VERMONT FOR ALL SEASONS
Text by Matthew Graham
Photography by Karen Carra

Woodstock, Vt. I sat and gently rocked back and forth in the high-back wooden rocking
chair.  My wife, Karen, sipped a cup of tea beside me as the late day sun
fell upon us. 

The large porch at the Woodstock Inn and Resort was the perfect spot to unwind after a day of hiking through the mountains of New England.  Each afternoon the inn provides complimentary tea, coffee and cookies.  We sat and watched people practice on a putting green below the porch.  The serenity of the scene was enhanced by soft music filling the air as a pianist tickled the ivories inside the lobby.  (Karen reminded me that we needed to get ready for dinner, but I really didn't want to get up out of the rocker.) 

The Woodstock Inn and Resort is part charming country inn and part posh,
luxury resort, the best of both worlds really.  It's been voted one of the
greatest 500 hotels in the world by Travel and Leisure Magazine.  

A great deal of the inn's appeal comes from its long history.  The original hotel at
the site was built in 1792 and named Richardson's Tavern for one of the
town's early leaders, Captain Israel Richardson.  As tourism increased in
the area, the hotel was rebuilt in 1892 and renamed The Woodstock Inn. 

By the1930s, the inn had already established itself as a four-season resort
with golf and tennis in the summer and ice skating and skiing in the winter.
The local ski resort, Suicide Six, was one of the first downhill ski areas
in the country. 

The hotel was again rebuilt in 1969 and has recently been updated with the addition of a new wing.  The resort now boasts 142 rooms, 23 with fireplaces, 7 suites, 3 restaurants, a country club, a conference center with ballrooms, indoor and outdoor pools and a spa and fitness center.  The main lobby is well-appointed and dominated by a 10-foot fieldstone fireplace.  An adjacent wood-paneled library includes free internet access for guests. There's also a gift shop, an atrium style seating area and, of course, the aforementioned porch.

We enjoyed a sumptuous meal in the airy main dining room and then had a
cocktail in Richardson's Tavern (named after the original hotel) before
returning to our room.  The room couldn't have been more perfect.  

Every hotel architect should visit the inn to see how to get it right.  Though not
large, the room had a plethora of features I've always wanted in a room: a
nightlight in the bathroom for finding one's way for a middle of the night
pit-stop, a fireplace, a small fridge, coffee maker, lots of mirrors, hooks
on the doors to hang jackets, a separate sink outside the bathroom so two
people could clean-up at the same time, a make-up mirror for Karen, two
closets (with hangers) and a dresser.  The colonial style-furnishings,
hand-made quilts, wooden shutters and the television being hidden in a
cabinet gave the room all of the character one would expect at a Vermont inn.

In the morning we ate breakfast at the Eagle Café and I feasted on pancakes
with real Vermont maple syrup.  The city of Woodstock was voted the
prettiest small town in America by Ladies Home Journal. 

We walked-off the large breakfast by heading down main street and window shopping at the various galleries and quirky shops.  A covered bridge offered a scenic view
of the Ottauquechee River that runs along the town. 

There are several hiking areas within walking distance from town, including Mt. Tom and Mt. Peg.  Since we had hiked all the previous day, we chose to go sight-seeing via car. Our first stop was the Billing's Farm and Museum. Billings is a working dairy farm and farm life museum.  We petted calves and sheep, watched cows being milked and horses being put through their paces pulling a wagon.  Somehow my stomach forgot all about the large breakfast when we passed by the ice cream dairy bar.  I couldn't pass up an ice cream cone with fresh home-made ice cream.  I got maple ice cream, of course.  The scoop was gigantic and we both had a feast!

We alighted next at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, about a 10-
minute drive from Woodstock.  The institute is a non-profit raptor
rehabilitation center and includes outdoor exhibits of a variety of birds:
hawks, falcons, owls, eagles and even bald eagles.  It was the first time
I'd ever seen bald eagles! 

The birds are housed in large natural habitat style pens.  Most of these birds of prey were rescued after being shot or hit by vehicles or flying into power lines.  Over 500 birds are treated by VINS each year and released back into the wild.  The three dozen resident
birds have injuries (such as permanently damaged wings) that prevent them
from being set free and are cared for lovingly by the staff of VINS.  Though
the bald eagles were quite impressive, the barn owls were the most adorable.
The institute also runs daily falconry demonstrations and includes a gift
shop, nature trail, ecology education classes and an adopt-a-raptor program.

A few miles down the road from the institute we stopped for a hike along the
Quechee Gorge, also known as the little grand canyon of Vermont.  The hike
offered several good scenic overlooks.  But the best panorama of the 165-
foot-deep, rocky chasm (cut by the river) is from the bridge that crosses the
ravine along Route 4.  

We continued on into the town of Quechee and had a lunch at a deli next to the river.  We were told to try the restaurant overlooking the waterfalls at the Simon Pearce Glass Mill, however, the roar of the waterfalls was deafening and the view was obscured so instead we headed to the deli a couple of hundred feet from the mill and across a grassy field.  The picnic tables outside offered a view of the river, it was quiet and we enjoyed the outdoor atmosphere.

We returned to the mill and watched the glass-blowers and potters at work. The glass-blowing was endlessly fascinating.  A blob of molten glass becomes an intricate vase or bowl or wine glass in just a few minutes at the hands of the skilled glass-blowers.  No wonder drinking glasses are over $30!

 
On the way back to Woodstock, signs along the road saying 'Everything
Scottish' led us to the Scotland by the Yard shop.  Outside the store a
group of strange looking multi-horned 'Jacob' sheep grazed. The store-owners
must constantly be asked about the other-worldly creatures because a sign on
the door announces "They're Jacob Sheep!"

A friend of mine had worn a kilt to his wedding and I had recently been
tracking down my Scottish ancestry.  Thus I was interested in finding my
family tartan and buying a kilt to wear to weddings and special occasions.
(Karen thinks I'm insane!)  The store didn't sell kilts.  They had to be
special ordered.  But they did have a variety of ties with several of my
family tartans. So I picked up a tie with the tartan for the Grahams of
Menteith.  It has purple in it, Karen's favorite color.  But she still isn't
all that enthused about me wearing a kilt, even if it contains the color
purple.

We returned to the inn just in time for afternoon tea. As we sat on the porch we tried to decide where to eat dinner and what to do the next day.  Karen also wanted to squeeze in a massage at the spa.  I didn't really care what we did. There were tons of things to do and
to see in the area.  But I was happy to just keep rocking on that porch!