It was slated to be our pre-fall pow-wow to welcome the upcoming season, but summer decided to stick around in full-sun force, so our recent day-trip to Vermont turned into a celebration of this last week of the sunny season. A simple folding fan in my hand was enough as Suzie was kind enough to drive us into Manchester, where we’ve started a little fall/almost-fall tradition of a Vermont day-trip get-away. Both of us seemed to be in need of escapism, and so we made our way over the rolling hills of New York and into the instantly-more-picturesque environs of Vermont.
We got some serious family talk out of the way first – Suzie is always a safe sounding board, and she knows me and my family better than just about anyone. She also just sent her first-born off to college and had her own stories to tell; there’s no better way to get through a moment of melancholy than with an old friend. We’ve been doing this for decades, and it’s one of life’s greatest comforts.
We made our usual stops at favored haunts, pausing for a lunch of crab toast and pizza before finding our way to an ice cream store that had the best thing we have tasted in years: the maple creamee. It’s a soft-serve version of a twist on maple syrup ice cream. I should have prefaced this proclamation with the fact that I don’t typically like maple candy – it’s usually too sweet for me – but for whatever reason this hit us as incredibly delicious. I’d even gone the extra step of ordering mine in a root beer float, completely at odds with someone who doesn’t like things too sweet – and yet this was insanely good. We are going back this fall just to eat it again.
Stuffed with all the sweet goodness Vermont had to offer – forget warm apple cider on a day soaring into the 80’s – we packed it back in the car and made our winding way back home. It wasn’t the quaint entry into fall I’d originally planned and anticipated – it was instead a hot and happy ending of summer, the way life can sometimes reward us when we let our stubborn notions go and follow its gentle guidance.
