Trip to NH & VT - Wedding, Bread & Puppet, & Taxidermy

Ahhh, vacations! We had such a nice trip to New Hampshire and Vermont this past long weekend I just had to share some pictures with you. (Click here for slideshow.) It wasn't a work trip, although we did visit every craft gallery we could find along the way. No, this time we were traveling for ourselves, and it was bliss!

The main event was the wedding on Saturday of my dear old friend Jody to her betrothed Andy. The wedding was held in Walpole, NH, at a pretty place called Alyson's Orchard. It was great to see old friends at the wedding and to help set up chairs, orchestrate the ceremony, and eat lots of amaaaaazing food that a friend of Jody's prepared for the reception. Jody looked so glamorous and happy in her plunging gown and "explosion of tulle" veil. Andy is a very lucky man! She's a lucky girl too -- Andy is a total gent. He even played his guitar and sang her a song during the reception. Jae and I wish them all the best in the world!

The day after the wedding was our first wedding anniversary, and we spent the day tooling around Vermont. We drove all the way up to Glover, which is near the Canadian border, to visit the Bread and Puppet Museum. Bread and Puppet is something I've heard of but wasn't sure what it is (and still don't have my head around it, so click here to read about them). But I adore puppets and this Museum, housed in massive barn, was so unlike anything I could have imagined. It was an incredible monument to the exposed human soul and a community's passion for creative expression. I haven't had an experience of wonder and amazement like it in many years.

For lunch, we stopped at an extraordinary Mom & Pop in Glover that we thought would be your run-of-the-mill country store, but turned out to be a deli/grocers/hardware store/post office/sporting good store/natural history museum! A local taxidermist has created a stuffed menagerie of local fauna displayed throughout the store, including a bucking deer, a growling black bear, and an entire moose (stationed in front of the post office). Thank goodness Vermont doesn't have any Walmarts -- this amazing Mom and Pop would probably be wiped out by the competition.

The drive around Vermont offered absurdly beautiful views around every bend. It didn't hurt that the weather was picture-perfect every day. We realized that all those kitschy landscape paintings we saw in the art galleries are actually quite accurate, and mused that maybe Vermont is itself kitsch! But not really. It's just profoundly beautiful. No wonder everybody loves Vermont!

And thanks again to Alison and Mia for minding Greenjeans while we were away. You two are super stars!

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Bread and Puppet
Glover VT
NH weddings