Our resident deer Phryne. Beautiful!
The last two days of our wonderful vacation in Vermont were filled with lazy afternoons on the porch, Ellen and Randy working on ancestry research, multiple sightings of our beautiful woodland creature Phryne Fisher, collaborating on a delicious barbeque dinner and celebrating Father’s Day at a great restaurant in Manchester.
In talking about what we would like to do our last two days, we made the decision to stay close to the house.
Saturday morning skies were clear and the air was refreshingly cool when we noticed that ‘Phryne’ made another appearance in the paddock.
The morning hours found us binge watching another season of the Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries so Ellen would be able to enjoy the final season before we started our journey back home. Ellen and Randy also spent a bit of time working on his ancestry chart.
By later afternoon Randy started a fire in the outside fireplace. We gathered outside to enjoy a glass of wine before dinner. Then it was all hands on deck to prepare dinner. Randy was put in charge of grilling the filet mignons while Ellen and I prepared the baked potatoes, corn on the cob and salad. The meal was beyond delicious!
Then it was back to the porch while day turned to evening. The whole day had been just wonderful but it was time to call it a day and retire for a good night’s sleep.
Sunday morning promised to be another lovely day. Our lovely ‘Phryne’ came a little later than usual but we were all happy to see her grazing back by the tree line.
Our plans for the day were two-fold; taking Randy out for lunch to celebrate Father’s Day and stopping at one of the town’s beautiful parks.
Ellen asked Randy what type of cuisine he would like and he replied, “Mexican”. Ellen did some research and found a restaurant called Gringo Jack’s in Manchester Center; off we went.
We really loved that the restaurant had an outdoor patio and were pleased that there were tables available. What we discovered when presented with the menus was that Gringo Jack’s was a Southwestern restaurant offering a variety of cuisines including Mexican dishes. There were Latin entrees, BBQ, burgers, sandwiches, Fajitas, Tacos, Enchiladas, etc.
The special that day was two flour tortillas wrapped around your choice meat, charro beans & cheese topped in Gringo Jack’s mild red chile sauce and topped with melted cheese, sour cream, pico and served with beans and rice. We all ordered the special and glad we did. The dish was delicious.
As you can see, we tasted this bbq sauce upon on arriving home. It is very good.
Then we ordered dessert. Oh my, was that delicious! We ordered one Ice cream Quesadilla to share. This yummy dessert consisted of two chocolate sopapillas filled with coffee ice cream and served with homemade chocolate sauce. With three forks working at once, this delicious dessert was gone in a flash! While we were waiting for the check, our server came over and presented a bottle of the Restaurant’s Coffee Porter BBQ Sauce to Randy in honor of Father’s Day. I thought that was so nice and looked forward to using it some evening after returning home.
After dinner, Ellen drove us over to a beautiful park called the Manchester Riverwalk. Ellen wanted us to see the beautiful waterfall that ran through the park and several monuments scattered around the grounds including a small granite monument to the, “Lives of the brave men and women lost on September 11, 2001”.
We returned home for an evening of packing and turning in for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow we start our road trip back to Florida.
We rose early, packed the car and said our thank-yous and goodbyes to Ellen. As I hugged Ellen I said, “This was by far the best and most relaxing vacation I have had in a very long time. Thank you so much for inviting us”. And with that, we got into the car and headed south.
But we were not going straight home. We had made plans to stop in Delaware and Virginia before returning to Florida.
We stopped in Lewes, Delaware to visit my friend Maureen and her husband Joe. Maureen was the first teacher I worked for when I joined the school system oh so long ago. We worked very well together and became very good friends.
It was so good to see Maureen, it had been too long. We arrived in late after and after catching up a bit, we were off to a local restaurant called the Crooked Hammock Brewery. The atmosphere was very casual, the beer was cold and delicious and I loved the loaded bacon BLT.
Taco Mexicano Combo-A large 8″ corn tortilla with grilled taco meat, potatoes and chives deep fried topped with cheese and served with a beef taquito, chicken Flauta and a side of chile con queso. YUM!
The next morning we were off to Virginia to visit family and friends. We made arrangements to stay at Kristine’s home for a few days giving us the opportunity to visit with the family and enjoy a nice visit with my friend Lois.
I met Lois while working in the school system too and looked forward to catching up. We picked Lois up and went to a local Mexican restaurant called Anita’s. Anita’s was always a favorite of my family and looked forward to returning and enjoying their wonderful Mexican cuisine.
We spent a few days with Kristine and then we were off once again this time to return home to Florida. It was so good to cross the border from Georgia into Florida and stop at the welcome center and get our free cup of orange juice. We love to travel but it is always so very good to come home.
We knew that once we were home we would not want to go out again so we decided to stop along the road and grab a bite to eat. We spotted a restaurant called Woody’s BarBQ and thought we we would stop. So glad we did!
Oops! there’s a piece missing. Could not resist taking a bite before taking the picture.
The restaurant was full of people going out for a Sunday lunch/dinner with their families. We had a little bit of a wait but not too long. We both ordered the BarBQ pork sandwich with a side of coleslaw and for dessert the very tall slice of banana cream pie. Everything was delicious! This was a good stop indeed!
Our next trip we will be back on the water traveling to Cuba.
This little pig was in a flower bed at Gringo Jack’s. Cute!
Enjoy,
Mary
The Delicious Divas 
What a trip. I could have stayed in Vermont for another week. Great company, great friends, amazing views, but it was very nice to get home and be still for a while.
Sounds like a wonderful trip. Vermont is a pretty state. Ron and I have taken the bike through several states along the east coast and the northeast. Really pretty. We did take the car to RI a few years ago. Still liked the scenery. Always good to read your travel stories.
Vermont is definitely a great place. It sounds like a wonderful trip indeed