Yesterday was a day devoted to MILK! And as I love MILK, yesterday was a very good day indeed.
We started off the day heading off to the Grafton Village Cheese Factory in, of all places, Grafton village. There we got to watch the folks actually making cheese. We learned what cheddaring means (to break up the curd to dry it) and watched as they cheddared, salted, and shoveled the curd to make it into cheese. Then the place squooshes out more whey and then lets it age.
In the store part, we got to taste all of the types of cheddar that they make. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 year cheddars, garlic, sage and hickory smoked cheddar. And after tasting them all, I bought one of each type of cheese that they make. Mmmmm, cheese!
Next we headed off to the Ben & Jerry’s factory to take a tour of it. judiang and I got the package deal of t-shirt, pint, and tour for $20. And we got our pints right off the bat so we could eat while waiting for the tour. (elsaf was smart enough to wait until the tour & all were done). We didn’t finish it, but we made good headway into our pints. I got the Brownie Batter flavor (which I’d never seen before) and Judi got the Peach Cobbler (ditto). Both were tasty.
When we got on the tour, we saw a couple of movies and then the factory bit which was cool to watch. The tour leader asked if any of us knew the significance of -40 (temperature). And of course I knew the answer (science geek that I am). Alas, I didn’t get a prize. Still, when we got to taste a sample of B&J ice cream at the end of the tour, there were leftovers and I had a second sample. Mint chocolate chunk – yum!
After the tour, I returned to the car to get our ice cream from before (and put our new pint of Creme Brulee in) and we managed to finish our pints. Elsa had some Americone Dream, and hergrace had a sundae with “Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz” as the ice cream base. All in all, a wonderful selection of ice creams.
We returned to the farmhouse nicely full of dairy and then worked on getting Doctor Who onto a platform we could view it. And when we were finally hungry (ish) we ordered pizza. Mmmmm, a nice capper to Dairy Day Monday.
Cheddaring the curd
Shoveling the curd
Covered bridge by cheese store
View from the bridge
The Flavor Graveyard at Ben & Jerry’s
Ben & Jerry’s
The trouble with the musical Hair is the catchy music that sticks in your head. And as we traveled to Manchester, Vermont yesterday, I had the Manchester, England England song running through my head. And hopefully some of you are now suffering.
So, after the late night on Saturday, we actually got up before nine am. Even judiang got up before nine (because she misread the clock in her room and thought it was after ten – heh heh). The morning was a nice slow one as we had cereal for breakfast and chatted with folks in the kitchen. Then it was photo time. We took pictures around the farmhouse and neighboring homes. I love the stone buildings in this area and got a really nice picture of a stone church.
One of the neighbors saw us out taking pictures and she invited us into her house, which was a former stone schoolhouse. She even let me ring the school bell, which was very cool. 🙂 Out back of her house was some very beautiful scenery and several stone benches. We all sat on one stone bench in the back in a little nook. And then, being the geeks that we are, we all took photos of the other three on the bench. Judi posted hers already. So here is mine.
Next we returned to the farmhouse and gathered up hergrace‘s boys and then headed off to the Vermont Country Store. The last time we visited Vermont, Steph took us there and I loved it. (Well, I’ve always loved their catalog, so being there in person was even better.) I sampled almost every sample they had in the place (well, I was hungry) and bought quite a few small items. And still hadn’t seen the entire store before we shuffled off to a late lunch in Manchester.
When we got to Manchester, Steph took us to Flat Road Grill for lunch. I had the Crocque Monsieur (grilled roll with ham, apples and Vermont cheddar), fries and a very nice cream soda. I enjoyed the sandwich – apples are a fun addition!
We parked at the bookstore in Manchester and shopped there. I bought a book (surprise, surprise) and enjoyed looking at the store, which had lots of neat other items.
We then walked around Manchester, which is an Outlet Town (like an Outlet Mall only all throughout a town). Steph and I were foot people, so we went into a shoe outlet store and looked at all the nice shoes. And oggled at the Mephisto shoes. Someday, baby, I’ll buy a pair of Mephisto. When I’m rich.
Our next stop was a sock outlet. Mmmmm, socks! Steph recommended The World’s Softest Sock, so I found some nice lavender colored ones. Only to discover they were mediums. I needed large. And the large socks weren’t nearly as fun colors as the mediums. Ah well. I bought red, green, and white – 3 pairs for $15.
One of the neat things about Vermont is that they have mountains! And while we were shopping in Manchester, we had many lovely views of mountains. (Ohio is rather bereft of mountains – at least where I live.)
