Sweet Tea and Tacos
A born and bred Southern wife and a laid back Southern California husband talk about Food and Family.
Sweet Tea and Tacos
Revisiting New England: A Family Adventure Through Boston and Vermont
What if you could revisit a beloved place from your past and experience it anew through the eyes of your child? That's exactly what we did on our recent journey to Boston and Vermont, retracing the steps of a trip we took years ago. Join us as we relive the magic of Boston's culinary scene, indulging in fresh lobster rolls and clam chowder at the iconic James Hook. Our adventure brings history to life at the Boston Tea Party Museum, where we sampled the very teas tossed into the Boston Harbor in 1773, merging flavors and stories in a way only New England can offer.
Our journey continues as we explore the vibrant streets of Boston's North End and the lively atmosphere of Quincy Market. We share the joy of discovering treasures at the Vermont Country Store, with its blend of nostalgia and unique finds. Vermont's breathtaking landscapes provide the perfect backdrop for a picnic of cheddar biscuits before we marvel at the artistry of hand-blown glass at Simon Pearce. A stay at the cozy Trapp Lodge treats us to venison chili and home-brewed beer, while a local coffee house offers a hearty breakfast that warms the soul.
As our adventure wraps up, we savor unexpected moments like a bear encounter at a mountain resort and a celebration meal of schnitzel with lingonberry sauce for our daughter's graduation. Each day brings new tastes and tales, from hiking to a chapel with stunning views to exploring the farm-to-table movement with fresh maple syrup. Traveling through New England with family not only reignites cherished memories but also creates new ones, all flavored with the region's rich history and culinary delights. Listen in as we share the laughter, the flavors, and the unforgettable experiences that made this trip so special.
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✍️ Episode References
James Hook & Co.
[https://www.jameshooklobster.com/](https://www.jameshooklobster.com/)
Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
[https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/](https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/)
Simon Pearce
[https://www.simonpearce.com/](https://www.simonpearce.com/)
Trapp Family Lodge
[https://www.trappfamily.com/](https://www.trappfamily.com/)
Salumeria Italiana
[https://www.salumeriaitaliana.com/](https://www.salumeriaitaliana.com/)
Regina Pizzeria
[https://www.pizzeriaregina.com/](https://www.pizzeriaregina.com/)
Vermont Country Store
[https://www.vermontcountrystore.com/](https://www.vermontcountrystore.com/)
Modern Pastry Shop
[https://modernpastry.com/](https://modernpastry.com/)
Welcome to Sweet Tea and Tacos. I'm Dave.
Speaker 2:And I'm Jen.
Speaker 1:And we have a little bit of a guest today with us. We have our daughter.
Speaker 2:Hi, hi Welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1:So, if you've been listening, we talked about a trip that Jen and I took to New England when we were first married. There's a culinary schools and it was kind of a big food our first big foodie trip Anyway. So we had told our kids about that. They had heard the stories of the trip. So our daughter recently graduated from college.
Speaker 2:High school.
Speaker 3:High school getting ahead of myself. That's a big difference, A big difference.
Speaker 1:And you know, part of the discussion is, you know, do you want to go on a spring break trip? Do you want to go on a senior trip? What would you like to do? Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 3:Well, tell them what you chose Boston and Vermont.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to basically kind of not totally recreate, but to go back into that area that we went.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so, yeah, we did that in May after she graduated from high school, and so we just wanted to kind of share what we did and what we ate and the favorite parts of our trip so we flew in to boston.
Speaker 1:Um, I did things a little bit different, but so we flew into boston and one of the things we didn't do when we went was have a lobster roll, which is kind of a big, synonymous thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really traditional.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we flew in and we went to. We'd done some research and we went to this place called.
Speaker 3:James Hook.
Speaker 1:James Hook.
Speaker 3:See, I remember yeah.
Speaker 2:It was right down there on the wharf.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was right on the wharf and tiny little place. Oh yeah, They've gotten good reviews.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, so you want to tell what we got, babe, we got?
Speaker 3:let's see, I think we got like two lobster rolls Yep, and me and dad got clam chowder Mm-hmm. And mom wanted to be different and get a stuffed scallop Mm-hmm, and that's about it a stuffed scallop, that's about it. We got the lobster rolls with butter, clarified butter. So good. You got a whoopie pie too.
Speaker 2:Not there. No, I don't think I got it there, man.
Speaker 1:The lobster rolls are cheap.
Speaker 2:No, they're not cheap.
