Blogs → New England is Delicious →

Holiday Travels

COMMENT

SINGLE PAGE

EMAIL

PRINT

RSS

SHARE:

(page 2 of 2)

Two friends and I were lucky enough to be in a private home at Hawk Inn and Resort hawkresort.com. Quite a home indeed: It lacked for nothing. I pulled into the main reception area at 4:55, just in time for my hot-stone massage with Judy. I believe that massages are a bit of an indulgence financially, but a necessary and very beneficial indulgence for one's body. The stress of December expressed itself in several knots in my shoulder, neck, and hip, but by golly, Judy worked her magic, and I was human rubber after our hour-and-a-half session. If you're in the area, I highly recommend her work. We meant to have dinner at the inn's River Tavern, but I was in my huge bed, snoring, by 8 p.m.

The next day included a delicious tuna sandwich (thanks for the leftovers, Timmy and family), with chips and a few shakes of Frank's Hot Sauce. Then a visit to Singleton's singletonsvt.com in Proctorsville for more bacon, shearling slippers, vermouth, and yoga pants. And a lovely quiet walk through the snowy woods: Is there anything better than the sound of walking in the untouched snow? That special dryish smoosh. Tall trees. Mountains. Pristinely clean air. Ahhhh ... I tried to take a nap, as we had plans for a big night out — the last night of 2009 — but we ended up staying in for Peggy's mom's fried fish and my very own Bolognese sauce (a hybrid of Barbara Lynch's, Julie Fox's, and Marcella Hazan's) over penne pasta. Oh, and gobs of champagne. And fantastic fireworks.

We were going to stay through the weekend, but big storms were on the horizon, so we got out of Dodge early. Christine and I stopped in forbidden Woodstock (Dad says it's "fake" Vermont, "like something Disney would create"). We had the best afternoon shopping. I enjoyed one of the finest burgers I've had in some time at Bentley's bentleysrestaurant.com. So sorry, Dad, Woodstock is fabulous and beautiful.

I got home and hopped on the scale. It registered maximum density for me, the heaviest I've ever been in my life, so guess who's joined the millions of 2010 dieters? Ugh.