Ever since I moved out of my family home, I’ve never been able to sleep past 8AM. No matter what time I fall asleep, I automatically wake up. A part of me still thinks my mom is in the kitchen cooking breakfast still.
So as I laid awake the next morning in South Burlington in a beautiful family home with a guest room, the first thought was, what the hell is that noise? “It’s the birds,” my boyfriend sleepily answered, eyes still closed.
It has been much too long that I have developed a habit of city life where honking and cars speeding down the road is the norm. Out in Vermont, you’ll only hear birds in the mornings and crickets at night.
I spent most of morning interrogating my friend about having a baby, raising a baby, and all the goriness that comes with it. It made me take a step back and really think, how will I ever raise a child with just me and my boyfriend when most people have villages of family to help out? But I got to also get to know the little one, trying to warm up to her so that she would trust me enough to let me hold her and play with her.
She’s so adorable. But also very shy and tends to hang onto her mother very much.
At noon, we gathered our way to Winooski for this Thai restaurant called Tiny Thai. It is Nicole’s favorite place so we had to take her. And when the menu came out, what?! The price is only $7.50 for lunch special! The wait-staff however was not to want. Cold and rude to families. It reminds you that not all restaurants like families.
After lunch, we moseyed down to Shelburne Farms on Shelburne Road. Yes, there is one road that takes you there from Winooski straight to Shelburne.
It’s a 1,400 acre farm, originally 7,000 acre! Of course, it was owned by the Vanderbilts. Eliza–or as they called her Lila was the sister of Biltmore Vanderbilt–married a simple Vermont doctor who changed his profession to the railroad industry to be accepted into the family. But alas, as automotive engines flourished, trains died. The farm went into disrepair until the mid 1900s when it was taken into National Park Services. It’s now run by a non-profit board.
Driving towards the farm, large fields for children to run across lay in front like a calm sea of grass. The farm is a large building. They call it a barn, I call it a mansion. The barn is used to store old tools and machinery, wood-making class showcasing the best of Vermont woodcrafts and a school sits on the corner, creating variety of public art. Pigs, goats and llamas, horses, chickens, rabbits and even silkie chicken, goats, sheep, and cows are among a few of the animals that reside at the farm.
Cheese making and a bread bakery sits in 2 wings. Visitors can milk cows, taste cheddar made directly at the farm, buy fresh bread. Everything is pretty self sustained. By end of fall through winter, the farm closes.
Driving further down the path, you are treated to a view of Lake Champlain, the inn at Shelburne Farm sits at the end of the cliff.
The inn is a step back into the height of the Nouveau Riche—library, study, tea room, immaculate and opulent just like the time period.
Adirondack lawn chairs in trio and duo line the lawn behind the inn facing the Adirondack of New York beyond the crystal blue lake. A garden surrounded by classical balustrade takes you to the edge of the cliff where we lay on the recently cut lawn, soaking in the sun-splashed sky.
Sun-drenched and fatigue settled in as we steered back home.
Dinner started with each of us making our own beef lettuce cups dipped on fish sauce mixed with hoisin sauce. Pineapple and mint with cucumber gave it a nice tangy zesty and fresh taste.
Our wonderful hosts then prepped the grill and prepared the pizza dough as we decided what to put on the pizza. Half Margherita and Hawaiian pizza, half sausage and smoked cheddar and veggie pizza, and finally pepperoni and peppers filled our stomach, paired with Prosecco grapefruit (pamplemousse) drink and my new favorite, Prosecco with OJ and cranberry juice.
We played pool in the basement and finished the night off in the hot tub watching the cloudy heaven with its waxing gibbous moon nailed high in the zenith.
