Adventures in (re)Visiting Vermont and Revisiting Blogging by Boy Kyle

  It has been entirely too long since we last posted an adventure. And it's not for lack of adventure. It's merely a case that everyone is familiar with: Life gets busy and things fall by the wayside. But we've circled back around and picked the baton back up. The first few posts may be recaps of things we've done in the past year but we will get back to fresh new adventures before too long. For now, I'll let you know about our most recent adventure in Montpelier, VT.
  For those just joining the blog (why are you jumping in at the middle? Start at the beginning; things will make much more sense), Girl Kyle and I are avid craft beer fans. So much so that I've started a career in it. The inspiration for this latest trip was an elusive brew called Heady Topper from The Alchemist Cannery in Waterbury, VT.
  Some back story on The Alchemist: John and Jen Kimmich had a highly successful brewpub operating in downtown Waterbury when Hurricane Irene caused major flood damage. The damage to the brewpub was extensive enough that they were forced to close indefinitely. But soon they were able to open the Alchemist Cannery a few miles up the road. No longer operating an eatery/bar they have been able to focus all their attention on brewing. As a result, New England will be blessed with a more readily available supply of Heady Topper, their flagship double IPA.
  In search of this TRUE king of beers, Girl Kyle and I journeyed to Montpelier, which is about 20 minutes from the Cannery and also home to our favorite bar, the Three Penny Taproom. Some of you may recall back when we had our road trip around New England, we stopped in at the Three Penny and could not stop raving about the bar and the owner Scott Kerner. This would be our daily home base for the extent of our trip.
  Our first full day we wandered around the downtown area investigating the shops. Books were purchased, lunch was eaten, fresh roasted coffee beans were purchased. At 6:30p we had dinner reservations at Hen of the Wood, where we feasted upon rabbit. This was the best tasting rabbit I've ever had. The only downside to the meal was that the man at the table next to ours had some issues with halitosis and every so often I would get whiff of something decidedly non-rabbit like. But this would not dissuade me from enjoying every last scrap of my meal.
  We also visited the Prohibition Pig which is in the former brewpub location of The Alchemist. Delicious smoked meats and good brews.
  On our last day we headed to the Cabot Cheese Annex. They had a wide range of cheeses, ranging from the standard sharp cheddar to cheddar aged 5 years to cheddar with bacon in it. Girl Kyle procured some 2 year aged cheddar and cheddar with sage in it.

  After one more quick stop in at the Three Penny Taproom, it was time to realize our goal for this trip. So off to the Cannery we went. Being in the brewery was an absolute delight for the senses. One of my favorite smells is fresh hops and fresh malts. This building had both of them in spades. Not only were we able to check out their process but we could do so while inhaling the sweet perfume of fresh beer ingredients. Of course we had to buy some Heady Topper to cap off the adventure so we did.
  A hearty thank you to Scott at Three Penny for being an all around awesome person and for his generosity. Anyone traveling near Montpelier needs to stop in for a tipple at his bar. It's well worth your time, as is the Hen of the Wood. We throw our support fully behind these two gems and hope you will too.


  Now for a little housekeeping. Like before, this blog will strive to bring you new and renewed adventures as often as we can. However since both Kyles are working more and on largely opposing schedules we're finding it necessary to relax our rules a bit. We'll still try to get a new adventure up every week but we won't guarantee it. What we can promise is that we will have at least one a month. As always we will be accepting suggestions for affordable/free adventures which can be sent to us at KyleandKyleBlog@gmail.com. Stay tuned and we hope you'll jump back on the bandwagon with us as we explore.

Adventures with The Frames by Girl Kyle

I was particularly excited about this week's adventure. Boy Kyle and I went to NYC to see The Frames. If you have never heard of them then I suggest that you go onto youtube right now and listen to some of their songs. I first got into them after watching the movie Once which came out in 2007. Glen Hansard, the lead singer of the band, plays a busker on the streets of Dublin and meets a fellow musician from the Czech Republic. The music in this movie is incredible. I unfortunately have never had the opportunity to see them live before. Boy Kyle was lucky enough to see Glen Harnsard's side project, Swell Season, about 2 years ago. Time went by achingly slow since we bought the tickets about 2 months ago. Kyle's cousin, Sarah, was gracious enough to let us crash at her apartment so we didn't have to get a hotel. This was proving to be a great weekend.
The train ride into the city was fine. When we got to Penn Station, we had no idea where to go from there. Boy Kyle contacted his brother to find out the easiest route to get to Terminal 5 where the band was performing. Google's directions were so convoluted that we just decided to walk there. We had to walk 22 blocks through the city. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the ridiculous amount of people and the very odd smells. We got to the club early even after we almost lost each other about 15 times in the crowds. We celebrated our achievement with two pints of Guinness. We figured it was fitting since we were seeing an Irish band. We were able to get incredible spots on the balcony. No one was obstructing our view and we were able to see the stage clearly. Whenever Kyle or I went to visit the bar or the bathroom, we had many people try to squeeze their way into our spot. We had to be aggressive in guarding our spots. I would have punched someone in the face if they tried to squeeze their way past me and obstruct my view. (I really wouldn't have of course, but it would have been very tempting.) There was one opening act that wasn't too bad. Thankfully they only played about 4-5 songs. Then The Frames got on stage and I freaked out. I was jumping up and down and yelling and clapping. Boy Kyle just stood there with a big smile on his face. It reflected our personalities perfectly.



