Tubing, the Vermont Country Store, and to the Top of Mt. Equinox

Fridays are usually a short day for me, which makes up for the fact that the rest of the world is gearing up for the weekend and I've got two more long days ahead of me. Last Friday, I finished up at work earlier than usual and the weather was perfect, so we decided to make the most of the afternoon and go tubing on the Battenkill River.

From anyone reading this from home, the Battenkill is MUCH more low-key than the Potomac River, so don't worry haha! I got a "buy one get one free
coupon" (turns out you can get something good from Citi Easy Deals!) so for $22 we were off on our afternoon of lazy river tubing.

Besides being a nice day to get outdoors, Billy and I had both been working a ton and were getting a little tightly wound (Can you blame us? We've been living out of a hotel room for five weeks!). We both got hit with a bunch of work when we came back from Burlington, so we were both in dire need of an afternoon to "unplug." 

I only brought my phone along as a camera (you don't get cell service out there!), so it was nice to have a whole afternoon enjoying the sunshine and not worrying about what was in our email inbox.

 It turned out to be especially good that we took an afternoon off, because we both ended up working through our "days off". We did take a break to go to the Vermont Country Store, which has every old-school game/toy you could think of (seriously...you can buy an Etch-a-Sketch there!!).  We were told we couldn't leave Vermont without going there by some friends of mine that used to ride at the Horse Center-The Liebermans.

Which reminds me, I can't believe I skimmed over our dinner with Ali and Melissa! Melissa (mama Lieberman) and Ali (one of her three daughters) were in town for the horse show. I ran into them in Florida too and it's been so great to see them whenever I'm in an unfamiliar place. I love seeing friendly faces from home, even though they moved to Chicago several years ago, and the Liebermans are some of the most genuinely nice people in the world. We had a great dinner with them and I was really glad they got to meet Billy. Since they've been coming to Vermont for a while now, they gave us lots of good tips on where to go, including the Vermont Country Store!

It's hard to capture the Vermont Country Store in pictures, but one of the highlights was this sweatshirt:

At this point in our trip, we were starting to sympathize with this shirt. We have loved the vacationing aspect of Vermont, but being in such a rural (although beautiful) area was starting to wear on us. Being more than 20 minutes away from a Target is just not something I can deal with long-term.

We also snuck away for a few hours on Tuesday to go up to the top of Mt. Equinox, which has an elevation of nearly 4,000 feet! We drove up to the top and then hiked around for about an hour. The trees were mostly evergreens, so the entire forest smelled like Christmas trees. The most remarkable thing, though, was how QUIET it was. I have never been somewhere that is so tranquil.

We also got an awesome view of the entire town of Manchester:

Getting out in the fresh air was good for us. It's nice to get out of our box (the hotel room) when we can! We both had a lot going on, so it was another chance to recharge and take a break from being slaves to our laptops.

We're on our last weekend here, now. The end of every horse show is always bittersweet for me. The shows are really hard work, so I'm happy I'll be getting a break, but they're also so much fun! If I'm not at a show, I'm just working from home, so it's nice to be surrounded by so many interesting people (good and bad haha). Vermont has been a great opportunity for me and I've had a blast...but I sure am excited to be going back to civilization!