Vermont and the Hudson Valley - Day One: Travel to Stowe VT

A luxury car to go with a luxury woman.

We are off on a week long vacation to Vermont and the Hudson Valley.  We have lucked out and hit the peak of color in Vermont around Stowe and the weather has been temperate and rain-thought not cloud-free.  We are traveling in comfort in Marilyn's new-to-her Cadillac SRX.  She got a great deal on this four year old beauty with only 17,000 miles.  I don't think I have parked it straight within parking lines yet giving rise, I am sure, to comments about old people driving big cars.  But are quite enjoying it!  By the way, for those concerned, I have more than offset her carbon footprint with my Ford C-Max hybrid.

New York in the background as we head to Vermont

We decided to use the free for three months OnStar navigation as we left the Thruway and ventured into Adirondack Park on our way to Stowe VT.  Unlike our phone navigation, we couldn't or didn't know how to see the list of directions, so we just followed instructions which at one point seemed to be leading us astray with road signs about a ferry.  But as we arrived in Essex NY, we saw the ferry port with a ferry approaching.  After a 20 minute ride, we were in Vermont and on our way.

We needed to stop for lunch and turned around so we could ate at a local eatery named for our dog, Archie...well it reminded us of him anyway.

We continued on to Stowe.  Once we left an Interstate and got on VT 100 for the last 20 miles, we passed the Ben & Jerry's ice cream plant with its famous tours.  Honest to God, I knew it was in Vermont but I had no idea it was just outside Stowe.  Honest.  More about that later.

We arrived at Auberge de Stowe before check in so we decided to head into the village to get the lay of the land and check in at the Visiters' Center.  It is a charming village with a quite interesting history as we learned later that night.  We could see the hills around us in all their autumn glory.

After some investigation, we decided on a spot for dinner as well as our evening activity, a ghost and history lantern tour of Stowe.  We started at 8 and it last almost till 9:30.  We learned a lot about the various ghost stories of Stowe but also a lot about the history.  Most interesting to me is the fact that more than 20 structures in the village today were moved from their original locations in the village.  Talk about Yankee frugality!

You can view a photo album of our first day by clicking here.