The Frames are absolutely amazing live. Glen Hansard has an incredible presence while on stage. You can tell that he gets lost in the performance. I love when musicians do that because you can see that even though they've been playing for 20 years, they can still put just as much emotion into it as when they first started playing many years ago. I wasn't disappointed with their set list, either. They played for about 2.5 hours and had around 4-5 encores. The crowd was going crazy the whole time. It was a very exciting show. (Minus all the loud drunk people and then the sober people shushing even louder than the loud drunk people.)



We got out of the club around 11:30 and knew we had to walk back to Penn Station. The walk back was just as crazy as the walk to the show. After seeing that much of NYC I have come to the conclusion that I don't really enjoy it. It's too much for me to handle. It's too loud, there are too many people in one small area, and it smells pretty awful. I could go on. Jeez, I sound like an old lady. I've been on the Cape for far too long. The train ride back wasn't bad. We were both exhausted and couldn't wait to get to Sarah's apartment and sleep for a long time.
We had a fantastic time and I've never seen a show as good as that one. I really really hope that they will come back soon enough so I can enjoy their spectacular performance again.

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.

Adventures in Maine by Girl Kyle

We went on this trip with the intention of visiting different breweries and brew pubs in New England. We decided to start off in Maine and continue on in Vermont. We were going to stay a night in each town on our list until we got to Plymouth Vermont where we would camp for two nights. So I will start off this post talking about Maine. Oh Maine how I love thee. I have only been to Maine once and that was when I was 13 or so and I was in Portland for about 3 hours waiting for a cruise to Nova Scotia. So I don't have much of a history with Maine. We visited Portland for the night and then went on to Belfast.
I was really excited about Portland and kind of indifferent to Belfast. The first bar we visited was a nice Irish bar near the waterfront. Naturally and to my great excitement they had Kilkenny on tap so of course I had to have that. I swear I never get sick of that beer. It was the beer I drank during most of my time in Ireland so it brings back good memories. After we left there, we went to Novare Res, which as Kyle mentioned is an amaaaaazing place. They have over 200 beers available by the bottle, 25 beers on tap, and two cask beers. We were in heaven. We stayed there for quite a long time and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

We made our way to Gritty McDuff's after leaving Novare Res. Kyle was more excited about this place than I was. They brew their beer in the basement. That sounds pretty sketchy but I'm pretty sure that's the way most brew pubs do it. I'm not the biggest fan of their beer. We had the Halloween Ale and after the Flemish sour we had at Novare Res, it was really hard to get super excited about this beer. Oh well. We were pretty tired after driving all day and then drinking beer so we decided to call it a night.
The next morning we went to Allagash to take their tour. This was the only official tour we had for the whole vacation. I'm really glad it was at this brewery because they tend to go outside of the box with their beer. We went with a big group of people that were from the store Hannafords. They were quite loud and slightly annoying but whatever. The tour guide was really nice and she showed us some interesting stuff so we were happy. It was my goal to get a bumper sticker from every brewery we went to on the vacation. I didn't succeed but I think I added 4 more stickers to my already highly decorated car. After we left Portland we made our way to Belfast.
Belfast was a very interesting place. We had to drive about 2.5 hours to get there so when we pulled up to the motel that we were going to stay at I was not a happy girl. This place looked like it was somewhere that people went to commit murders in horror movies.
To my very very pleasant surprise, it was surprisingly really clean, cute, and the people who worked there were very nice. I think that was my whole impression of Belfast. It looked like a place where people got murdered but then when you actually spend time there, it's actually quite nice. And it was my favorite place of the vacation. It was a really quaint little town. It was right on the water and it felt like it has been a fishing town for centuries. The Three Tides was where we had our first beers. I had an imperial IPA which I think is the best one I've ever had and Kyle had a barley wine.

When we left the Three Tides, we made our way into town to have dinner. There weren't that many places open and it felt like we were back on the Cape since it was so quiet and it was only about 6 or 7. We decided to eat at an Italian place that had yummy food. We each had a Shipyard there but by that time I think we were a little over done on beer for the day. We then left the restaurant and took a walk around the town. They had a big foot bridge over the water and we spent some time there. So all in all Maine proved to be a pretty awesome place. We found some fantastic beer there and I would love to go back to both Portland and Belfast.