Speaker 1:It's this little bitty.
Speaker 2:The building's small, but there's outdoor seating, yeah they had a good bit of outdoor seating, we had to sit inside. It was a little cramped, but it was busy.
Speaker 3:And I mean literally, they had like a tank not even really tanks, containers of lobsters, you could just stick your hand in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was just right there, I mean just right there, fresh, but really fresh and just yeah.
Speaker 1:So then, one of the things we had decided to do, and some research we had done, was we found the Boston Tea Party Museum.
Speaker 3:The Ships and Museum. Ships and Museum yeah.
Speaker 1:And it is. It's a museum that is dedicated to the Tea Party.
Speaker 2:The historical event.
Speaker 1:The historical event of the Tea Party that kicked off kind of the American Revolution 1773.
Speaker 3:That's right, so it was what the two?
Speaker 2:is it the 250th?
Speaker 1:Last year, yeah, it was in December, I think it was the 16th of december was the 250th anniversary yeah, so it's kind of in the middle of one of the bridges, uh, over the river and kind of the bay there, uh, and it's connected to the bridge. So we had a reservation for I can't remember four o'clock in the afternoon we had plenty of time to get over there, and they do, because it's a tea, it kind of talks, it's a round tea, they have a tea room.
Speaker 3:Abigail's Tea House, yeah.
Speaker 1:Abigail's Tea House. We went up and we got tea because we had plenty of time before our reservation for our tickets, Right. And so what they have are they have other things, but of course we wanted to kind of stay historical and have some of the teas, and they actually serve the teas that were popular of that time and also the tea that was thrown into the harbor, Right. So there were what four or five kinds.
Speaker 3:Five, I think five. I took a picture of them all. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So there was one called Young Heisen Green. Ooh, I loved that and they have all these crafts that you can just sit there and you know you drink as much tea as you want. So that was kind of an early spring green tea. There's one called Singlu, which is a little darker of a green tea. There is one called which is kind of the most popular one, which was the. Was it the Kongu or was it the Bohi?
Speaker 3:The Bohi. That was the one that was like the most popular in the colonial era. It was like the easiest to buy.
Speaker 2:It was kind of like the everyday tea, the real common tea. I liked that one a lot.
Speaker 1:And then, they had one, the Kongu, which is a little darker from that, and then they had the Souchon, which is, if you ever had, Lapsang Souchon, which is a real smoky.
Speaker 3:Right, it's like a campfire. Yeah, but like in a good way, yeah, in a good way that conju one tasted like apples, remember, yeah.
Speaker 2:So good. So that was so cool Getting to sample all those teas and it was just, it was like a really just nice room with a lot of tables. It was, you know, just very pleasant.
Speaker 1:Very pretty and colonial and everything.
Speaker 3:There were some kind of artifacts and things to look at.
Speaker 1:Like tin type photos. Things, things and teapots from that era and everything right so then, uh, when it was time for our tour, we went down stairs and, uh, you kind of go into this one area and it looks like a meeting hall right, yeah and they, they do. They have rain actors and they reenact kind of the the meeting. They were really funny. I was holding a cup of teaors and they reenact kind of the meeting. Tell me what that meeting was.
Speaker 3:I was holding a cup of tea, so they give you a little kind of like coffee-to-go cup for your tea and if you want to, you can buy the fancy souvenir mugs which we definitely did, because we're nerds and I'm holding my little cup of coffee Cup of tea.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Cup of tea, duh. Little cup of coffee. And the tea yeah, cup of tea, duh. And the reenactor guy goes that better be dutch imported tea. Is that tea that I see and I'm like, yeah, I definitely. Um, that's not british tea. I love treason, so they did a really cool reenactment of that meeting at the meeting house right for the. I gotuntold by y'all, thank you.
Speaker 2:She had a part, she had a role, a speaking part in the reenactment.
Speaker 3:It's really fun though, because everybody's like stomping their feet and yelling Fire to the British and it's crazy. Highly recommended if you're a history nerd like us. Yeah, highly recommended if you're a history nerd like us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you go out and they have replicas of the ships that were used to transport tea and they are real ships. Their replicas are about 100 years old but they are real. They're in the water. They're not dry, docked or anything. Then, after the ships, you go in and kind of go through more. It's an interactive museum.
Speaker 3:Don't spoil it though.
Speaker 2:It's really nice, I'm just very, it's well done.