We returned to the farmhouse and dropped Judi and the boys off. Then Steph, elsaf and I headed off to a local market for supper supplies. Alas, they were closed, so we went to a grocery store in Springfield. The grilling decision was made for us when we discovered they didn’t have enough wild salmon for everyone. So we got some chicken breasts and salad fixings. Plus two types of sour dough bread.
Steph and Elsa worked on the supper – Steph made the marinade while Elsa chopped up the veggies. Then Steph’s father-in-law grilled the chicken. Supper was WONDERFUL. We sat around the dining room table and had a very nice evening.
We then ate ice cream in the kitchen while folks cleaned the supper stuff up. Then the girls and I (and Steph’s youngest) sat down to watch the new Doctor Who. Only, due to many, many technical difficulties, we were only able to watch 15 minutes of it. Still, we did get to watch Curse of the Were-Rabbit while things were getting resolved.
Around 1am, we shuffled off to bed, and now it’s the next morning. We’re going to celebrate Dairy Day Monday. 🙂
For those who’ve seen the David Tennant movie, LA Without a Map, you’ll know what I’ve based the title of this post upon.
So yesterday I headed off to Columbus to fly Southwest to Philly.
I arrived on time and found a text message on my phone from judiang saying they were in baggage claim D waiting on me. So without checking the arrival boards, I headed for baggage claim D, assuming my friends knew where I was supposed to go. 🙂 Turns out they did, but Philly Airport sucks and took ages to get my bag to me. Bah! (And one fellow was waiting for his and saw his sock come down the conveyor belt. “Hey! That’s my sock!” Shortly after that, we saw his open bag come down the belt as well. Whoops!)
Once we were all ready, elsaf, Judi and I headed outside to wait for the Budget van. Four billion Avis vans and all the other rental agency vans went through before the Budget van finally came. The car we got (in slot A13 – you think we’d’ve known bad luck would be forthcoming) is a Ford Focus and Elsa got us a GPS to go with it. We stuck Garmin up on the windshield and programmed the destination. Well, sort of. It turns out none of us remembered to print the address off of the Vermont farmhouse we’re staying in. As hergrace was most likely on the road, we didn’t want to phone her. So we used some random Chester address instead.
And off we went! Elsa drove us out of Philly and into New Jersey. While still in PA, we had lunch at Friendly’s, and left the GPS in the car harping at us to get back on track. After lunch, Garmin decided it had a better route picked out. But wouldn’t tell us. We thought maybe she was sulking. Finally, she told us her new route. Alas, Elsa soon made a misturn, but Garmin recalculated the result. And at the same time, she had a shin cramp, so she asked if I could drive for a bit. Sure, I said, with no idea of where Garmin would be sending us next.
So we were in New Jersey, and Garmin started sending us on surface streets to get us on this new route. And then I missed a turn, so she recalculated the route and vindictively decided to send us through the Holland Tunnel. With me driving. Me, the country girl who never drives in big cities. Me, the girl who can’t do a left turn to save her life. Eep!
4 days later, we got on the other side of the Holland Tunnel. Well, it was probably 2 hours, but it felt like days. And then it directed me to skirt around New York City on 12th Avenue. Which I did. At one time, Judi suggested me pulling over and letting Elsa drive. Um, pulling over in some unknown part of New York City? I don’t THINK so.
While I was driving, we FINALLY got a call from Steph. We’d discovered during dinner that none of us had a recent phone number for Steph. Whoops! But Judi assured us Steph would eventually call us. And we all cheered when she did. We got the address of the farmhouse from her and also took down her phone number. And told her it would be after 1am before we’d arrive.
Still, I got us out of New York and into Connecticut and finally found a roadstop 12 miles into CT where we could switch drivers and get something to drink. I became a two fisted drinker after that drive with a mint shake in one hand and water in the other. Elsa then headed off through Connecticut. After awhile, she started getting sleepy, so we found (after many attempts) an open gas station where we filled up and Elsa walked around. I offered to drive again provided the GPS didn’t send us to NYC again.
Thankfully, it didn’t. I drove through CT and into Vermont. Yay for Vermont. And then it directed us to Chester, where we began to recognize landmarks from the last time we were here. We cheered when we arrived in Chester. And then even louder when we arrived at the farmhouse. Yay! Steph and her mother-in-law greeted us (sleepily) as we got out of the car. It was just after 2am. Blergh!
Steph showed us up to the rooms where we were going to stay and then we chatted in the hallway for half an hour or so. Then finally slunk away to sleep. Ah, sleep. It is of the good.
Alas, I woke up at 6:30 then 7:30 and finally got up at 8:30. But apart from many many typing errors while writing this, I think I’m awake. Today we intend to have a great day with Steph. 🙂