Adventures on the Rail Trail by Boy Kyle

The idea of a tandem bicycle is much better than the actual use of a tandem bicycle. Kyle was more leery of it than I was but it's understandable considering the size difference between us. So we quickly went back to the rental barn and switched to individual bikes. I chose a cruiser which felt enormous but was much more comfortable and fun than most bikes I've used in the past.
I knew from previous trips on the trail that about 6-8 miles from the entrance in Dennis there was a general store that sold sandwiches. It sits across the street from a decent sized pond. Could be a lake, I guess. The goal was to ride to the store, eat lunch by the pond, then head back. That didn't exactly happen.
I had to call my brother after realizing that we'd been pedaling for about an hour and a half and I wasn't recognizing landmarks. Also we had passed a sign that said "Now entering Chatham." The general store is in Harwich. For those who are unfamiliar with the Cape, Harwich is the town in between Dennis and Chatham. Obviously we'd gone too far, and apparently in the wrong direction. The kicker is that I had looked at a map around the 3 mile mark and still chose the wrong direction.

Luckily when I called my brother we discovered that there was a pizza place about a half mile down the trail. So we were able to have lunch and rest our weary legs for a time. Unfortunately we had to cycle the 10 miles back to the car. It was a gorgeous day and it felt really nice to be outside and be active but the frustration of getting lost and the realization of just how far we were from the car took away from the experience. It's a good thing that we got so much exercise though, because our friend Liz made us delicious, authentic Belgian Leige waffles that night.
Right now Kyle and I are on a New England road trip having more adventures that we can write about so keep an eye out for more updates coming by the end of this week!
Questions, comments or suggestions? Email us at kyleandkyleblog@gmail.com

Adventures on the Rail Trail by Girl Kyle

Since I picked Plimoth Plantation last week, it was boy Kyle's turn to pick what we were going to do this week. He came up with the idea to go biking down the rail trail. I have done it before but it was quite awhile ago so I thought it would be fun. We rented a tandem bike and went our merry way down the bike path. About 5 minutes later I decided it was a pretty awful idea to rent the tandem bike. I was sitting on the back seat so the only view I had was of Kyle's back. Now, I'm not saying that he doesn't have a nice back because he does. It was just going to be a really boring ride if that was going to be my only view. And I felt like we were tipping over the whole time and I couldn't let go of the handlebars at any point in fear that we would fall over and crack our heads open. So I insisted we go back and rent regular bikes. The one I chose had a very wide seat which was awesome.

Once we started going I felt like I was a kid again. When my family used to go bike riding, my dad and I would have mini races and then my mom would scold us for going too fast. I forgot how great it felt to go really fast on a bike. It's very freeing (I'm not sure how else to explain so if that's not a real word then I hope you understand what I mean). Kyle had mapped out our trip so that we could stop at a general store that was about 8 miles from the starting point to have lunch and then turn around and go back. About 4 miles into the 8 mile we came across a little rotary where you could either go towards Harwich Center or Wellfleet Center. Kyle chose what he thought was the right way and off we went. About an hour later Kyle figured out that we had gone the wrong way. And here is me complaining about it.

I got cut off from making the video so here's the rest of it:

Of course after riding a bike for about 10 miles without having lunch and then realizing you've gone the wrong way can be a little frustrating. Thankfully we got a hold of Kyle's brother and he told us that there was a Sweet Tomatoes about a quarter of a mile down the path from where we were so at least we could eat something. We sat down for as long as possible because we knew that we had to do the whole thing over again. That's the only problem with biking a trail, well not the only problem but maybe the biggest one. You have fun but then you realize you have to get back to you car which means all those fantastic down-hills will turn into horrible up-hills.

After biking 20 miles (we calculated it when we got back and realized we went from South Dennis to Chatham) and very sore legs and butts, we made it back to the car. I got a pretty bad sunburn (why would I think to put on sunscreen on a really sunny day?) and Kyle got ridiculous looking hair from the wind. The positives: the weather was gorgeous, we ended up with pretty decent bikes, and we got to have beer halfway through the trip. The negatives: the wind, going the wrong way, a bad sunburn, the wind, and the wind. So I would say it was a success.

A Little About Girl Kyle

I guess it's now my turn to introduce myself. I've lived on Cape Cod for about 22 years of my life and I feel like that's about 7 years too long. I began my life in the wonderful and classy town of New Bedford so I guess you could say I upgraded a bit when I came to the Cape. Living in one place for so long that offers a very small amount of entertainment for the 20-something crowd is pretty mind numbing. I feel like it's time that I come up with something to do to keep me occupied to I don't go mental.

I've always considered myself one of those people who are really creative but can't figure out what is creative about them. I'm hoping that this venture will unleash something in me that I had no idea was there. There are things that I've wanted to do or haven't been able to do in a long time and this is the perfect reason to go out and do them. And considering I've been stuck inside all summer, (I'm not the biggest fan of the heat and going to bars on the Cape is like walking into an Ed Hardy/Tapout commercial) maybe this will force me to go out into the world and become one with nature.

Please please please give us some ideas. We have a pretty good list at the moment (milking cows, feeding an elephant, para-sailing/gliding) but we would definitely appreciate more ideas. Either leave a comment on any of the posts or email us at kyleandkyleblog@gmail.com