Mount Mansfield + the Winooski River

During the July fourth weekend, I visited idyllic Vermont. 

On July 2nd, my boyfriend and I climbed Mount Mansfield, which is the tallest mountain in the state. It was my second mountain and it was by no means a walk in the park. Last month I started working full-time in an office-they say sitting is the new smoking- and it had been nine months since I completed my first mountain. As we were nearing the top, I actually broke down crying. I truthfully believe hiking is more of a spiritual experience than anything else. There's no better activity to learn mind over matter than climbing a mountain, and though my boyfriend gave me the option to turn around, I couldn't be happier I didn't.  

We climbed Sunset Ridge Trail, which is 3.3 miles. The amazing perk of this route is you get to see above the tree-line half of the way. Another fun fact about Mount Mansfield is it has 200 acres of rare Arctic Tundra. The first mountain I climbed, Camel's Hump (read about my experience there), has a few acres of Arctic Tundra as well. 

The next day, July 3rd, my boyfriend and I rested our sore muscles by tubbing down the Winooski River.  This watershed drains 1,080 square miles in central Vermont, encompasses multiple counties,  is the largest tributary to Lake Champlain, and is approximately 10% of the land area in the Green Mountain State. 

It was my first time tubbing and I didn't know something so relaxing and fun existed. 
For the special occasion, we got a lounger that fits four, has a place to dip your feet, and two coolers, which were perfect for the delectable Vermont craft beer and cider we bought. Here's where you can purchase it! 

 Even though my boyfriend and I ended up spending the fourth of July indoors applying aloe, chugging water, and popping Ibuprofen because we got sun poisoned from four hours of tubbing, I still had the time of my life. Because when you start full adult-ing, any moment you get to be in the place you love is always ideal.  

Missing Burlington

Today my boyfriend texted me a picture of Church Street in Burlington, Vermont that he took on Christmas Eve. Sometimes when he takes pictures on his phone they look like paintings.  This gem was too pretty not to share here. 

Stay tune for another post tomorrow. Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! 

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Dobrá Tea

It's always hard getting back into the swing of things during the first week of every new year. I was having such a hard time I ended up giving in to another road trip to Burlington, Vermont mid-week! Just kidding- I went back to Vermont for my first freelance gig- coverage of the protests at the Thursday Donald Trump rally! During some down-time earlier that day, I went to Dobrá Tea- a gluten free and vegan teashop that offers over 100 varies of Eastern loose-leaf tea. 

Dobrá Tea was founded by a group of tea drinkers who had smuggled rare Indian, Chinese and Japanese teas into Prague towards the end of Communism. At the time, the tea they were secretly brewing was only consumed by the highest ranks in the government and military. Three years after the fall of Communism, the group opened their first tearoom in the capital, and in the past decade, nineteen more opened across the Czech Republic. The Dobrá Tea in Burlington was the first US Dobrá. 

My boyfriend and I sat on the cushions nestled in the corner. Their cushions are filled with buckwheat hull. 

After browsing their ten pages of my green tea (yes, you heard me right; they have TEN pages in their menu devoted to this one type!!),  we ordered Dian Lu Eshan, which is touted as their best green tea. 

I find the winter to be the best time of the year to reflect due to its' slow pace. After my boyfriend poured each serving, I stared at my tea leaves and mused about what 2016 would hold for us. 

My boyfriend's mom frequents Dobrá Tea once a month and during my visit I understood why. To me, tea is the closest thing we have on earth to a magic potion. It calms me down whilst turning me on creatively, lifting me up emotionally, and stimulating me mentally. 

Dobra Tea (Burlington, VT)

January 7 at 6:29pm · 

Tea is a universal beverage. Dobrá Tea is dedicated to creating a safe space for all people. During these devisive political times, we hope you find peace and safety amongst friends over a cup of tea. ‪#‎TeaTrumpsPolitics‬

Dobrá Tea 

80 Church Street 
Burlington, Vermont 05401 
#802-951-2424

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The Stone Corral Brewery

Germany isn't the only place I've been to in the past six months that has a love of beer.

Vermont has more craft breweries per capita than any other state in the US and on my ride home to Massachusetts on January 3rd, I got to check out one of its newest ones- the Stone Corral Brewery! 