Speaker 1:It's very well done. It's very impressed with the level of of. You know, I mean comparatively. We've been to williamsburg and you know um, I would say it's absolutely on par with williamsburg and some of the best museums we've been to.
Speaker 3:I I would definitely go back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. Then from there we were staying at a guest house kind of outside the city, which was neat because it got. It was a chance for our daughter to see some of the countryside of Massachusetts and I remember her reaction was really funny.
Speaker 3:The little houses are so cute.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's just like, I can't stand it.
Speaker 3:It's okay. It's like a Tasha Tudor book everywhere.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, so we went back the next day. We go back into Boston. The idea was to do some of the North End and the Freedom Trail, so we went in and this was a bit of a poor planning on our part. Yeah, but we went to the USS Constitution because that's one of the things that Jen and I didn't do the first time we went.
Speaker 3:And Dad wanted to nerd out over the ships.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we failed to check the website. It was under renovation.
Speaker 3:Closed. So it was closed, but it was neat though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was neat, even just being outside.
Speaker 3:And there was a museum next door there was a nice museum there.
Speaker 1:Then we took an Uber just to get across the bridge a little bit faster.
Speaker 3:Our Uber driver was so nice though he was. He was like a chef or something. Yeah, he's a private chef.
Speaker 2:He's a private chef and his wife is from Mississippi. Yeah, it was kind of weird yeah.
Speaker 1:And then we went to the north end and we started walking and then we did Paul Revere House.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which our daughter had not seen. Of course we saw it, but she hadn't seen it Right.
Speaker 3:Got real low ceilings, by the way, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And we were talking about this that when we were there 24 years, ago.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was free, right, I think it was free.
Speaker 2:It was free, or maybe you could just make a small donation. I mean, I get it. It's the economy and all this, but we all had to pay to get in. That was kind of disappointing. It was just. It was amazing to me on this trip like just how much everything cost Right, right.
Speaker 3:So then we had found this really cool kind of Italian market sandwich-y place when we were there before, when we were there the first time it was right around the corner, and so we went. Wait, was it the same one that y'all?
Speaker 1:went to yeah.
Speaker 3:Salumeria.
Speaker 2:Salumeria.
Speaker 3:Italiana.
Speaker 1:So good. And we walk up the sidewalk and it's so, it was just kind of Picturesque. There's these two older guys sitting outside the door with chairs, and it's so, it was just kind of picturesque, Picturesque. And there's these two older guys sitting outside the door in chairs arguing in Italian. We go in and look around. Of course our daughter wants to get everything. She's like oh, I want that, I like that.
Speaker 2:So we got sandwiches, nelly sandwiches that they made right there.
Speaker 3:Fresh Mozzarella, fresh, fresh cut, and prosciutto and balsamic and some.
Speaker 2:It was like a kind of Italian meat one, and then we got a turkey one and we just all three split we split it and we went out and went back.
Speaker 3:Around the corner there's a little sitting area right across the street from the Paul Revere house.
Speaker 1:And we sat outside and enjoyed our sandwiches.
Speaker 2:Pellegrino.
Speaker 1:Pellegrinos, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was just such a good meal and we were trying to really be budget conscious. That was the cheapest meal on the trip.
Speaker 1:I think it was 20 bucks, two sandwiches three.
Speaker 3:Pellegrinos.
Speaker 2:But so good, so yum.
Speaker 1:So then after that right around the corner, because you're in the north end and there's just restaurants everywhere you look and there's a couple of really good Italian pastry slash bakery places, and so we stopped at the one called Modern Pastry.
Speaker 3:It's good yeah.
Speaker 1:And you got what?
Speaker 3:A fresh cannoli.
Speaker 1:Fresh-filled cannoli the way it's supposed to be, yeah. And then we got a lobster tail, which is kind of a—it's a super thin pastry.
Speaker 3:It's like a crunchy croissant.
Speaker 2:It's like this you know, laminated dough like croissant dough is with the thin layers and it's made to look kind of like a tail like a lobster tail.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's got a triangular. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then it's filled with this pastry cream.
Speaker 3:It's like if you were trying to eat a croissant, but every single flake is like really, really crunchy. And it just kind of explodes when you eat it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Except it's filled with Chantilly cream Massively filled with Chantilly cream. Yeah, oh God, and you got a.
Speaker 2:I got a whoopie pie, yeah, which is very Boston yeah, very Massachusetts yeah.
