Vermont Travel Notes

Yestermorrow, a design/build school located in nearby Warren Vermont has a Stained Glass Intensive Class that teaches designing, making, and repairing stained glass windows. The course covers identifying styles, the design process, cutting and assembling the window. Also, it will teach how to restore old stained glass windows. You will see that this is more than a casual class yet it is designed for people at all levels of experience. Tuition is $750 plus $75 for materials. April 1 - 6, 2007.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor

Just a reminder, and in case you did not see the Feb 22 entry on this blog, the Green Mountain Film Festival in Montpelier VT starts this Friday and runs ten days. There are still plenty of tickets and most movies are shown more than once. See the website for a detailed schedule and list of guest speakers.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

Rustic buildings you see around Vermont, like the classic example above, are where maple syrup is made (I photographed this one because it's a good example and it had the advantage of being very near our inn.). These sugarhouses are being opened now to begin one of Vermont's longest and most popular traditions, maple sugaring season. It usually starts around March 1 in southern Vermont and works its way north as the days become longer and warmer. The best way to get maple sap flowing is with cold nights and warm days. It's a short season lasting only four to six weeks. And like most agricultural crops, there are good seasons and bad ones.

If you get off the highway and take some of the main two lane roads such as Route 100, you will likely run across a maple sugaring operation underway. But most of them are off the main roads and it's best to do a few minutes research on the internet to find a couple in the area of Vermont you plan to visit. The best website to visit is the Vermont Sugar Makers Association

In ten days, the Vermont Maple Open House Weekend will be held at sugarhouses throughout Vermont. The Sugar Makers web site lists sugarhouses open to the public throughout the state. You can watch maple syrup being made, learn how the process works (it's more technical than you might think), perhaps get a fresh sample and even taste "sugar on snow" candy, a rare treat and something you should make a point to experience if you have not done so. It's made by drizzling hot syrup on packed snow to make a chewy candy, and it is usually accompanied with a bite of cake donut and then a bite of a pickle. Or the other way around - I forget which. Seriously, that's how it's done. Keep in mind that we've been living through long winters here and we have time to think of stuff like this. It's not just a Vermont tradition by the way, you will find it in other maple sugaring states and Canada.


(c) 2007 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

Mount Snow has a Kids Rule Adventure Week this week. SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer will be there for picture taking with the children, strolling the base area, and just hanging out for fun. The Dirty Socks Funtime Band will perform Wednesday at the Snow Barn. There’s lots more going on including scavenger hunt, movies, family relay race, karaoke, magic show, etc. See the web site for detailed schedule.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor

The 25th annual US Open Snowboarding Championship is March 12 to 18, 2007 at Stratton Vermont, the mountain where US snowboarding took hold and grew into the huge sport it is today. The 500 biggest names in the sport will be competing in superpipe, dual giant slalom, boardercross, big air competitions, and a junior hafpipe jam for ages 15 and younger. Free admission.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor

The Vermont Outdoors Women organization is holding a workshop to teach backcountry ski techniques to women who have experience with cross country skiing.

The March 17, 2007 workshop will be led by Mary Lou Recor, Lead Women's Workshop Coodinator for the Green Mountain Club Education Staff.

Registrations are requested a week before the workshop.

Contact Green Mountain Club at 802.244.7037, by email at gmc@greenmountainclub.org, or you can register online at www.greenmountainclub.org

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor