well as Stuart and John’s for breakfast. But the sun was setting and we were dead tired. We picked up some cheese and crackers from Shaws and had a wonderful bottle of wine that Uncle Wayne and Aunt Cindy gave us for our wedding. My cousin Scott made the wine label from our wedding invitations. We have a second bottle that we will save for another big anniversary. The wine was wonderful. The cheese was Jack and the crackers were butterfly, a perfect evening for us to exchange our gifts to each other.

Allison was tricky. She gets very excited when she buys someone a gift and wants to give it to the person right away. I like to do the gift thing on the day when the gift is traditionally exchanged. So last week we were having dinner and Allison was all excited because she got me the perfect gift. She wanted to give it to me and I said no. She said, “What if we got each other the same gift?” I said something like, “What, did you name a star after me or something?” Then she got really pissed and left the room. I thought, “Oh, no I ruined her gift.” Then I thought, “A star, what a scam, now I have to pretend to like this thing. I know I have said in the past that they were a scam and a waste of money, I can’t believe she got me a star.”

Well, Allison knows me better than that and thankfully did not waste her money to name a star after me. She got me tickets to see William Peterson (Grissom from CSI) in a play at Trinity Rep on New Year’s Eve. The play is called Dublin Carol. We are going to have a meal at Fire and Ice beforehand and then hit the play. Should be a great time. She done good! That was a perfect gift for me and stayed with the tradition of paper, since they were tickets.

For Allison I contacted our friend Wes Molebash about two months ago to commission a custom comic strip for us. I know that Allison got me one for our wedding and I wanted to complement that on our first anniversary. He sent us the original artwork as well as the color version. We are going to frame both the color and the original artwork. Wes did a great job, Wes and I e-mailed each other back and forth with the dialogue, and he came up with the joke. I also got Allison three prints of some of our favorite strips.

Lazy Day

The Cat tried to Murder me

No Farting

We are certainly glad that we found Wes and his work. His comic strip is a part of our daily life and we are so proud to display the artwork, that he has created, in our home.

Tara’s house is perfect for sleeping; we ended up falling asleep early and waking up 10 hours later. 10 hours, that has not happened since college days.