high tea

I love tea, all kinds, and I drink it all day. I have always thought that I must have lived in England in a past life. The idea of taking a tea break everyday is brillant. There is a sweet, fair trade tea shop in my town that recently started doing afternoon tea. My cousin got me a high tea gift certificate for my graduation and we have been trying to make a reservation since May but they have been booked all summer!! Finally, we made it. It was awesome. The set the table so fancy, with English style tea silverware - there is such a thing - special spoons, tiny forks, tiny knives. We sat and enjoyed three courses - finger sandwiches, scones with lemon curd and cream, and dessert. The food was delicious and they use as much local finds as possible! Plus a few pots of tea, all at a leisurely pace.  I want to go back soon, anyone?!

Where did the summer go? As usual...

the summer just flew by. I had a little tiny surgery, had some recovery/down time, got some beach days in, but the highlight was a week in the green, green mountains of Vermont. K & H invited us to go on vacation with them. So we did a serious search and found the absolutely perfect cabin in the mountains. It was everything we wanted - in the middle of the quiet mountain, with no neighbors in site, just the view of camel hump mountain from the giant back porch (where we spent most of our time). Yet, in just 15 minutes, we were in a cute little downtown or on the way to site seeing.

o2 peeking out at the deck

front, side year

sitting on the porch, being auntie

our kitchen, the 2nd most used space

our view of camel hump mt

We did a ton of site seeing and had adventure days. We found a few all-ages friendly hikes. One hike was a beautiful walk around the base of camel hump mountain with bridges and sounds of bears (near by!!) Another hike took use along a stream and up to a view of a giant water fall, named Glenn Moss.

the explorers 

near where i swear i heard a growling bear

We also did some walking around towns and we ate a whole lot. We visited the Alchemist (long, tortuous story, inquire for more details), Ben & Jerry's, an apple cider mills, some packed antique shops, and an awesome burlington tea shop (sister to the one i went to in Prague!!). Mike and Kevin made it to the top of Camel's hump one day and we spend an entire day chilling in the giant burlington farmers' market. It was a jammed packed week, yet we had a lot of down time on the back porch, sitting by a lake, enjoying long lunches, sitting by the fire at night. It was such a wonderful trip!

warning: do not buy these lanterns!