The Stone Corral is a micro brewery that originated on a family horse ranch in Huntington, Vermont before moving to its current tap room in Richmond.They utilize local, seasonal flavors and their beers have roots in Germany, Belgium, and Britain. In 2014, they competed against 710 global breweries and cideries in the Great International Beer & Cider Competition and their 'Black Beer' won them first place for Dark Lagers: Bock-Schwarzbier-Other; their 'Latigo' awarded them second for English-Style Bitter/Scottish-Style Ale; and their 'Illusive Traveler' earned second for Fruit and Spice Ale. 

I ordered a fight of all their beers. 

My favorite beer was their Kölsch- a German pale lager. 

The best snack to munch on! 

I love the Southwestern vibes the Stone Corral has.  

I find the Vermont pace of life to be soothing for the soul. 

I'm not a resolution person, but in 2016, I want to make this quote my mantra. 

The Stone Corral Brewery 

83 Huntington Road 

Richmond, Vermont 05477 

(802)-434-5787 

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, lovely readers! 

January started with a walk through Red Rocks with my boyfriend, his mother, and friends. You can read my first blog post about Red Rocks here: http://wickedblogger20.blogspot.com/2015/12/red-rocks-park.html. 

What made this recent passage through Red Rocks different than the one I took back in early December was the blanket of snow. It was fun watching  groups of kids and my boyfriend and his friends throw snowballs at one another; you're never too old for that! 

My boyfriend's mom told me that January 1st was the first day since Christmas there wasn't a cloudy overcast burying Red Rocks and when she said that I couldn't help but smile and think of that as some kind of metaphor for the new year.


Though I am excited for it, 2016 will probably be the most unpredictable and anxious year of my life since I am graduating from college in May. It's important to accept the true realities when I'm on deck for a major lifestyle change, but it's also a necessity I stay hopeful everything will work out on its own just as the murk eventually broke its' spell, unveiling sunshine that looked like heaven had aligned it.

It's easy this time of the year for our heads to get misty, but if you ever need a prescription for a clear head, I'd suggest going on walk with some good company. Also, snowball fights aren't a bad idea either. 

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Red Rocks Park

On the weekend of December 4th-6th, my boyfriend and I went to Burlington, Vermont. We were up there to help his parents cut down Christmas trees and to recharge with some countryside calm before we had to endure the toughest week of the semester, finals. His mom had been insisting since our first visit together that we walk around Red Rocks Park, so on the morning of December 5th we bundled up in our chunky knits to spear an hour for a wintery stroll.

Red Rocks is a 100-acre community park with 2.5 miles worth of hiking trails, vistas of Lake Champlain (the sixth largest lake in the US), a picnic area, and a public beach. 

We almost studied instead, but seductive whispers of procrastination urged us to explore Red Rocks. I couldn't be happier we went though the rest of the day was packed with activities because retiring to the outdoors with my boyfriend has been my anecdote for this semester's woes. I felt sad leaving Vermont on Sunday, but singing along to the Beatles, my all-time favorite band, on the ride home helped. When the sweet opening chords to "Two Of Us" came on, my mind wandered back to Red Rocks. Paul McCartney wrote the song in 1969 about the retreats he and his future wife, Linda, took to the countryside. Though I don't know when I will return to Vermont, I know my boyfriend and I will one day share enough memories there to stretch the road that lies out ahead. 

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The Blue Stone

On my boyfriend and I's first road trip to upstate Vermont, it was a long weekend, and because of that it took us twice as long to get to the Green Mountain state than it normally would. We were on our fifth hour of driving when we arrived in the town of Waterbury. Our bodies were so tired and our stomachs empty, we didn't even check out the reviews of the restaurant we went into, the Blue Stone. In today's world, it's a rarity for millennials to put their money towards anything without probing the internet for its' ratings, but my boyfriend and I were merely looking for a place to eat before we had to hit the road for a final hour. So how was this restaurant you ask? Well, I'll tell you; the Blue Stone offered up some of the best comfort food my boyfriend and I ever had, and since that first trip, we have  made it a tradition to eat there at least once while we are north visiting my boyfriend's family! 

The Blue Stone is a rustic pizza shop and tavern. This restaurant received its' name after a well stone that was located in a 1770's farm house in Rutland, Vermont, which is an hour and a half away from Waterbury. Today, that stone makes up one of the tables in the eatery. Photograph courtesy of the Blue Stone's Facebook. 

Something that the Blue Stone knows how to concoct is appetizers. My boyfriend and I

love munching on their Barn Board-pickled veggies, roasted garlic humus and the best golden, crispy flatbread chips I have ever tasted. 

