Ok folks, semi-long time, no blog (‘cept that post about the Beatles a day ago, but you get me)!
I’m going to start making that up to you all right now. First things first, “What’s been the hubbub, bub?” Let me tell you…
After a crazy two weeks full of girlfriend graduation festivities and a boisterous broham visit to NYC, things didn’t get any less busy. My lady fair, Jessi, and I hit the big one year mark on our dating odyssey a few weeks back, but due to all the events happening on the actual date, we pushed the celebration back to this past weekend.
Where would celebrate? Vermont, of course!
Now, I am sure many of you who haven’t seen the indescribably beautiful, rolling green mountains of Vermont may not think the small state is an exciting destination, but frankly, you’d be incredibly wrong. While I could go on and on about how incredible the area around Burlington, Vt.. is, I’ll just hit you all up with a quick recount of the trip (Minus all the sexy and romantic details, ’cause I am just not that kind of writer. Plus, I’m totally a gentleman!) to demonstrate how great a trip to Vermont can be:
- Jessi and I checked into to a cool, but empty and therefore kind of creepy, mountain inn. Still, rustic but very nice.
- Our first night was filled with beer and good food at the Vermont Pub & Brewery, including a full run through all 12 beers they have on tap and from the cask in some sample-sized glasses! Plus walking the promenade through Burlington and hearing live music in the the warm summer air.
- Chocolate chip pancakes with Vermont maple syrup for breakfast the next morning.
- Then a visit to the Magic Hat Brewery, featuring beer tasting (including new beet-red summer brew Wacko!, which is well worth a try) and a tour.
- After that, a beautiful sunny drive over to Waterbury brought us to a nice park across from a Green Mountain Coffee Roasters that had a crazy multimedia show/display all about coffee—plus, it was in an old train station, which was rad!
- Coffee downed, we headed over to Ben & Jerry’s for a Factory Tour, a sample of non-mass distributed Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookie ice cream and some more ice cream after that.
- Back to Burlington after ice cream for a walk and a beer along the shore of Lake Champlain in the late afternoon to round things out.
So, yes, a lot of the awesomeness on this trip was the amazing scenery and the fantastic food and drink. But, we’re Americans godammit, so I think there’s no better way to spend a holiday than soaking in some gorgeous views of this great country and partaking in some food and drink that my countrymen have poured their heart and soul into (not literally)!
Burlington is a fantastic town that I’d highly recommend visiting. It’s got an amazing atmosphere and personality, and for me, it felt just like the wondrous Columbia, Mo. that filled me with so many great college memories, but on a higher line of latitude (More beards and lumberjackier clothing—a definite plus for a Paul Bunyan-esque fellow like myself!). I enjoyed it so much, I may actually have to do a whole ‘nother blog post just raving about the town!
Also, while in a used book store, I noticed a poster for the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vt.—which I just edited an article on for Wizard about and who’s blog I just subscribed to—and I realized that was the perfect excuse in a few years to spend some more time in the great state of Vermont and hone my doodling skills for Enemy of Peanuts: The Webcomic! So…who knows? Stay tuned and you just might get a blog-sperience from CCS in a few years!
Hopefully at this point, I’ve caught everyone up on why I’ve been a bit less bloggy of late and by cathartically explaining that to all you readers, I have freed myself to start blogging with a renewed vigor and fury like EoP has never seen before! I’ve also just done the initial work on a new installment of EoP: The Webcomic, which I’m very pleased with, so expect that very, very soon!
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The Wacko beer you mentioned intrigued me because you called it “beet-red.” I checked the website and it’s got beet sugar in it! Now I have to try it. Even though I think most beer tastes too bitter, I love beets.
Wacko is a great beer for people not usually too keen on beer due to its bitterness, Summer! The beet sugar actually gives the brew a red color too, which I think subconsciously brings out the beet taste when simultaneously looking at it and sipping it.
Also, interesting fact learned at the brewery, they originally put this brew out a few years ago and named after beet author Jack Kerouac but the Kerouac family was not down with that, so they renamed it Wacko!
Awesome! Based on that recommendation, I’m gonna go out and find it.
So, I will now finish sending you OUR pictures from Vermont so that you can do this post up right! What could be better than Jim in some old aviator glasses sipping on a beet-red beer? Right, nothing.
Good post; the cartooning studies thing sounds cool– I used to really like reading charicature (spelling?) books for the same reasons. Vermont looks to be suprisingly cool– even if some of their representatives want to seceed from the union (and get invaded by mongul new yorkers and new jersianites?) BTw, any chance to get away from work, go to the mountains and chill out is a great idea…