Guess what? I am in Vermont hanging out with the cutest two year old ever! We arrived on Sunday last weekend. We are staying for two weeks which is just a treat. My husband came along on this trip which pleased H no end. She does love her Grandpa.
We have been on grand parent duty a bit and have also had a couple of days to do some touring around. As you can imagine, the beautiful fall leaves are at their peak right now. Tuesday and Wednesday Ray and I spent time driving east and south to the bottom of Vermont and then up the western side. Of course, this state is small so it doesn’t take long to do this. We stopped along the way though to enjoy the sites.
I will share my two favorite places we visited! First of all we found a place called Vermont Salvage in White River Junction. It is a huge building with three floors of all sorts of things that were kept during various home renovations. Ray and I spent a long time looking through pile and piles of fun things that would be great to have if we were fixing up a house
The selection was incredible. Everything from tubs and toilets to mantles and stained glass windows. There were bins filled with hardware, hinges, door handles, cabinet pulls and more.
If only we could have thought of a way to use these old jail cell doors!
Here we found a wooden phone booth. Where did this come from? I just loved it.
This wooden slide was so fun. It was quite rickety and I found myself wondering if it was made by some devoted father (or grandfather?) for their children.
I allows was thinking that my bum would in no way fit this slide! It was clearly made for little kids. Also, it was so steep. Think of how many kids flew down that slide and scrambled up the ladder for another turn!
The other place we really enjoyed was a trip to King Arthur Flour. I love their website and use their recipes quite often. Our local grocery sells quite a variety of their flours too. When Julia was out here last summer she had lunch here with her brother and sister-in-law. She told me about it and said the shop was something I would love. Know what? She was so right!
The store is enormous and is filled with baking tools, kitchen decor, linens, cookbooks and baking mixes of all kinds. The only thing that restrained us was the fact that we would have to tote things home to California and the fact that lots of the items are available online.
Being there made me want to go home and bake. I really love cooking and baking as does my husband.
They make wonderful breads and baked goods onsite. Samples were everywhere which was a great selling technique! I liked the huge windows which allowed us to watch the baking in process.
Even more, they have a beautiful classroom set up. The day we were there the class was on making hot water pastry as well as short pastry crusts. I wish I could have snuck in the room just to listen for a while!
The restaurant is great too. We had a fantastic lunch after shopping and wandering. So yummy.
We did purchase a number of the mixes and plan to make some over the weekend. My middle son and his wife are driving over from Brooklyn where they live. So family time means lots of food (at least in our family!)
I will close now with this fun announcement! Guess who is going to be a big sister?? We are so excited for grand daughter number two! She is due to arrive in mid-March. Big sister seems to have some understanding of what is to come. She has told me the new baby will cry a lot, want a pacifier and lots of bottles. However she clearly doesn’t get the difference in boy names or girl names. She has asked that this child be called Ferdinand. I am really hoping her parents can talk her out of this!
That is my news for now. Hope all is well with you!
Wonderful times, Bernie! Congratulations!
Thank Sarah. It is the best! Love being out here and hanging out with my kids. It is such a treat and it doesn’t happen nearly often enough.
Oh Bernie! What wonderful news! Blessings and congratulations! And my how H has grown – such a cutie pie!
She has Barb. I noticed you haven’t had your Tuesday girls lately – is that because they are in school now? I miss your cute posts about them. 🙂
Oh goodness, can H get any cuter?!? She’s just darling with those big blue eyes and that smile! KA is on my bucket list. I would love to see that store. Vermont Salvage looked like a fun place. If you could figure out how to anchor them, wouldn’t those jail cell doors make cool garden trellises for some beautiful flowers? What fun. Enjoy your time with your family!
Oh my gosh – you would love King Arthur. We spent a fortune there but it was so much fun. Tonight we had a chocolate cake made with a mix and it was just so good! We didn’t ice it or top it with anything because it just didn’t need it. Yum!! Tomorrow we will try the bread mix or maybe the pumpkin muffins – decisions, decisions!
Sounds like a great trip and I think I would love to see those places also. Congratulations on the new grand baby! Baby H is absolutely adorable-such a beauty!
Thank you Debra. Grand babies are such a gift and we just love ours. I am so excited to have another girl on the way. 🙂
Get out of town, Bernie!! I read your title as Grammy Awards time . . . and then realized it is Grammy Fun time. And H is going to be a big sister??!! How cool is that?!! The Salvage place looks fabulous, but the King Arthur flour shop is one spot that I’ve wanted to visit. How cool. You’re whole trip looks amazing, and that’s without all the fab family time. Enjoy – I know you are, Grammy. ~smile~ Roseanne
Roseanne, If you are ever up this way, the King Arthur shop is totally worth a stop. We had so much fun there. Enjoying my boys and their wives – is there anything better??
xo, B.
Bernie, I loved hearing about your trip. And that photo of your grand babies is adorable. Have you been reading “The Story of Ferdinand” by Munro Leaf with H? Not a bad role model, but maybe not the ideal name for a baby sister. Best wishes to you and all your family!
Yes – she loves the Ferdinand book and I am sure that is where the name came from. So silly!!