Speaker 1:So we walked down the street some more and found a little bench and had our dessert.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And then we kept trucking along the north end. Mm-hmm Went to Quincy Market market and y'all kind of bebopped around there.
Speaker 2:It's very. Yeah, we did a little bit of souvenir shopping there. That's actually a good place for souvenir shopping. It is.
Speaker 3:There's just a lot of things in one place and you can just compare and see what you like. There's also a lot of different food stalls as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then, yeah, we kind of finished up not too far from there. We finished up at the old state house, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Yep, and then we headed out, and so the other part was we headed to Vermont.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, the next day, the next day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we got a big start and we had kind of looked at several driving routes to Vermont Because that was a big part of the trip last time we enjoyed was just the drive through the just gorgeous. Oh it's so pretty but one of the things we had planned was to stop at the Vermont Country Store. So I'm sure you have probably seen if you haven't um the catalog of Vermont Country Store and if you look, you do it. You're going to look through it and say, yeah, that's things like my grandmother wore.
Speaker 2:Right, real old-fashioned, really old-fashioned kind of things. It's like beauty care, tangy makeup, yeah, and there's makeup, and then there's these kind of old-fashioned candies Right household things yeah it's just kind of a neat.
Speaker 1:Vermont kind of conglomeration. It was a beautiful little area and there's a covered bridge right next to it that you can drive over and they have a little restaurant. That wasn't open when we were there but they did make fresh sandwiches.
Speaker 2:Well, I think they were just opening Like it was you know it was kind of early and so they were just opening up, but they went ahead and made us some fresh sandwiches.
Speaker 1:And so we got a couple sandwiches and a little cheese and sausage plate with these little Vermont cheddar biscuit things which are so good, Kind of like giant.
Speaker 3:They're like giant oyster crackers. Yes, they're like giant oyster crackers.
Speaker 1:Yes, they're like giant oyster crackers, cheddar and salami. So we sat outside and had another picnic we had several picnics on this trip.
Speaker 2:I love a good picnic. The thing was the sandwiches at Salumaria and at Vermont Country Sports such good quality. It was so fresh. I'm not just a huge sandwich kind of person, but I was so into all of that because of the quality you know, like if you stopped at like a gas station in mississippi and you tried to get a sandwich like old pimento and cheese or something.
Speaker 1:Good luck with that no, and it's interesting because we had the same experience in London. You could get a sandwich kind of anywhere.
Speaker 2:Even at what they call pharmacies.
Speaker 1:Yeah little drugstores.
Speaker 2:But they were good quality. It would be like ham with cucumber and butter and stuff. You know you would not pick that up at the gas station Butter instead of mayo. Now you might get some good barbecue but yeah, some bold peanuts yeah.
Speaker 1:So we kind of kept on trucking and the next thing we did was we had found, and when, kind of just in some research, there's a company up there called simon pierce which is a glass blowing.
Speaker 2:they have all this hand-blown glass well, he's an artist, he's an artist and he he's famous for the glass work and for clay right um, and so it was like a gallery but also a workshop, and we got to tour all of that.
Speaker 3:And it was amazing. We got to watch them Above the glass kind of factory, because it's the factory store.
Speaker 2:And you can walk in there. You can look down from that catwalk and watch them blow glass.
Speaker 1:It's very hot. And then you guys got to go over to the ceramics.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we did, and the pottery and watch them blow glass.
Speaker 1:It's very hot, you guys got to go over to the ceramics.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we did pottery and watch that right before it closed. Yeah, they were very nice though, lessons I've learned on trips always talk to the people you never know. Yeah, always your Uber drivers, just random shop people, just ask them questions. Tell them you're not from here, right? What are they gonna say?
Speaker 1:no so then we we continued on, because we were staying at the trap lodge again like we did 24 years ago. So we got into the trap lodge that evening and, uh, got our room, got all settled and we went and ate because it was kind of late and we had a long day. We ate in what they call kind of the lounge area.
Speaker 2:It was pretty simple. You and I got just a bowl of what chili, Venison chili.
Speaker 3:It was very good. We weren't super hungry because we'd just been traveling all day. Yeah, dad got what'd you get, I didn't get anything.
Speaker 2:Really, dad got what'd you get, I didn't get anything really yeah we just had dessert yeah, dad had a beverage and then dessert a beverage yeah, they brew their own beer.
Speaker 1:They have. They have everything spring-fed water up there and since we were there last time, they had opened a beer hall and they were growing their own label of beer, yeah and then. So the next morning we got up did we have our like big breakfast that day?
