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Go United
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The trip to Manchester was very scenic; we stopped often to stretch and let our
daughter out. She is still too small to face forward in her child seat, but we hear her
giggling every now and then.
About three hours into our trip, about two more hours away from Manchester, VT
(in the speed we are going, with frequent stops), our daughter has had enough.
Between mountains, rivers, and covered bridges she decides that we have
arrived, and her incessant wining is starting to drive us crazy.
One of us is in the back with her, trying to comfort her to no avail, and we
are on a winding small road so finding a place to stop and stretch is difficult.
Two cars pass us on the narrow road, we are the only three cars on the road,
but we soon lose sight of them.
We stop at the first place we can, a banquet hall / restaurant on the shores of
a river, a very beautiful place which was built to fit into the scenery, wooden
logs and country feel. If it was closer to home we would have been frequenting
that place for dinner or lunch.
We all get out and stretch, spend about fifteen minutes calming down, changing
diapers and snacking. At the Vermont welcome center, we were introduced to Green Mountain's Blueberry coffee, given free along with travel information. The travel center was manned by a polite and helpful elderly gentleman that was very knowledgable about the state, distances, and things to do.
We continue our journey, we soon come onto the two cars which passed us, they
are pulled over by a Vermont state trooper. We laugh at the irony, and thank
our daughter, who had the foresight to make us stop before we got a ticket.
Only nine months old, and already a financial genius.
Finally we arrive in Manchester, VT. Our bed and breakfast, The North Shire
Motel, is on the edge of the town. All of the rooms have parking spaces in front of them, so we don't have to drag our luggage. We notice the grounds, a beautiful pool, big patches of grass, beautiful benches and lawn chairs, all made to relax and enjoy.
The view from our room is incredible, and each room has a screen door with access to a common lawn / back yard.
We are starting to relax, put our daughter on the grass behind our room and play for a bit, while we sit on a lawn chair, underneath an old tree looking at endless mountains.
It's dinner time.
The B&B staff is very helpful, and gives us a book with menus which gives us an idea what's available in the area. There were several restaurants which deliver food, but after being cooked up in a car, we want to go out, and it had to be soon while our daughter is in a good mood (as she is most of the time).
Dinner with a tired baby is no fun.
We didn't know it then, but looking back there were several clues that Vermont is not a very "kids friendly" state (for visitors at least).
Some clues are mentioned below.
We decided on the Black Swan, which seemed to be one of the more upscale
restaurants in Manchester. We called to make a reservation, and were told that
it's OK to bring a nine month old, but that they don't have any high-chairs.
First clue.
We figured we could just make our daughter sit in the stroller and eat ... no big
deal. The restaurant is beautiful, very elegant in an old brick colonial
house, chef owned while the spouse runs the front of the house. Arriving in the
restaurant, we were put in the back room all by ourselves.
Second clue.
Our service was great, the wait staff very attentive and most came out to check
out our baby, we kept joking about how they put the "undesirables" in the back.
One of the staff came over, said how cute our baby is, and that she's so good
we could have been "sitting in with everybody else".
Third clue.
We couldn't help but laugh, and we still laugh about it.
Dinner was good, great appetizers and desserts, the main entrée was so-so, but
everything was priced reasonably about $20 - $30 per entrée.
We went back to our B&B, put our daughter to sleep, and enjoyed the silence.
Where I stayed:
The North Shire Motel
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