Three years ago I shared a photo on Instagram of the Ardmore Bed and Breakfast in Woodstock saying that I would love to see the Northeast in the fall and I would love to stay there. My precious husband bookmarked the photo and surprised me this year with the trip I had dreamed about. We got back Sunday night after an amazing long weekend away in Vermont. We had the best time exploring and we both would love to go back soon.
The Ardmore has since closed so we weren't able to stay there but I did get to see it in person. It's beautiful but I was surprised to see some pretty rough wear on the house. Hopefully it gets taken care of soon and the home will be properly preserved.
We flew into Boston on Thursday morning and had planned to head up to Woodstock but we realized Salem, Massachusetts was only about 40 minutes away so we decided to go check it out. It was nothing like either of us had expected. It was very commercialized with lots of corny witch stuff. It is close to Halloween and we were told a lot of that stuff pops up just for Halloween and the best time to come and experience true Salem is August and September. We checked out downtown and then quickly moved on to exploring the historic homes and of course all of the shooting locations from Hocus Pocus.
We could not get over how old some of the buildings were. I think the oldest we saw that day was built in 1629. It was really incredible. We ate lunch at the Boston Burger Company and it was really good. It was a pretty small place but the food was delicious and we both would go back. Jeremy and I were both glad we made the detour to Salem and we were glad we were just there a half day. Before seeing it we both totally would have thought we'd want to do a weekend there and now we know that a day is plenty for us.
It was about 2.5 hours from Salem to Woodstock and we pulled in to town at dusk so it was getting dark but it was so beautiful. I was so excited and couldn't wait for the next day so we could get out and explore. We had been traveling and exploring all day so we decided to order pizza in (we ordered from Pizza Chef and it was delicious).
When Jeremy decided to book our trip it was only a few months out and most everything was already booked. We got the last room in our little bed and breakfast and it turned out perfect. We stayed at
The Woodstocker in The Woodstock room. It's right outside of downtown but is close enough to walk to everything if you want.
Downtown Woodstock in so quaint. The downtown is full of cute shops and places to eat and the surrounding homes are gorgeous.
Friday's weather was overcast with a light drizzle. Jeremy and I both agreed we kind of liked it. It added to the cozy factor and it just felt like the perfect fall day. We spent the morning walking around downtown and had lunch at the
Soulfully Good Cafe. I got the broccoli cheddar soup with a grilled cheese. It was so good and the ultimate cozy meal as we watched the people walk by out front.
After lunch we headed to the original
Vermont Country Store in Weston, Vermont. (They have a second location in Rockingham.) Before I even knew about this trip I found the Vermont Country Store when searching for a
ruffled robe. I added it to my wish list and when Jeremy told me we were going to Vermont I bought myself the robe. It felt meant to be! This store was huge - it just kept going and going and it was a lot of fun to go through. It was so warm and cozy and it was really well merchandised.
There were so many fun and unique things. We bought some cheese and some baked goods for our ride back to the b&b and I got what I like to call my granny sweater.
After we were done at the store we decided to head back to our room to freshen up real quick. Then we headed to some antique stores before we had to be back for our dinner reservations. Everything was so much more expensive than what we see in our antique stores but after looking at the tags, so many things were from the 17th century! We definitely don't see much of that around here.
On our way to dinner we saw a bunch of people standing on a bridge looking at something so we decided to pull over and check it out. Somehow we missed the Quechee Gorge on our first trip across the bridge! We were so high up and it was beautiful. It was a quick stop but I'm glad we didn't miss it.
We had dinner at the
Worthy Kitchen. It has a great atmosphere but the food fell a little short. It was good but we both agreed it fell short of our expectations. I ordered the fried chicken sandwich and it was very dry. I asked if it always looked the way it did (it was pretty crispy!) or if it was overdone. They said it was double fried, so yes, it always looked like that. Once fried would have been plenty! They had delicious ranch and if you're a ranch lover you know that can make up for a lot. Even with being a little disappointed we both said we would go back again.
Saturday after breakfast we headed to Stowe. I had seen so many pictures of the small little town nestled in the valley and it was high on my list. It was much smaller than we expected. Unlike Woodstock, there isn't really a surrounding neighborhood. It's basically one street with shops and places to eat and they're more spread out. We got lunch at
Cafe on Main and had to eat outside on the covered patio because it was so tiny inside and there were no tables available. It was full on raining that day which was still cozy but kind of a bummer. We enjoyed our time in Stowe but like Salem, we now know we wouldn't want to spend an entire weekend there.
We headed back to Woodstock and went to a little shop to pick some things up for the boys. One thing about Woodstock is that it shuts down
very early. The shop we were at was literally the only one open in town and it closed at 6 o'clock! After that we had dinner at
Dr. Coburn's Tonic. It was pretty good (but their ranch wasn't good...) and we had a table by the window and I enjoyed being able to see out in to town. After dinner we went back to the b&b for some drinks and a puzzle down in the dining room.
Sunday was our last day and after breakfast we did more walking around Woodstock. I took so many pictures of houses and found all the places I had seen online. After a couple of hours it was time to head back to Boston to catch our flight.
I was flipping through a book of Vermont architecture through the years in one of the shops and came across this photo. I immediately recognized it from one of the houses I had loved on the main street. It was so neat to see what it had looked like all those years ago.
We had the best time and even though we missed the boys so much, it was so good to get away just the two of us. We definitely plan to go back to Vermont again!
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