Speaker 3:no, no, we had that after that oh that's right, so we went to.
Speaker 1:They have a place down down the street called the coffee house cafe house cafe house. Yeah and uh, what did we get? How coffee?
Speaker 3:we got this breakfast sandwich with, like a farm fresh egg. Yeah, I think it was far fresh like an english muffin and like grass-fed, like sausage, right, oh, it was and we sat out on the back.
Speaker 1:They have a patty on the back and I got a maple latte.
Speaker 3:When they say maple, in vermont it's so much better.
Speaker 2:Oh, they mean it.
Speaker 3:It's not just maple crazy.
Speaker 2:It's good. In addition to all the brewing of the beer, they also have a cottage industry of doing their own maple syrup.
Speaker 1:They raise their own beef.
Speaker 2:Chickens. That's the farm fresh eggs. We saw those chickens that produce those eggs. We're just sitting out there we're enjoying our breakfast. It's the farm fresh eggs. I mean, we saw those chickens that produce those eggs.
Speaker 1:And we're just sitting out there, you know, we're enjoying our breakfast, and it's the Green Mountains and it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:So pretty. I mean, the weather in May in Vermont was just so nice.
Speaker 1:And evidently it's kind of a downtime for them, right. Evidently it's kind of a downtime for them, right, because we actually met a lot of people from Vermont who were staying there because they offered a discount for if you're a resident during those times, right.
Speaker 2:Because their school doesn't get out until just a little bit later, probably like June, because they don't typically start until after Labor Day, Right? And whereas here in Mississippi we crank up early August and then we're out by mid-May, you know.
Speaker 1:So then, something our daughter really wanted to do they have all these tours and activities, you know, because it's a very large property. You know it's 2,500 acres or something. Yeah, If you're a resident of the the lodge, then these tours are free as part of your, your, your kind of uh resort fee was meeting the cows. They have highland cows fluffy red highland yeah, so we, you know, we hiked our daughter and I went and did it.
Speaker 2:Jennifer didn't go um yeah, I kind of chickened out at the last minute understandable?
Speaker 1:yeah well, given the tour was there. He was a little reassuring about you not getting bumped by a cow, yeah he said I cannot assure you that a cow won't ram into you.
Speaker 2:And I was like, yeah, I'm out, I'm out.
Speaker 1:Our daughter and I. We did it and he was very funny and talked about how the cows, but he also talked about how they're raising and they're using the meat and they're doing all this stuff.
Speaker 2:It's all about the sustainability and the good farming and ranching practices.
Speaker 3:The names of a lot of local farmers that he supports himself and that he like sells his own, like farm-crushed eggs, at farmer's markets. There's a lot of that available in. Vermont, unlike here. Yeah, there's about one farmer's market.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so so you know we did that. Um, we came back. I don't even remember what did. We did we go to stowe after that? I think so so we kind of decided to. We, we had another tour kind of lined up for the next day, no that afternoon, but the cows wore us out a little bit. So we, so we decided to drive down into Stowe and kind of look around a little bit.
Speaker 2:And if you don't know a lot about Stowe, it's like in the winter it's all about skiing, like cross-country skiing and downhill skiing and all of this, but the town is just so cute and, um, really quaint and beautiful so we drove around a little bit and then we were getting hungry again bigger and we stopped at this little uh sandwich place that looked kind of interesting called edelweiss, so it's kind of connected deli bakery.
Speaker 3:uh, like bottled drinks and snacks. Yeah, had some tables out front. It's like a place to stop when you're skiing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so many places around there have nice tables for you to sit outside, you know, and it's very pleasant, of course, being in Vermont.
Speaker 3:So we got a couple sandwiches. They got me a bagel with salmon and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a bagel sandwich.
Speaker 2:I don't remember what I got Do y'all remember, I don't remember either um we're terrible you got a chicken salad, oh it was, and it had some bacon in it and it was like a really interesting. It had like grapes and all kinds of stuff. It was kind of almost like a ward off walled up however, you say that salad, but it had bacon in it, gotcha, and you, you got what a meatball. We got you a meatball, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Sounds about right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so then we kind of, you know, finished our drive and went back up to the hotel and, I don't know, we probably took naps.
Speaker 2:I think we did, I think we did.
