Vermont Travel Notes

I've seen Northwest Airlines planes for many years but I never noticed something peculiar about them until it was pointed out to me a couple of weeks ago.

The logo is obviously a compass marker pointing in the northwest direction when you view the plane from the port (left) side. But if you view the airplane from the starboard side, the logo is suddenly pointing northeast!

Northwest is northwest no matter where it is viewed from. And it is so marked on every compass in the world. Why Northwest Airline chooses to do otherwise on one side of their airplanes is a mystery to me. If anyone knows why, I would appreciate hearing from you. The first one to respond gets a $30 discount voucher toward a stay here.

By the way, Northwest (recently acquired by Delta) flies twice a day between Detroit (DTW) and Burlington VT (BTV). You can see flights from all the airlines into Burlington on the BTV website. There are 45 to 50 flights a day into Burlington from 12 airports in 10 cities.

© 2009 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

Nobody loves you as much as mom. You can give her a Mother's Day she will cherish with the gift of Vermont. Take her to a Vermont inn, restaurant, attraction, or simply a drive in the country.

If that's not possible this year, you can send Vermont to her with a Vermont Teddy Bear. They are very good at online orders and ship quickly. If you are going to travel to Vermont next weekend (Mother's Day is May 10), a tour of the Vermont Teddy Bear factory in Shelburne VT would be fun.

Vermont Teddy Bear has several pages of Mother's Day bears on its website, plus a grandmother bear too.

Make reservations soon and enjoy your day with mom.

(c) 2009 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

Billings Farm and Museum is now open

Two of my favorite places in Vermont are the village of Woodstock VT and the Billings Farm and Museum located there.

Billings summer season of events gets underway this Sunday, May 3, with the 23rd annual Plowing Match. This contest pits teams of oxen and draft horses against each other. Each team and its handler is judged on how well they perform together.

The doors open at 9:00 a.m. and competition begins at 10:30 a.m. starting with the walking plow contest and continues into the afternoon with the team sulky competition. Special activities will include horse-drawn wagon rides, visitor plowing with the Billings team, ox programs, and rope making demonstrations.

Woodstock is located about 15 minutes west of White River Junction. Take Exit 1 from Interstate 89 and drive west on Route 4. Zoom in on the Google map from the link here and you will see Billings Farm clearly marked.

There is much to see and do in Woodstock including great inns, restaurants, shops, Simon Pearce glass works, and great country drives in the area. Charge those camera batteries.

(c) 2009 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

Fiddlehead ferns are a delicacy in Vermont. Go to the festival and ask for recipies!

The third annual Fiddlehead Festival will be held tomorrow at the Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center VT about 30 mins north of White River Junction and 30 mins south of Montpelier.

Free admission to all events unless you want to buy a ticket to the farmer's lunch: $9 for adults and $4 for children under 12.

See the tractorcade, animal power parade, children's activities, wild edibles workshop, gardening with Henry Homeyer, sustainable living workshop, Gary Howe's Glimpse of the past restored Delco light plant, sheep dog demonstration, tractor obstacle course, Renewing Local Communities workshop, oxen power demonstration.

It does not get any more "Vermonty" than this.


See some impressive pulling power at the Fiddlehead Festival

Photos courtesy Roger Ennis & Robert Eddy, Randolph, VT

(c) 2009 (except the photos) Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

I was looking this evening at my Facebook friends/fans pages when I came across some surprising news from Northeast Kingdom Travel and Tourism Association's Facebook page.

They reported that Claire's Restaurant in little 'ol Hardwick, Vermont had been chosen for one of the most prestigious awards around.

Conde Nast Traveler magazine named it one of the top restaurants in the country, an award they gave to only 43 restaurants nationwide, and just three in New England.

In commenting on Claire's, Conde Nast Traveler said: "Appropriately, Claire's serves simple food that highlights exceptional ingredients from Vermont's fertile agricultural community: slowly leavened breads, peppery radishes, and creamy raw-milk cheese. Local microbrews, artisanal sodas, and ice wines from Shelburne Vineyards keep the drinks as interesting as the cuisine."

Conde Nast Traveler sends out its reviewers anonymously to act like any customer including paying for the meal. There's no "comping a freebie" to get a good review. The restaurant has to stand on its day-to-day quality. Conde Nast did not even tell Claire's they had won the award. A friend of the restaurant happened to see the article and passed the word along to Claire's!

Claire's is a Community Supported Restaurant, a concept where local people make an investment in a community restaurant in order to have a good quality facility in what is usually a rural environment where the economics of such a facility often don't work.

I have not been to Claire's so I can't personally vouch for the quality. And I am only a little surprised there is a good quality restaurant in Hardwick. The phenomenon of top quality restaurants in small villages is not unusual in Vermont.

What I am surprised at is that someone from a big time magazine somehow found Hardwick, Vermont. While it is a fine enough town, and a classic Vermont village, it's not often a destination or even on the way to anything except to Vermont's beautiful but least populated land. It was probably a tip from someone and I would love to know the story behind Conde Nast Travelers' discovery of Hardwick and Claire's.

In the meantime, I'll have to just put it on my long list of first time restaurants to visit. There are so many great restaurants in Vermont I think I will run out of life expectancy and money before I get to them all. But it's a goal.

You'll find Claire's at 41 South Main Street in Hardwick about 30 minutes north of Montpelier and maybe a little less than that west of St. Johnsbury.

There is an interesting article on chef Steven Obranovich at the Seasonal Chef website in which answers questions about his approach to using locally produced ingredients even in the middle of a Vermont winter.

Here's a thought: if you stay with us at the Grunberg Haus, go to dinner at Claire's (about a 45 minute drive), and bring back your review and a copy of the menu for our collection, we'll give you a $20 discount off the normal $115 room rate, double occupancy, for a room with a private bathroom, full cooked breakfast included - offer good anytime May 1 - June 15.

(c) 2009 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn

The Alchemist Pub and Brewery in Waterbury is planning some extensive kitchen renovations and will therefore be closed from Monday, May 4 through May 11. They will be reopening Tuesday May 12 unless their projects go as well as mine do.

With these new renovations, Chef Jeff is planning to bring some new items to the menu. I can hardly wait to see what those will be. The Alchemist blog says that right now, he's off to his home town of Cincinnati to learn more about making Cincinnati chili and to hunt turkeys. Hmmm - is that trip related to new menu items?

(c) 2009 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus Inn