Oh Vermont! How I love that state. And during color season. And then with family and especially H. And with a retired hubby. So wonderful for you. Such a sweet, sweet photo of H with her little sister to be. You must be over the moon. I can’t stop laughing about Ferdinand. Our second grandkiddie was, according to our granddaughter, going to be Melman (giraffe from the movie Madagascar), so of course I had to put a giraffe on the back of the baby’s quilt. Hmm. I wonder if there is Ferdinand the Bull fabric. At least there’s lot of fabric with flowers like Ferdinand’s. Have a fantastic time, and a smooth trip home (unless you want to get a free flight to Hawaii again).
We used up the last of the free miles on this trip – that 3,000 miles took all three of us to Hawaii, bought Julia a trip out to Vermont in August and paid for one of our tickets for this trip. Totally worth it!! If they offered to let us be bumped from our flight I would definitely do it again!! I think I remember the story about the giraffe too. 🙂
What a fun post! I loved the guided tour of the Vermont Salvage Exchange. What interesting things. I’m afraid I would have been bringing some things home with me. And your precious granddaughter must be a delight to spend time with. Let us know when you start ‘Ferdinand’s’ baby quilt.
Carol
Honestly if we didn’t have to pack it to take home, we would have been so tempted Carol. There was tons of great stuff at the salvage place. Probably a good thing we don’t live close by!! I am just starting to think about baby quilts. I need to find out if the colors are going to change. With the first baby I used pink, lavender and gray. I haven’t heard the plan for this new child.
How fun!! Love your shopping tours, and I know you are just having a great week.
Ferdinand! How sweet is that? What a joyous time in your lives. Eat it up (along with all those fresh baked goods,).
It is a great time Karen – babies, cake, fall colors and my kids. Perfect!!
Oh, that last photo of your granddaughter holding the baby photo is precious! What a great trip. I love architectural salvage stores and kitchen stores. It’s my favorite flour too. I suspect you’re planning a new baby quilt—the fun of anticipation!
I was just thinking I need to ask about colors for a quilt for #2. They are making plans to move H into her ‘big girl’ room so I should be able to think of something soon – Hope all is well Tracie!
I’m so excited about granddaughter #2! Lol on “Ferdinand”. 😀
That salvage place looks like fun. It would be the type of place featured on This Old House, which my husband and I love to watch. And KA Flour – oh I could spend the day there.
Glad you are having such a wonderful trip!
Yes this salvage shop would fit right in with This Old House. You would LOVE it Linda – you’d find cool stuff and use it perfectly. The trip to King Arthur is making me fat but yikes it is all good stuff!! Oh well, we will get back on a normal eating routine when we go home. It is vacation after all!!
Food, family and fun-filled adventures with darling H. Have a glorious vacation, Bernie. As if Vermont is not already spectacular at this time of the year you have more reasons to celebrate. Congratulations on the news of granddaughter #2. A girl named Ferdinand reminded me of a “Boy Named Sue” 😀
We are very much enjoying our time together – today is so pretty out – blue skies and gorgeous trees. Hope you are doing well Preeti.
Oh, bernie, another granddaughter– how wonderful! They are the sweetest, aren’t they? Whatever her name ends up being, I know Ferdinand will be so loved. Enjoy Vermont and your family, and have a safe trip home.
And. . .apparently I can’t type today! Bernie, not bernie. Argh!
Thank you Mari. We got H a new dolly yesterday (she has been sick with croup and I thought she needed a treat). I keep telling her it is little sister. She loves rocking this doll. She also has an old digital thermometer and has been taking everyone’s temperature. So much fun to pretend at this age. 🙂
Good news all around – Grammy time and a new one on the way. I want to go to that store….actually both…King arthur and the salvage place. Where you here for the Bombogenesis storm? We lost power on the island for 1 1/2 days…not to bad but my planned block finish didn’t happen…and keeping up with blogs was impossible. Off to quilt – enjoy your stay!
We did have a very stormy day a couple of days ago but it was nice to just stay in. H wasn’t feeling great so we had a quiet day. Today is blue skies and just gorgeous out. We took a nice long walk this morning out to the lake (Champlain). It is nap time now so I am going to cut out a pumpkin costume for H. Life is good. 🙂
I immediately wondered if that wood slide was perhaps from a flour mill where they would toss sacks of grain/flour down from one floor to another to be loaded onto train box cars or semi trucks. I’ve seen them…
Oooh, that is so interesting. I did think the ladder portion was really strangely assembled. I bet you are right! Thanks for sharing about that. So cool. 🙂
I think you are very lucky to be getting a second grandchild so soon. (I waited 16 years and 11 months to get a second grandchild. He was worth the wait.)
I feel very lucky!! The girls will be exactly three years apart with both having March birthdays. So fun. I know you enjoy your grand kids so much. It is the best.
Congratulations on expected baby Ferdinand! (I love it! Maybe Fern for a nickname??? heehee) Looks like you are having a wonderful trip.
We are – it turned out H got sick with Croup and then my husband got the bug so we have had a low key visit but even with all of that, it was fun. She is feeling much better now and of course we leave for home tomorrow. Such is life with a toddler.