Speaker 1:Yeah and then oh, but you did get to do something fun. Let's back up.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:While our daughter and I were doing walking around this cow field, Uh-huh. Oh yeah, you, and there was another lady.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 2:So it was a grandmother who was traveling with her son and daughter-in-law and their grandson. They were doing the cow tour. They were all doing the cow tour and she was kind of like me. She had decided at the last minute that we, you know, she would stay back, so we were just chatting because we were right there and we could see y'all out in the field, um, and we had a nice conversation.
Speaker 2:But then this guy, uh, who worked at the resort, drove by in his pickup, pickup truck or drove up and he stopped and he said, uh, did y'all not want to go see the cows? And we said, no, we, we decided not to. And so he said, well, would you want to go see a black bear? And we we were like, well, okay, and so he said, hop in. So he hopped in this pickup truck and we turned around and went back down the road to where they have this big kind of compost area and the chickens were over there in a big kind of pen area too. But there's a couple of black bears that come and frequent the compost and he had just seen one of them and we saw his little head peek up and he was so cute and he would kind of run away every time he thought we were looking, and then he would come back.
Speaker 3:Well, you can put that on the bucket list. He saw a bear. He got off, saw a bear.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So then that night we decided to eat in the dining room. It's kind of a celebration Now. This is kind of. When Jennifer and I were there years ago, it was the whole. Oh, my goodness, what did we do? We ordered the five-course meal.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, and back then I mean that's all they had.
Speaker 1:It was either a five-course or a three-course.
Speaker 2:And they've modified it a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's just ordering off the menu now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So you guys got the schnitzel or something. Yep so and like lingonberry cranberry.
Speaker 2:I think it was a lingonberry sauce.
Speaker 1:Yeah so yeah, it says. The menu says uh, breaded pork, loin, herb, spatial cucumber salad, red cabbage, fresh lemon and lingonberry jam and I got it was kind of a little cucumber salad red cabbage, fresh lemon and lingonberry jam and I got. It was kind of a little selection of sausages, go figure. Wiener schnitzel had some spaetzle, a little cucumber salad with it and yeah, I think our daughter and I we got a little potato soup and everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you all had a soup first and then we all got dessert. Well, they gave you a complimentary dessert for graduation.
Speaker 3:They put a little candle in it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And everything. It's like I think people thought it was my birthday. I'm like no, I graduated. I graduated from high school yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So that was that day. The next day we actually had another tour lined up and, given the first day's activities activities we were a little worn out. So we thought, you know, we'll skip, it was a sugar make lean tour. I wanted to do that, but then we decided you know, there's this chapel there. They tell you about this. Wait a minute. History too, yeah that was.
Speaker 2:That was like later that morning right, yeah, maybe around 11. Yeah and it was about the resort and the von trapp family and you know their, their whole journey right.
Speaker 1:The real stuff, not the stuff and you and I had done something similar to that when we were there before right so then there's this chapel that was built um verner, one of the sons.
Speaker 2:It's on the very tip top of the mountain and the lodge is just down in front a little bit and actually our room, tip top of the mountain.
Speaker 1:well, it's one of the sons, it's on the very tip top of the mountain and the lodge is just down from a little bit, it's not at the tip top of the mountain.
Speaker 2:Well, it's on one of the peaks. It's on the top of one of the peaks.
Speaker 1:So you look out, our back door opened up into the part of the hill. Beautiful trees and sheep are right there. But we happened to see, oh look, here's a marked trail. Our daughter walked up there and kind of investigated and oh hey, let's go this way to the chapel yeah, mom and dad, come and go on a hike with me yeah, well, if you could imagine a like double black diamond ski I'm not a skier, I don't know what you know triple black diamond, whatever, the worst possible vertical trail you could take to this thing is what we took.
Speaker 3:I got you walking sticks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, You're welcome, but Jennifer and I we were like we don't remember we did this when we were little.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we hiked. And we were thinking this was not our experience. What is the deal?
Speaker 1:So we found that the old person trail actually came in from a different direction.
Speaker 2:And we had taken that one.
Speaker 1:That's what we had done before taken that one.
Speaker 2:That's what we had done before. I thought.
Speaker 3:I had great time.
Speaker 2:I had a great time we barely made it Tell about the benches.
Speaker 3:There's these benches that are commemorative. You can mark family vacations or whatever. You can get dedicated along the trail. Dad was like Dad. You tell that part.
Speaker 1:I told her you need to dedicate this one and say, hey, my parents got left up on this hill or something. To my old decrepit parents, I left them, I made go on this.
Speaker 3:You're not old and decrepit.
