Adventures in Vermont by Boy Kyle

After driving for almost 5 hours from Belfast, Kyle and I decided that we needed to take a break from the car. Which is why the Three Penny Taproom in Montpelier, VT came in very handy. Not only was it convenient, it was also one of the absolute highlights of the entire trip. I will now give them a shameless plug. Go to the Three Penny Taproom if you are ever in the general vicinity. Scott Kerner (one of the owners) was behind the bar when we walked in and he was by far the greatest bartender I have ever encountered. He was very knowledgeable, friendly and seemed completely overjoyed to be able to get us beer. And the best part was that you could tell that it wasn't a faux personality that some bartenders and servers adopt to try and get more of a tip. Scott was genuinely having the time of his life talking to us about craft beer and getting to know us.

Unfortunately we did have to leave eventually. By the time we got to our hotel in Burlington we were exhausted and it was only 8pm. By a stroke of luck there was a restaurant at the hotel so we didn't have to bother trying to figure out what to do about dinner. The next day we ventured out to the Magic Hat Brewery, which happened to be about 2 blocks from where we were staying. Neither Kyle nor I have been a fan of Magic Hat but I thought that it might be an interesting tour. Plus maybe they'd have something we never heard about and would enjoy. We did discover an ale that we'd never heard of but we didn't like it at all. I can't say it was a bad beer but I can say that my taste buds were VERY displeased. No official tour but we got to walk around on a balcony and see the first batch of the day being bottled.

From Magic Hat to Otter Creek. Otter Creek was nice and they had a fantastic pumpkin ale, which we bought for the campsite. I don't really have much else to say about Otter Creek, they don't do tours anymore for insurance reasons, and the beer we had was quite good but unremarkable.

Then we arrived at our campsite. And quickly found out why it was labeled a "Premium Lean-To."

We also discovered that we had left our pillows in Burlington. I'm still paying for that mistake since I haven't had a proper night's sleep even as of last night. But what made the night even more uncomfortable was the rather loud and active pack of coyotes that were serenading us all night long. Throw in an overnight low of 40 degrees and you can see why neither of us slept well that night.

The next morning we went to the Long Trail Brewery. Long Trail makes great beer and after Magic Hat we were delighted to be able to start our afternoon off with something pleasant. The food was pretty average and the other patrons were a little annoying but it was a very nice time just the same. After the brewery we wandered around the little town of Woodstock. It was rather quaint and somewhat artsy. We found a great coffee shop downtown and relaxed for a bit before heading back to camp. Once there, we had dinner and got ready to call it an early night. At least that was the initial plan. Kyle was extremely concerned about having a repeat performance of the night before. I initially thought we could stick it out but the more we talked, the more I realized that there was no way she would be happy staying another night. I wasn't particularly excited about driving the 3-4 hours home but I didn't want the trip to end on a sour note. I hadn't slept well the previous night but Kyle had had a worse time of it than I did. I don't want to give the impression that I was disappointed at going home early because really there would have been very little difference between leaving that night and leaving first thing in the morning. So I opted for going home that night because I wanted to ease Kyle's mind and be sure that we would get a decent amount of quality sleep. So I drove as much as I could before fatigue set in and Kyle got us the rest of the way home. It was an amazing trip and I think I'd like to do something similar next year. Maybe some new destinations along with past favorites.
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Adventures in Vermont by Girl Kyle

For the second half of our trip we spent some time in lovely Vermont. The time it takes to go from Belfast Maine to our destination (Burlington Vermont) takes a little longer than 5 hours. I am terrible with long car rides so I was not looking forward to this part at all. This is typically how we entertain ourselves when we're in a car for long periods of time:

We decided to stop in Montpelier at the Three Penny Taproom to take a break from being in the car for so long. My car also needed a break because it was getting pretty angry at me for making it drive up many mountains for hours and hours. When we walked into the taproom, we were greeted by Scott, the bearded bartender. They had many great beers on tap and it took awhile for me to choose what I wanted. Kyle and I finally decided to share the Dogfish Head Red and White Ale that was pretty tasty. We then each got a flight. I got the Flemish sour ale, a single hop IPA, and I think a Belgian white. I was pretty impressed by everything I had. Before we left we introduced ourselves to Scott the bearded bartender. He was very friendly and had a huge smile on his face the whole time we were there. He gave us free stickers which I put on my car to shamelessly promote them. To get to Burlington, we had another hour of driving ahead of us. It wasn't a bad drive barring the fact that we both had to use the bathroom really really badly after having all that beer. Thankfully We made it to the hotel without any problems.
Our next stop was the Magic Hat Brewery. I've never been a fan of their beer so I wasn't super excited to go there. They had all of their beers on tap in the gift shop so we tried the Single Chair Ale and it was super yucky. Needless to say, going to their brewery did not change my opinion of their beer. The brewery itself though was pretty cool. They had a nice set up and you went onto this balcony in the brewing portion of the building so you could watch everyone and what they were doing.
Our next stop was to go to the middle of town in Burlington. I've never been there before and I heard it was a cool place so we decided to check it out. We ate lunch at the Skinny Pancake which is a crepery. They had fantastic food but their service was abysmal. There is a brewpub that we were hoping would have some yummy beer to offer. But alas, we were out of luck. I had an ESB and Kyle had an IPA. You would think it would be pretty tough to screw up those, but this place succeeded. Here is our wrap up of Burlington:


Our next stop was Plymouth Vermont. Before we got to our campsite we stopped by the Otter Creek Brewery. It was a nice little place and we sampled some beer. We left there with a spectacular six pack of Wolaver Pumpkin Ale and a pint glass. We stayed at Coolidge State Park which was about a mile up a mountain. We had a prime lean-to. We had a beautiful view of the mountains and we were right next to the bathroom. It was perfect. When it got dark outside while we were cooking dinner, we could hear a pack of coyotes having a field day scaring the crap out of us.

They sounded pretty close and it was pretty awful to hear that in the dark. Needless to say I slept terribly. I got up 4 times to pee and I was absolutely freezing. Our gorgeous campsite turned into a hell in the night. But our view in the morning made up for all the stuff I went through during the nighttime. (Well, maybe not completely since the next day I was totally exhausted.) Our first stop the next day was Long Trail Brewery which was about 5 minutes from where we were. I love Long Trail. Their beer is consistently good which is a rare thing. We had lunch at the brewery and they had a self guided tour so we checked that out. We had pretty much run out of things to do and took every map and tour guide we could find to plan our next outing since it was still around 12. We took a trip over to Woodstock which is about a 10 minute drive from Long Trail. Woodstock is a really nice little town. It's very artsy. We went to the library (very pretty), we went to the outdoor art show, got some tea and coffee, and then went to a thrift store. It was a nice end to our trip. When we got back to our campsite we had some dinner and I did everything in my power to talk Kyle into having us go home. We were supposed to spend another night at the campground but there was no way I could sleep in that tent again. I really wanted to sleep and be warm. We went back and forth but I finally got my way :). We didn't get back to the Cape until about 2AM but that was fine. I got to sleep in my nice comfy bed.
Kyle and I had a great time on our trip. We had some great beer and great food. By the end of it we were pretty sick of beer though which I didn't think was possible. It was just nice to go on a road trip and relax. We really needed it.