Of course the best beverage to drink with pizza is beer! The Blue Stone has nine  draft beers from Vermont, six from the northeast, and four from California. My boyfriend, whose favorite pastime is brewery crawling, ordered Focal Banger, which is an IPA style beer brewed by the Alchemist brewery in Waterbury.

"I have always really liked Heady Topper: the cult classic double IPA by the Alchemist brewery in Waterbury, Vermont. As a result I love Focal Banger, there single IPA! It's just as smooth as Topper, and it has the same distinct hop forward profile only the Alchemist can capture" ~My boyfriend. 

The pizza we ordered was the Bio Dome- basil pesto, mozzarella, spinach, roasted tomatoes, red onion, feta cheese, and artichoke hearts. The Blue Stone's dough, bread and sauce are made by hand every day. 

What will make future trips to the Blue Stone exciting for my boyfriend and I is that their menu will change each season to accommodate for "whatever's fresh, local and in season to create new farm-inspired variations on what pizza used to be." Though I have only eaten at the Blue Stone during the fall, I know I will devour whatever comes out of their ovens any season because their motto is-"changing the world one slice at a time." 

Happy Winter, Everyone! 

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The Blue Stone 
15 Stowe Street
Waterbury, VT 05676
#802-882-8185

The Alchemist Brewery 
35 Crossroad Road 
Waterbury, VT 05676 
#802-244-7744 

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Camel's Hump

This weekend I got to experience two wanderlust firsts- visiting Vermont and hiking a mountain! 

Camel’s Hump is Vermont’s third highest mountain and its' highest undeveloped peak at 4,083 feet. It is called Vermont’s best mountaintop because on a clear day you can see Mount Marcy, the highest in New York State; Mount Washington, the highest in the Northeast; all of Lake Champlain; Burlington, Vermont’s largest city; and quite a bit of  Vermont's countryside. Camel's Hump is also situated on the famous Long Trail which stretches from the Appalachian Mountains to the Canadian Border.

Native Americans use to call this mountain, “Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wadso”, which means the “mountain like a seat.” The French navigator Samuel de Champlain and his  exploration team from the 1630’s named it “lion couchant” or resting lion. “Camel’s Rump” was assigned on a historical map made by Ira Allen in 1798 and in 1830, the mountain became known as “Camel’s Hump." Camel’s Hump is the largest park in the state and one of the oldest pieces of public land. It was given to Vermont in 1911 by Col. Joseph Battell,who didn’t want to see the summits logged.  In October 1944 during World War II, a B-27J Bomber plane on a training mission crashed into the side of the mountain near the summit. Most of the wreckage has been removed, but parts of a wing still exist on the Alpine Trail just about 0.4 miles from the summit. 

Fun fact: Camel's Hump was featured on the 2001 Vermont state quarter. 

Camel's Hump is a popular destination for hunting, hiking, Nordic skiing, and snowmobiling. It is also not uncommon to find researchers here as some of the most important studies detailing forest damage due to acid rain have been conducted on this Huntington mountain. 

On Saturday, October 10, I hiked along the Burrows Trail, the oldest trail on the mountain. It was a 4.8 miles roundtrip, and its degree of difficulty ranges from moderate to strenuous. I was up in Vermont to meet my boyfriend's parents and since we started dating in August, hiking has become one of my new favorites. Walking has always been my favorite form of exercise, so picking up hiking was a natural evolution for me.  

I would recommend hiking to anyone because life is a hike. It wasn't a walk in the park climbing my first mountain. As my veteran hiking boyfriend promised, there were times along the five hour journey that I loved hiking and other moments not so much. As with life, hiking can be disorientating at times, but what blew me away the most, besides the breathtaking view from the top, was how encouraging all the other hikers were! Words of 'don't give up, you're almost there' were as constant as the sounds of our feet crunching down on crisp, burning leaves (Vermont is famous for having the best foliage in the world!) This support helped me especially during the descent, when my hands were numb from the cold and I just wanted to cry. I never felt judged for my lack of mountain hiking experience, even when I had to do some crab shuffles or get on all four. In fact, hiking gave me confidence because it made me admire my body for how strong it is! 

I think every couple should hike at some point in their relationship. Hiking not only helps you connect more intimately with nature and yourself, but with your other half as well. It reinstalls three of the most important traits necessary for a healthy relationship- communication, patience, and support! 

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