Speaker 2:We were feeling it.
Speaker 3:It was so funny. I was just like halfway up the hill. I got some sturdy walking sticks for them and I'm just like at the top of the thing. I'm thriving.
Speaker 2:We would not have made it without those sticks. But then we took the long way down, which was much better, Much better more comfortable.
Speaker 3:Very smooth and pretty. There's a bunch of chipmunks and butterflies. So then the next morning we actually ate breakfast in the dining room the dining room, and it was the big kind of breakfast buffet and everything is farm to table, it's all just.
Speaker 1:The quality is incredible, and I don't remember what we did that day. But oh no, I'm sorry. Let me back up. We went to the beer hall for dinner that night. Now, the beer hall didn't exist when we were there before.
Speaker 2:This is pretty recent, like maybe within the past, what five years something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know. Looks a lot more modern than anything else. Oh yeah, and it's down from the other resort.
Speaker 1:2010 is when they opened it.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, you have to take a little shuttle, bus or drive your car, which we took the shuttle.
Speaker 1:Just a really nice looking building, but the menu Fabulous. On a different level, the other food is good. It's funny. A colleague of mine had been there we just discovered this and he kind of described the hotel as being like the hotel from Clue. You know, that's the way it looks and feels. But then the brew house is kind of more of this modern-y feel, but the menu is just out of this world feel, um, but the menu was just out of this world.
Speaker 2:So, like the, the menu at the lodge is is real, traditional, like very austrian and you know, and this was more like just kind of modern, I don't know, just real foodie food right, you know.
Speaker 1:So we started with. It was a collection of mini salads. Um, five mini salads is a cucumber salad, a turnip slaw, a beet slaw and then kind of a carrot and tomato. It was just ugh.
Speaker 3:So good. Every single one of them was incredible.
Speaker 1:The beet was incredible.
Speaker 3:I ate like I loved the beet one and. I don't like beets that much. That was really good.
Speaker 1:And then for our meals, our daughter and I kind of split some things and they had the ones that brought worse, not worse, and brower worse, with sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, braised cabbage and tomato salad and pickles.
Speaker 3:And that is not sauerkraut mashed potatoes, that is sauerkraut mashed potatoes. Wow, so good they.
Speaker 1:Sauerkraut comma mashed potatoes, that is, sauerkraut mashed potatoes. Wow, so good, they were so good. And of course, Jen got a burger, the Johannes Burger.
Speaker 2:And Johannes is the youngest von Trapp son. He was very involved with running the lodge for many, many years. He's since retired and then his children are carrying on that tradition, but he was the one that got that beer hall started. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they do. When you come in, they have this wood grill and it's a wood-grilled burger with their grass-fed beef that's on the property and, of course, cabbage cheddar cheese and wow.
Speaker 3:It was phenomenal, it looked gorgeous, best burger I've ever had, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I let you have some. We split it because it was as big as your face. It was huge. No way I could finish all of that.
Speaker 1:We all split a Linzer Tort, I think, didn't we?
Speaker 3:Apricot chocolate. Yeah, oh, it was good.
Speaker 1:As good as the food was in the dining room. This was the best food for us. We just that yeah yeah, and I would have loved to have eaten there a couple more nights yeah you know, had we really tried everything so then we'll come. The next morning we headed out and we stopped a little bakery there in stowe to grab some breakfast. We didn't want to do a sit downdown or anything. We like to try different things. It's called the Stowe Bee Bakery. Cute little place down there Made stuff fresh.
Speaker 3:Very good had like biodegradable straws and recycled.
Speaker 2:Oh, everybody's so eco-conscious out there. It's so nice. You have to pay, and this was I mean this may be very commonplace to some of you listeners, but that you know just where we live. It's just not a thing you had to pay for, like if you went into a store and bought. You know something at the grocery and wanted a bag you'd pay Right, you don't have to do that down here.
Speaker 1:Right. So then we headed back towards Boston, and by the time we got back to Boston I was kind of wiped.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you were pretty tired because you drove the entire way.
Speaker 1:And we actually drove back through New Hampshire so we got another. We stopped, but that's also the White Mountains and it was just a different thing we hadn't seen when we went Right. And so we got to the hotel I was kind of wired to, but anyway, y'all went and got some pizza, yep.
Speaker 3:At night, regina, we got salamaria again for lunch.
Speaker 1:Well, that's right, I forgot, we stopped we did and we drove into Boston and that was kind of an adventure. That was yeah.
Speaker 3:Trying to find it again.
Speaker 1:Well, I drove in, and we're driving in through the north end of these little bitty streets, and so I dropped them off and they went in and grabbed some sandwiches.
Speaker 3:And that was lunch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we got settled in the hotel because the next morning we were leaving, flying home pretty early, yeah, and so it was kind of the unwind get our stuff packed to go home. And anyway I took a nap that afternoon and then for dinner you guys decided there's actually a pizza chain. I guess Not really, they only have a couple of locations.
Speaker 2:Right, it's the oldest pizza restaurant in or continually operating pizza restaurant in Boston, called Regina Pizza 100 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they have kind of the main location. They had another location.
Speaker 2:There was another location just right down from our hotel. Our daughter and I walked down there and ate and it was fantastic, absolutely fantastic. Tell them about what you got, so I got.
Speaker 3:They have their house kind of sauce, has Parmesan in it and I really enjoyed that. Mom is a little bit on the lactose intolerant side so you didn't get that. But it was like prosciutto underneath the cheese and then on top it was like fresh cut tomatoes and so much basil, so much fresh basil. It was just. It almost looked like a salad but it was so delicious and it's just this little personal size pizza you know about, like four.
Speaker 2:I think it was a little bit bigger than that Maybe like eight inches, yeah, but just enough that you have.
Speaker 3:You know enough to eat, and then a couple slices to take home and mom got just the regular marinara and mushrooms and it sounds so simple. It sounds really kind of basic. Best pizza I've had in my life Ever.
Speaker 2:And I'm not just a huge, huge pizza person, but it was. I have to say it was fantastic.
Speaker 1:I was lucky enough that John brought me a slice or two.
Speaker 2:You got to try both from both pizzas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's it. It was another foodie trip, another big foodie trip, and our daughter got to experience a lot of those things. We had some new experiences and some really cool stuff.
Speaker 2:And we met those nice ladies in the Logan Airport the next day and we were just chatting and they said, well, where are you from? And we said Mississippi. And they said, oh, that's where that hometown show is filmed with the Napiers. Ben and Aaron Napier and they liked that show. It's just fun making connections with people when you travel.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so that was really kind of your first time on a big trip like that too.
Speaker 3:First time really out of the South. Where has the South been?
Speaker 2:The Kentucky, the Texas. Well, she's in Virginia. That's, I guess, technically the South. But yeah, New England is beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it definitely has its own aesthetic a whole another world.
Speaker 3:Yep, like you said, go somewhere cold in the summer, please.
Speaker 2:It's really hot why are you going? Somewhere hot well, and it wasn't cold, it was just mild and pleasant, you know yeah pleasant.
Speaker 1:So that was it. That was our New England 2.0 fun trip. If you ever get a chance to get up there, definitely visit.
Speaker 2:Salumeria.
Speaker 1:Italiano.
Speaker 2:And you can follow them on social media.
Speaker 1:Tallyville store with great sandwiches.
Speaker 2:Oh, and this is the nicest family that runs it. It was funny. Do you remember that first day that we were in there, they gave us a free bag, yeah, we didn't have to pay for it.
Speaker 3:True.
Speaker 2:But the husband said is there an artist in here? Yeah, and I said yeah, I'm an artist. And he said I knew it.
Speaker 1:I don't know how I know that, but I always know when there's an artist in my shop and he was like what do you think of my signs?
Speaker 3:We're like we love your signs. I said they look good. And he was like, and his little chalk signs he was. He thought I was making fun of them. Yeah, we love them.
Speaker 2:They were cute, they were well something.
Speaker 1:But just a fun experience. Oh yeah, and I think you know, traveling like that and trying new foods and seeing different stuff Lobster I haven't had a lot of lobster at all.
Speaker 3:No, yeah, the lobster rolls I mean so many things I hadn't tried. Yeah, good maple syrup, oh yeah, and we brought some home. We did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah too, note oh yeah, and we brought some home, we did.
Speaker 3:We had to Note to self buy the big bottles. Airport security will love you. But, seriously that maple syrup?
Speaker 1:there's something about it Fresh maple syrup. Yeah, and the farm-to-table is growing the movement and you can really taste the difference in things. Well, there you go. That was our Boston trip, new England 2.0.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right For Sweet Tea and Tacos. I'm Dave.
Speaker 2:And I'm Jen.
Speaker 1:And our daughter.
Speaker 2:Bye music, music, you, you, you.